US Military Planners Advise Expanded Online Psychological Warfare against
China
Just three years ago, Americans had a neutral view of China (and nine years
ago it was strongly favorable). Today, the same polls show that 66 percent
of Americans dislike the country.
by Alan Macleod
May 18th, 2020
By Alan Macleod
As the U.S. military turns its attention from the Middle East to conflict
with Russia and China, American war planners are advising that the United
States greatly expand its own online "psychological operations" against
Beijing.
A new report from the Financial Times details how top brass in Washington
are strategizing a new Cold War with China, describing it less as World War
III and more as "kicking each other under the table." Last week, General
Richard Clarke, head of Special Operations Command, said that the
"kill-capture missions" the military conducted in Afghanistan were
inappropriate for this new conflict, and Special Operations must move
towards cyber influence campaigns instead.
Military analyst David Maxwell, a former Special Ops soldier himself,
advocated for a widespread culture war, which would include the Pentagon
commissioning what he called "Taiwanese Tom Clancy" novels, intended to
demonize China and demoralize its citizens, arguing that Washington should
"weaponize" China's one-child policy by bombarding Chinese people with
stories of the wartime deaths of their only children, and therefore, their
bloodline.
A not dissimilar tactic was used during the first Cold War against the
Soviet Union, where the CIA sponsored a huge network of artists, writers and
thinkers to promote liberal and social-democratic critiques of the U.S.S.R.,
unbeknownst to the public, and, sometimes, even the artists themselves.
Coronavirus: US Pols Have Successfully Hyped the Public Into an Anti-China
Frenzy
New polls show an overwhelming desire by Americans for retaliation against
China for its perceived handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
MintPress News | Alan Macleod | Apr 14
Manufacturing consent
In the space of only a few months, the Trump administration has gone from
praising China's response to the COVID-19 pandemic to blaming them for the
outbreak, even suggesting they pay reparations for their alleged negligence.
Just three years ago, Americans had a neutral view of China (and nine years
ago it was strongly favorable). Today, the same polls show that 66 percent
of Americans dislike China, with only 26 percent holding a positive opinion
of the country. Over four-in-five people essentially support a full-scale
economic war with Beijing, something the president threatened to enact last
week.
The corporate press is certainly doing their part as well, constantly
framing China as an authoritarian threat to the United States, rather than a
neutral force or even a potential ally, leading to a surge in anti-Chinese
racist attacks at home.
Retooling for an intercontinental war
Although analysts have long warned that the United States gets its "ass
handed to it" in hot war simulations with China or even Russia, it is not
clear whether this is a sober assessment or a self-serving attempt to
increase military spending. In 2002, the U.S. conducted a war game trial
invasion of Iraq, where it was catastrophically defeated by Lt. Gen. Paul
Van Riper, commanding Iraqi forces, leading to the whole experiment being
nixed halfway through. Yet the subsequent invasion was carried out without
massive loss of American lives.
The recently published Pentagon budget request for 2021 makes clear that the
United States is retooling for a potential intercontinental war with China
and/or Russia. It asks for $705 billion to "shift focus from the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan and a greater emphasis on the types of weapons that
could be used to confront nuclear giants like Russia and China," noting that
it requires "more advanced high-end weapon systems, which provide increased
standoff, enhanced lethality and autonomous targeting for employment against
near-peer threats in a more contested environment." The military has
recently received the first batch of low-yield nuclear warheads that experts
agree blurs the line between conventional and nuclear conflict, making an
all out example of the latter far more likely.
2021 Pentagon Budget Request Hints at Russia and China as the New Focus of
US Empire
The Pentagon is shifting its strategy, budget and arsenal to focus on a
confrontation with Russia and China, writes Darius Shahtahmasebi.
MintPress News | Darius Shahtahmasebi | Feb 24
A bipartisan affair
There has been no meaningful pushback from the Democrats. Indeed, Joe
Biden's team has suggested that the United States' entire industrial policy
should revolve around "competing with China" and that their "top priority"
is dealing with the supposed threat Beijing poses. The former vice-president
has also attacked Trump from the right on China, trying to present him as a
tool of Beijing, bringing to mind how Clinton portrayed him in 2016 as a
Kremlin asset. (Green Party presidential frontrunner Howie Hawkins has
promised to cut the military budget by 75 percent and to unilaterally
disarm).
Nevertheless, voices raising concern about a new arms race are few and far
between. Veteran deproliferation activist Andrew Feinstein is one exception,
saying:
"Our governments spend over 1.75 trillion dollars every year on wars, on
weapons, on conflict.If we could deploy that sort of resource to address the
coronavirus crisis that we're currently living through, imagine what else we
could be doing. Imagine how we could be fighting the climate crisis, how we
could be addressing global poverty, inequality. Our priority should never be
war; our priorities need to be public health, the environment, and human
well being."
However, if the government is going to launch a new psychological war
against China, it is unlikely antiwar voices like Feinstein's will feature
much in the mainstream press.
