Who's real threat to world peace?

By Liu Weitao, China Daily (Hong Kong), 5 July 2001

The United States, the sole superpower left, is more active than ever in flexing its military muscle - pushing NATO's eastward expansion, building the New US-Japan Defence Co-Operation Guidelines and advocating the National Missile Defence programme and the Theatre Missile Defence system.

The Pentagon last week unveiled the US 2002 defence budget, which required an increase of US$32.6 billion on the year 2001, the biggest growth since the military build-up of the mid-1980s under President Ronald Reagan.

If approved, US military expenditure would rise to US$328.9 billion, a record high in post-Cold War years. The figure would equal the combined spending of seven other major powers - Russia, Japan, France, Germany, Britain, China and India.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld himself explained that such an increase is the result of Washington's overextended battle line in recent years, which has caused a capital shortage in many aspects.

Nowadays, the military presence of the United States is almost everywhere - in the Persian Gulf, in the Balkans and in East Asia.

The United States, the sole superpower left, is more active than ever in flexing its military muscle - pushing NATO's eastward expansion, building the New US-Japan Defence Co-operation Guidelines and advocating the National Missile Defence programme and the Theatre Missile Defence system.

The United States is doing all of this for just one purpose - to ensure a unipolar world dominated by itself. And that is only part of the story.

Besides reinforcing its military presence in the world, Washington has never relaxed its efforts to brainwash other countries.

Uncle Sam repeatedly portrays itself as the heavyweight champion of human rights, trying to sell its values, democracy and social system to other countries.

When meeting resistance, it either adopts an iron fist - using military threats or intervention or supporting political opposition forces - or uses softer means like financial aid to realize its purposes. Such tactics are clearly demonstrated in the Iraqi and Yugoslav cases.

Uncle Sam also has other handy gimmicks like the congagement (containment and engagement) strategy, an uncontrolled arms race, labelling others as rogue countries, or the X threat theory, etc.

In today's world, hotspots have emerged one after another. War, conflict and confrontation still plague millions of people. The arms race is getting worse and behind it is the shadow of Uncle Sam.

So who is the real threat to world peace? Who is creating so much fear and instability? The answer is quite clear.