Battlefield Eurasia: US wages energy and geopolitical proxy wars against Syria, China.

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The US is making historic power moves of aggression in simultaneously waging three multifaceted campaigns. It is targeting Russia, Iran, and China through destabilization in Ukraine, Syria, and the South and East China Seas. In the first part of the Battlefield Eurasia we spoke about crisis in Ukraine and actions the US is taking there, as well as touched upon the Syrian conflict. Here is the second part of the US' proxy wars against Syria and China.

Syria Objectives:

It is important for the US to secure its Israeli ally, since the Syrian government does not recognize the occupation of the Golan Heights. The US also wants to break the mythical "Shia Crescent" that links Iran, Iraq, and Syria. The country’s "four seas strategy", which sought to make Syria the center of trade between the Caspian, Black, Mediterranean, and Persian Seas, would have upset Turkey's ambitions for Neo-Ottomanism. The Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline also would have endangered American-ally Qatar's rival pipeline to the European market. The US would ideally like to see the Russians removed from Tartus and Iran's close ally in shambles. A devastated Syria also provides a cheap labor pool for the growing Turkish economy. 

East and South China Sea Actions:

External anti-Chinese pressure by the US has made the situation over the disputed islands more tense and provoked Beijing. Activists from China and Japan have landed on some of theislands in the past, showing that the situation could move out of the control of either government. The US only recognizes Japan's claim in the East China Sea, officially putting it on a possible conflict trajectory with China if Beijing and Tokyo spar. 

East and South China Sea Objectives:

The most important objective is to encircle China and control the waterways that sustain the Chinese economy and energy flows, which would in turn control China. Provoking China seeks to scare the Southeast Asian nations and tempt them into a NATO-like military organization in the future to counter their neighbor. If any country besides China controls those waters, the islands will become "unsinkable aircraft carriers" for the US, miniature versions of the role Japan plays for American strategy today. This would allow the US to better evade China's anti-area access-denial strategies. 

There are three main commonalities connecting each theatre of operations. Firstly, the US wants to disrupt, control, and/or manage energy flows to/from Russia, Iran, and China. Secondly, various non-state actors (Ukrainian insurgents, Syrian-based Jihadis, island activists) are used as tools to achieve its goals. Lastly, and most dangerous of all, the US has mutual defense with all three "Lead from Behind" proxies (Poland, Turkey, Japan). 

Taken as a whole, the world is confronted with the US "leading from behind" to launch energy and geopolitical-related proxy wars that are not in the interest of the average American, let alone global, citizen. The use of so many non-state actors and the presence of mutual defense treaties mean that an American-led war by miscalculation is horrifyingly possible. 

The US has been most active against Russia and Iran because it views them as the weakest links vis-à-vis China, but all three R&D countries are connected. 

Russia and China are in a strategic partnership and coordinate their Mideast policies. They also see eye-to-eye on Ukraine. Russia also has a strategic partnership with Iran and works closely with it in Syria. Iran and China are connected through their strong energy relationships and diplomatic support of one another. It is in the grand strategic interests of all three to cooperate. Altogether, they form a kind of unified front against America's expansionist global plans, hence why they are simultaneously being targeted via proxy warfare. 

The US has laid a noose around this "Eurasian Alliance" and is using proxy warfare to make it taut. Destabilizing it from the West, South, and East (Ukraine, Syria, South and East China Seas) shows that America is making a powerful coordinated thrust against the countries that get in its way. Now more than ever, on the 100th anniversary of World War I, it is important once more to realize the risks of a World War by miscalculation, something that seems uncomfortably possible now that the US is waging aggression against Russia, Iran, and China by proxy.