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Patrick Martin Correspondent

The report singles out four countries as potential targets for US military action: Russia, Iran, North Korea and China. Three of the four possess nuclear weapons, and Russia and China have the second- and third-largest stockpiles, trailing only the United States itself.

The US Department of Defence made public last Wednesday its 2015 National Military Strategy, a 24-page document that outlines the perspective of the Pentagon for future military operations.

The document makes for chilling reading.

“Future conflicts will come more rapidly, last longer, and take place on a much more technically challenging battlefield. They will have increasing implications to the US homeland,” so declares the foreword by Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The report singles out four countries as potential targets for US military action: Russia, Iran, North Korea and China.

Three of the four possess nuclear weapons, and Russia and China have the second and third-largest stockpiles, trailing only the US itself.

Nuclear war is part of the Pentagon playbook.

One passage reads: “In the event of an attack, the US military will respond by inflicting damage of such magnitude as to compel the adversary to cease hostilities or render it incapable of further aggression. War against a major adversary would require the full mobilisation of all instruments of national power …” [Emphasis added]

The last phrase suggests the restoration of the draft to dragoon the manpower required to fight a war with Russia or China.

The report begins by dividing the world’s nation-states into two categories: “Most states today — led by the United States, its allies, and partners — support the established institutions and processes dedicated to preventing conflict, respecting sovereignty and furthering human rights. Some states, however, are attempting to revise key aspects of the international order and are acting in a manner that threatens our national security interests.”

This categorisation of countries is ludicrous.

In the pursuit of its interests, Washington routinely flouts the authority of international institutions and violates international law, including the Geneva Conventions.

As for “preventing conflict, respecting sovereignty and furthering human rights,” ask the tortured peoples of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya and eastern Ukraine about the consequences of US invasions, bombings and drone strikes, CIA subversion, and proxy wars and civil wars instigated and backed by Washington.

The Pentagon separates the world into two camps, those who kowtow to America, the dominant world power, and those who dare to oppose, in some fashion or other, the American imperium.

Russia “does not respect the sovereignty of its neighbours and it is willing to use force to achieve its goals,” it states.

Iran is “pursuing nuclear and missile delivery technologies” and is a “state-sponsor of terrorism.”

North Korea threatens its neighbours through “pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technologies.”

China’s actions “are adding tension to the Asia-Pacific region.”

The hypocrisy almost boggles the mind! None of the four accused countries is actually engaged in a war with anyone, while the US is currently waging war in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, conducts drone missile strikes in a half dozen other countries, and deploys military forces in more than 100 countries around the world.

The Pentagon document admits, “None of these nations are believed to be seeking direct military conflict with the United States or our allies.” But it continues, “Nonetheless, they each pose serious security concerns …”

The report points indirectly to the content of these “concerns.” It declares, “The United States is the world’s strongest nation, enjoying unique advantages in technology, energy, alliances and partnerships, and demographics. However, these advantages are being challenged.”

The Pentagon equates peace, democracy, human rights, etc. with what it calls “a rules-based international order advanced by US leadership.”

This is a euphemism for US imperialist hegemony over the entire planet, where Washington makes the rules and everyone follows, or else. —wsws.org