Would America’s global interventionists be OK with the Russian Navy docking in Tijuana, or with Chinese ships patrolling the Gulf of Mexico from a naval base in Matamoros?
That prospect horrifies me, but it would be a natural evolution of the behavior of global super-powers if the US chooses to keep fighting proxy wars against those countries and to station our troops directly on their far-away borders.
I shouldn’t have to throw this disclaimer out, but I will. I loathe Vladimir Putin. I loathe him for his role as a hostile KGB agent during the Cold War, and for his role in funding anti-petroleum activists as a means of destabilizing the West, and for his decision to launch the war against Ukraine which has claimed so many lives in a stalemate over a small strip of land. But I also detest the western war profiteers who seek to keep the bloody Slavic turf battle going so that they can enrich themselves from that sausage grinder and from its corresponding political graft, much of which comes from US taxpayers. There are people and companies getting rich off that war, and they are wanting to keep it going until the last Ukrainian man has been killed in battle.
Unfortunately, headlines like this give Russia no avenue to withdraw or to offer up a peace plan:
“Ukraine is on an ‘irreversible’ path to NATO, but only after war with Russia ends” [AP – 7/10/2024]
The 32-members of NATO on Wednesday formally declared Ukraine on an “irreversible” path to membership in the Western military alliance, offering a bare but more binding assurance of protection once its war with Russia ends.
NATO on Wednesday also announced a long-term commitment of security assistance to Ukraine, and confirmed establishment of a new NATO center aimed at ensuring that Ukraine gets a more reliable flow of arms and training from members of the alliance.
In other words, the United States has announced - through NATO - that unless Russia conquers Ukraine, NATO troops will be stationed in Ukraine, on land that was once part of the Soviet Union, and directly on Russia’s border. NATO troops include American troops.
Why wouldn’t Russia then want to respond by employing its military capacity on our border? This is actually a discussion that is actively going on in Russia.
“Moscow Could Deploy ICBMs in Mexico, Russian TV Claims” [Newsweek – 6/10/2024]
"Russians on Kremlin State TV yesterday declared that Mexico was their military ally and they are wanting to place their missiles on Mexican territory so Mexico can attack the United States," Jake Broe a former U.S. Air Force nuclear and missile operations officer, posted on X next to a screen grab. "This is insane."
Mexico is already defying the US with an accommodating response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mexico has condemned Putin's invasion of Ukraine but has adopted a policy of neutrality and refused to participate in sanctions against Moscow.
Mexico is in turmoil, with large swaths of the country controlled by criminal gangs that are hostile to the US. Even if the Mexican government could somehow defeat the cartels, Mexico is prone to electing anti-American leftists. As we saw with Venezuela, a modern Latin American country only has to vote communist once, then it will get communism and poverty in perpetuity.
What about China, which is seeking to spread its influence around the globe? Would a Chavista Mexico invite Chinese warships to dock in Baja, or to patrol our shores from a base on Mexico’s Gulf Coast?
Whatever political direction it takes, Mexico is likely to join the BRICS confederation at some point (which already includes Russia, China, and Iran, among others) and it is conceivable that BRICS may someday decide to provide for each others’ mutual defense as a counterweight to NATO. Why wouldn’t Mexico welcome Iranian BRICS troops to a base on the Rio Grande, just like Finland is welcoming NATO troops to its border with Russia?
China seems to already be wetting its toes in our hemisphere…
“So, What's China Doing in Our Time Zones?” [Retired Naval Officer “CDR Salamander” – 7/17/2024]
In this serene town on South America’s Pacific coast, China is building a megaport that could challenge U.S. influence in a resource-rich region that Washington has long considered its backyard.
The Chancay deep-water port, rising here among pelicans and fishermen in small wooden boats, is important enough to Beijing that Chinese leader Xi Jinping is expected to inaugurate it at the end of the year in his first trip to the continent since the pandemic.
Don’t forget, during the Cold War Peru was not a friend to the United States. Even after the Cold War, Peru was not to be trusted. Is she acting in accordance with USA national interests or even that of her neighbors?
Beyond its military, China is already engaged in asymmetrical warfare against the US home front by supplying fentanyl to the Mexican drug lords who then move it across our southern border – a border which was opened up by Joe Biden and his Border Czar, Kamala Harris. ”While opioid-production patterns vary by region, police now believe a great deal of North America’s fentanyl supply streams in from a combination of Mexican drug cartelsmostly using chemicals from China.”
Our ruling class is terminally obsessed with (and profiting from) military conflicts on foreign shores, especially NATO vs Russia. If we’re not careful, we may get the opportunity to see Russia and its ally China reciprocate by bringing their militaries to our own southern border.
[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]