US at risk of war with China, Russia

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/176960.html
Click the link for Interview with Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

The US is at the risk of a war with Russia and China as its main objective behind engineering the Libyan war and Syrian unrest is to remove the two world powers out of the Mediterranean, a former US official warns.

“Washington is all for invading against Libya and is putting more and more pressure to intervene in Syria because we want to ... clear China and Russia out of the Mediterranean,” Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant secretary to US Treasury in Panama City said in an interview with Press TV.

On one hand, China has massive energy investments in eastern Libya and is relying on Libya and on the other hand, Russia has a large naval base in Syria and it gives it a presence in the Mediterranean, he pointed out.

“Those two countries are just in the way of American hegemony in the Mediterranean and certainly the Americans do not want a powerful Russian fleet stationed there and they certainly don't want China drawing energy resources,” Roberts added.

“Once Russia and China come to the conclusion that the Americans simply cannot be dealt with it in any rational way and are determined to somehow subdue them and do them damage, all kinds of escalations can result. This is the real danger and we're risking a major war,” the former senior US official cautioned.

Meanwhile, the US does not want to overthrow the governments in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, where both governments are using violence against protesters “Because they're our puppets and we have a large naval base in Bahrain,” Roberts argued.

Many civilians have reportedly been killed since the US-led coalition unleashed a major air campaign against Libya's regime forces on March 19 under a UN mandate to protect the Libyan population.

According to Libya's National Transitional Council, since the revolution against Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi's regime began in mid-February at least 10,000 people have been killed and another 30,000 injured in clashes with pro-Gaddafi forces in the North African country, while 20,000 more are still listed as missing.

Elsewhere in Syria, scattered protests have broken out since mid-March. Several people have reportedly been killed in clashes between security forces and armed groups.

Roberts argued that “Washington was caught off guard by the outbreaks of protests in Tunisia and Egypt, but quickly learned that they could use and hide behind Arab protests to evict Russia and China without a direct confrontation ... so they've engineered these protests.”

In recent months, a wave of revolutions and anti-government uprisings has swept the Arab world.

In January, a revolution in Tunisia ended the 23-year ruling of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

In February, another revolution led to the ouster of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after three decades of authoritarian rule.

Other revolutions have erupted in Yemen and Bahrain, while more anti-government upheavals have swept Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, Kuwait and Algeria.

Meanwhile, more Arab countries are expected to witness similar revolts.