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Centuries ago a boy was born. His parents understood that he had a remarkable fate before him which reflected the Will of the Great Shaman. His hair was light, his eyes were light green, and his skin was pale. It seemed obvious that he enjoyed divine favour. But then, one day, the boy's father - a figure of standing - was killed. The family thus became unprotected, and nomads smashed the remains of his home. They made him a slave. They put wooden stocks over his legs so that he could not walk. He lived like a dog, and grew up like a dog, chained outside, eating rotten food, freezing on winter nights, wishing for death.
Death however spared him. When finally he did escape, his psyche was tortured. The voices inside his head; the screams of his father; the scorching fire; his mother being tortured and killed; All whispered, just destroy everything that is in your way, and these memories will be purged.
But they weren't. His army killed millions. Nonetheless, he founded a nation of more than one million vassals. He expurgated all concepts of tribal loyalty and old identities for obedience to his State.
He did all this with a tiny army; no more than 100,000. His name comes down to us today as Genghis Khan.
What has this to do with today's war in the Middle East? Well, firstly we have moved - in this
American-facilitated Israeli war - to 'war without limits'.
The rules of war have been evicted; human rights have been discarded; international law has been shed; and the UN Charter is no more. And, as it expands, anything goes -
children in Gaza decapitated by bombs, Gaza's hospitals bombed, and the continuous displacement and massacre of civilians.The roots to this shift are complex. In part, they spring from the western postmodern zeitgeist. But also they reflect the same dilemma that faced a tormented, twisted Genghis Khan: How would he control the world without a big army; in fact, with only a tiny one.
"Everything that's happened today was planned out just 50 years ago - back in 1974 and 1973". I want to describe how the whole strategy that led to the United States today, not wanting peace, but wanting Israel to take over the whole Near East took shape gradually", Professor Hudson has explained (
here and
here).
Comment: The Alexes of the Duran discuss the deeper implications of the Kazan summit, including the outlines of political/financial architecture that has the potential to displace SWIFT, the World Bank, the IMF, Euroclear, international trade insurance structures, and eventually if necessary, even the UN. The West's stranglehold on the world is going to wither away.
BRICS Bridge & BRICS Clear: A new financial architecture: