Neocons seeking US hegemony over world: Ex-Treasury official

The neoconservatives are attempting to establish US hegemony over the world, but Russia and China are not willing to submit to being American vassal states, says Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, an American economist and author.

Conservative US radio host Glenn Beck said that one country in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will soon invoke Article Five of the treaty that will lead to the World War III. He made the remarks on Tuesday in the wake of Turkey’s downing of the Russian warplane.

“I do not think that this incident will cause a war,” said Dr. Roberts, who was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal.

“I have been writing for years that WWIII will be caused by the neoconservatives' pursuit of US hegemony over the world, because Russia and China will not submit to being American vassals,” Dr. Roberts told Press TV on Wednesday.

He added that Russian President Vladimir “Putin is trying to avoid WWIII by using diplomacy with Europe, but European governments are owned by Washington.  And China will not put up with harassment in the South China Sea.”

“When Russia goes to war, it will not be because of Turkey, one of Washington’s vassal states,” the analyst pointed out.

On Tuesday, NATO member Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet, claiming the aircraft had repeatedly violated its air space.

Russian President Putin said the jet had been attacked when it was 1 kilometer inside Syria. He warned of "serious consequences" and called it a “stab in the back” administered by "the accomplices of terrorists."

Russia has been conducting airstrikes on Daesh (ISIL) positions at the request of the Syrian government since September 30.

“It seems unlikely that the Turkish government would commit an act of war against a much more powerful neighbor unless Washington had cleared the attack,” Dr. Roberts wrote on Tuesday, commenting on the incident.  

“If the attack was cleared with Washington, was Obama bypassed by the neocons who control his government, or is Obama himself complicit?” he asked.

“Clearly the neoconservatives are disturbed by the French president’s call for unity with Russia against ISIL and easily could have used their connections to Turkey to stage an event that Washington can use to prevent cooperation with Russia,” he stated.

The commentator said, “Washington’s complicity is certainly indicated, but it is not completely out of the question that the well-placed Turks who are purchasing oil from ISIL took revenge against Russia for destroying their oil tanker investments and profitable business.”

Elsewhere in his remarks to Press TV on Wednesday, Dr. Roberts said, “I am surprised that my recent books, How America Was Lost and The Neoconservative Threat To World Order have not been translated and published in Iran.”  

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