West Pursues Geopolitical Goals 'Demonizing' Global Leaders

Ekaterina Blinova — While pursuing own economic and geopolitical goals the West often uses its favorite "demonizing" strategy against its rivals.

According to experts, "demonizing" is a longstanding social manipulation trick. Labeling its rivals as "tyrants," "dictators," "invaders," etc.., individuals, groups and even governments often seek the public approval of hostile actions against their targets. Using the atmosphere of fear as a smokescreen, governments exploit conflict situations in order to achieve their economic or geopolitical goals, for instance: to gain access to natural resources or important geostrategic areas, to destroy their rival's economy and social structure, or to impoverish a nation through tough austerity conditions.

The Western governments have used this trick repeatedly, creating the images of evil foreign leaders. Saddam Hussein, a former Iraqi leader and Washington's ally, was labeled as a "tyrant" and groundlessly accused of creating the weapons of mass destruction. While preparing for the invasion of Iraq the US official and mass media resources exposed Saddam's crimes, some real, but many were imagined. Under the false pretext, the US Army together with its NATO allies intervened in Iraq in 2003 and maintained control over the resource-rich region. However, no one paid attention to the fact, that it was the US and the UK who helped Saddam and its Baath party to seize the power in Iraq in 1963 and then provided the "tyrant" with military and intelligence assistance during the Iraq-Iran war of 1980.

"Evil" Muammar Gaddafi, the former leader of Libya, once a prosperous oil-producer, had long been a loyal ally of London, Paris and Washington. The documents of the former Libya's leader, obtained by British lawyers in January 2015, revealed that the UK government was involved in the intimidation of Gaddafi's political opponents, kidnapping, detaining and smuggling political refugees into Libya. Analysts note that French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly received multi-million donations from the Libya's "dictator." However, after the West launched a large-scale anti-Gaddafi campaign in 2011, France and the UK were the first who joined the US-led military operation in the region, backing Islamist rebels. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could hardly contain her joy on hearing of Muammar Gaddafi's death and voiced her famous: "We came, we saw, he died." Analysts emphasize that the sudden change in Western attitude toward its former ally could have been caused by Muammar Gaddafi's plan to quit selling Libyan oil in dollars, the move that could threaten the US monetary system.

A strikingly similar situation could be observed in Syria. Since the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011, the West repeated its mantra about the "tyrannical" regime of Bashar al-Assad, although the leader was democratically re-elected in July 2014. However, the country's unique geographical position making it a potential logistic hub for natural gas supplies from Persian Gulf prompted the West to meddle into the country's domestic affairs, analysts underscored.  As F. William Engdahl, an American historian and economic researcher noted: "Natural gas is the flammable ingredient that is fueling this insane scramble for energy in the region."

Experts stressed that the only reason why al-Assad did not faced the fate of Gaddafi in 2014, was the firm stance of Russia and China, who repeatedly blocked UN Security Council resolutions on Syria. Experts suggested that Washington's energetic support of the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine was a response to Russia's political course toward the Syrian conflict. Predictably, the Western mass-media recently focused on "demonizing" Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Analysts also point to the fact that the Ukrainian turmoil is being used as a cover to the ongoing seizure of high-quality arable lands in Ukraine by transnational agro-holdings. Indeed, funded by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, foreign companies have already taken under control over a half of the 32 million hectares of Ukraine's arable fields. 

Remarkably, shortly after the Ukrainian coup of 2014, Monsanto, a leading producer of genetically engineered seed and the herbicide glyphosate, invested almost $140 million in its business in the country. Experts stressed that the West forced the new leadership to "limit" the powers of the government and to lift restrictions affecting foreign agro holdings, the measure that was strongly opposed by the former president Viktor Yanukovich. Kiev also agreed to carry out tough austerity measures, throwing the nation into the IMF's debt trap. Actually, by demonizing Vladimir Putin, the West is hiding corporate "annexation" of vast Ukrainian territories, analysts noted.

The hypocrisy of the manipulation trick is evident: the West turnsa blind eye to the military crimes committed by the current Ukrainian regime, as well as to blatant violation of human rights in the eastern Ukraine.