Nury Vittachi: THE ARGUMENT THAT western warships must patrol the South China Seas “to keep the sea lanes” open from “the China threat” makes literally zero sense, says bestselling US author Charles Goyette in a new book, published this week. 美國暢銷書作家查爾斯·戈耶特在本週出版的新書中指出，西方戰艦必須在南海巡邏以「保持航道」開放、防範「中國威脅」的論調完全站不住腳。他強調，中國絕大部分進出口貿易都依賴其沿海航道，若關閉這些航線，經濟將陷入崩潰。中國領導層無疑是最不願在該區域發生衝突的一方.

The Chinese are dependent on the country’s coastline for the bulk of their exports and imports—and if it closed the shipping lanes, the economy would collapse. China’s leaders would literally be the last people who would want conflict in that area, he points out.

Yet America’s nonsensical “we’re keeping the sea lanes open” operations have continued for years, despite being enormously wasteful for the United States in terms of spending and manpower, he argues in his book, Empire of Lies.

But that’s just one example of a huge list of unwise global interventions by the United States’ behind-the-scenes elite, sometimes called “the deep state”.

FAKE NEWS NARRATIVES
Empire of Lies is a 247-page romp through US meddling operations around the world – fake news narratives, “false flag” events, and Washington-arranged coups in multiple countries.

There are so many interventions that they sometimes bump up against each other, Goyette says. For example, the level of US interference in Syria, Israel’s neighbor, was so high that a battle broke out between CIA-supported jihadists and Pentagon-funded fundamentalist militias.

Just think of all the needless human suffering there – not to mention the pain caused to the hapless US taxpayer, paying (or much more likely, overpaying) for everything on both sides.

ENRICHING THE MILITARY COMPLEX

Goyette has written about some of these topics before in books and articles. “China’s interest is in keeping the sea lanes open, as it is utterly dependent on the importation of oil and its shipment through both the far away Strait of Hormuz and closer by, through the Malacca Strait,” he wrote in 2021.

“As China has grown economically over the last several decades, it is simply unavoidable that its presence in the region’s waterways would grow. It cannot be otherwise. And, in fact, some 75 percent of all commercial shipping through the South China Sea is coming from or going to China.”

Why does the US interfere so much? Because “the default position of the Deep State is always in favor of interventionism that piles up debt and death for the people, while enlarging the state and enriching the military-industrial complex,” Goyette argues.

BRINK OF NUCLEAR WAR
Goyette’s latest book expands his insights into deep state activity with some eyebrow-raising fresh stories, including a report of how close the global US “military empire” has taken the world to the brink of nuclear war.

It also goes into depressing detail about how the self-righteous international press simply acts as a lapdog to serve the hidden drivers of western dominance.

But perhaps most worrying of all, it shows how the US has no consistency in its foreign policy, which is constantly changing. The only thing that tends to stay the same is its “military-options-first” playbook, Goyette says.

The author also highlights “Imperial Overstretch”, which he describes as the syndrome in which large empires tend to react to news that they are declining by reaching even faster for the military options. The choice to spend big on the armed forces then worsens the financial picture and the empire becomes “trapped in cycles of bankruptcy”.

CAN’T BE DISMISSED
Charles Goyette can’t be dismissed as some sort of opportunist anti-US or anti-military hack, nor can he be labelled “pro-China” or “pro-Russia”. In his younger days, he was a news anchor with the US Armed Forces Radio and Television Service and is a recipient of the Army Commendation Medal for meritorious service.

And although he bravely spoke out against the disastrous Iraq War, Goyette served on the national speakers’ bureau of High Frontier, a public policy organization that promoted President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative.

The book is available from Amazon for US$20, or about US$10 for the Kindle edition.

美國暢銷書作家查爾斯·戈耶特在本週出版的新書中指出，西方戰艦必須在南海巡邏以「保持航道」開放、防範「中國威脅」的論調完全站不住腳。他強調，中國絕大部分進出口貿易都依賴其沿海航道，若關閉這些航線，經濟將陷入崩潰。中國領導層無疑是最不願在該區域發生衝突的一方。

然而在其著作《謊言帝國》中，戈耶特指出，美國「保持航線開放」的荒謬行動已持續多年，儘管這在經費與人力方面對美國造成巨大浪費。這僅僅是美國幕後精英集團（常被稱為「深層政府」）在全球進行不明智干預的眾多案例之一。

《謊言帝國》以247頁的篇幅梳理美國在全球的干預行動——從虛假新聞敘事、「偽旗行動」到華府在多國策劃的政變。戈耶特指出，美國的干預行動如此密集，以至時常相互衝突。例如美國對以色列鄰國敘利亞的介入程度極深，曾導致中情局支持的聖戰組織與五角大樓資助的宗教武裝爆發內鬥。

試想這造成多少無謂的人類苦難——更不用說美國納稅人被迫為衝突雙方承擔（往往超額支付）所有開銷。戈耶特曾在過往著作中提及相關議題，他在2021年寫道：「中國的切身利益在於保持航線暢通，因其完全依賴石油進口，這些油輪需經過遙遠的荷姆茲海峽與臨近的麻六甲海峽。」

「隨著中國數十年來的經濟發展，其在地區水道的存在感增強實屬必然。事實上，南海約75%的商業航運皆往來中國。」美國為何頻繁介入？戈耶特認為：「深層政府的慣性立場始終傾向干涉主義，這既為人民堆積債務與死亡，同時擴張國家機器並使軍事工業複合體牟利。」

戈耶特的新書以令人瞠目的新案例拓展對深層政府活動的剖析，包括揭露美國「軍事帝國」曾數次將世界推向核戰邊緣。書中亦詳述自以為是的國際媒體如何淪為服務西方霸權隱形推手的附庸。

但最令人憂慮的是，美國外交政策始終缺乏連貫性。戈耶特指出，唯一不變的是其「軍事優先」的行動模式。作者特別強調「帝國過度擴張」現象——當大帝國察覺衰退徵兆時，往往更急促地採取軍事手段，而龐大軍費開支反加速財政惡化，使帝國陷入「破產循環」。

查爾斯·戈耶特不能被簡單歸類為投機的反美主義者或反軍事煽動家，亦非「親中親俄」人士。青年時期他曾擔任美軍廣播電視網新聞主播，並因功績獲得陸軍嘉獎勳章。儘管曾勇敢抨擊災難性的伊拉克戰爭，他亦曾任里根總統「戰略防禦計劃」推廣機構「高邊疆」的全國演講局成員。該書亞馬遜售價20美元，電子書版約10美元。