The Heartland & Immense Military Movements in the Eurasian
Land Mass
"Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland;
Who rules the Heartland commands the world-island;
Who rules the world-island controls the world."
- Sir Halford John Mackinder
Sir Halford Mackinder in 1904 has stipulated that what
was coined as the pivotal area or later on what developed into the
theory of the heartland was the area of the Eurasia that essentially
formed the pivotally important core of worldoriginally this was
considered Eastern Europe, but with time and as modern geo-strategic
realization developed the area started shifting and expanding eastwards
towards or including vast areas in the east towards the Black Sea, the
Caspian Basin, and Central Asia. Whoever should some to control these
lands would dominate all Eurasia and could ultimately master the world.
This concept is of great, but concealed, geo-strategic importance today as
much as it was during World War II when the Germans had a whole group of
individuals dedicated to Mackinders conceptsduring those times the
Germans too tried to advance to the oil fields of Central Asia as the
United States now does. Zbigniew Brzezinski, an influential former U.S.
National Security Advisor, has even wrote greatly about this area and how
for the very first time in human history there exists a superpower that is
not from the Eurasian landmass which must set a goal of controlling the
Eurasian heartland to insure its monopoly on dominance in his book
American Primacy and Its Geo-strategic Imperatives.
Now, fast tracking to modern events unfolding in the
Balkans, the Middle East and Central Asia it seems that Sir Halford
Mackinder stipulations are hauntingly true as the worlds lone
superpowernow a hyperpower as Hubert Védrine the former French Minister
of Foreign Affairs originally termed itthe United States is resolute on
establishing dominance over this area in a chess game that involves the
heir to the Soviet Unionthe post-Soviet Russian Federationthe Peoples
Republic of China, and Iran.
Military Movement from the Balkans and the Middle East to Central
Asia
Bulgaria and Romania are war-proven allies of the
United States
They are valued partners in the global war on
errorism.
-General David McKiernan, U.S. Army Europe
(Commanding Officer)
Besides the daily events of the fighting in
Anglo-American occupied Iraq, NATO garrisoned Afghanistan, and the
continuous War on Terror that involves operations from Pakistan and the
Philippines to the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the Hashemite Kingdom of
Jordan there were the intense Israeli military activates and attacks
against Lebanon, including the subsequent immense military tension in the
entire Levant from the Gaza Strip to Syria. The Eurasian landmass is
buzzing and intensifying with military activity from the onset of July
2006. This includes military movements from NATO and U.S. bases in Europe
carrying military traffic to and from the United States, the Middle East,
and volatile Afghanistan. In the Balkans this activity is current through
the marshalling of air power; where the American military is busy engaging
in practically unreported or little known war games and defensive
operations with staunch NATO allies, Bulgaria and RomaniaImmediate
Response 2006 which ended in July and Viper Lance 2006 which will
according to some sources continue1 until September, 2006 while other report
it is rapped or rapping up.2 In the Middle East besides the Israeli
siege on Lebanon basically coming to a nominal ending under a one sided
United Nations Security Council Resolution and the daily fighting in Iraq
recent massive and stretched out Iranian war games, codenamed the Blow of
Zolfaqar3 war are taking place under the vigilance
of the Iranian Armed Forces. In the Caspian Basin and western Kazakhstan,
the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) under the basis of
protecting energy resources from terrorist attacks4that could very well be another countries
Black Ops or Special Forces. All the member of CSTO, are present in force,
including Uzbekistan with observing participations, but the landlocked
ex-Soviet republics of Armenia and Belarus on the account of the lack
or non-existence of naval forces.
Sino-Kazakh Drills: China and Kazakhstan hold joint
Exercises simultaneously with Russia, CSTO, and Iranwhile the United
States manoeuvre in the Balkans
Kazakhstan is involved in two distinct, but related,
military drills and exercises one in its western boundaries off the
Caspian Sea under the CSTO banner and another on its eastern borders, in
the Almaty region, near China under the framework(s) of the Shanghai
Cooperation Organization (SCO).5 The Sino-Kazakh drills include
various law enforcement organs of both China and Kazakhstan and units of
special forces from both China and Kazakhstan. This is also the third in a
series of bilateral military exercises China has conducted under the
framework of the SCO.6
Tianshan I, as the first joint anti-terrorism training
drill Kazakhstan and China gives the impression to be more than just a
routine security exercise. Its tie is conveniently coordinated with the
military manoeuvres and activities of the Russians, CSTO, and the
Iranians. All this is while the United States is steadily increasing its
troop and security force(s) concentration and man-power in occupied Iraq
and Afghanistan with an involuntary back-door draft. Furthermore, on a
global scale it falls under a time when potentially seismic changes are
taking place such as the choreographically visits of Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez to Belarus, Russia, Iran, Qatar, and finally energy thirst
China where Venezuela announced to the anger of the United
StatesVenezuelas main purchaser of oil that it plans increase its oil
sales to China.7 This will come at a cost to the United
States and a strategic victory for both the Chinese and Venezuela in
diversifying its clients and energy customers.
All these events are going on while on the other side of
the mirror the United States is strengthening its position in the Balkans
vis-à-vis Bulgaria and Romania, two former Eastern Bloc states that were
once Soviet satellites and are now in the American and NATO fold(s).
The Associated Press has written in regards to the
American interests in Romania:
In December [2005], Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice and Romanias Foreign Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu signed a
10-year agreement to set up four military bases in Romania. The
facilities to be used by the Pentagon include Babadag and the Mihail
Kogalniceanu base, which the U.S. has used in recent years as part of
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Up to 1,500
rotational troops will use the Mihail Kogalniceanu base at any one time.
Last year, the Mihail Kogalniceanu airport was the
subject of allegations that the CIA had secret prison here, a charge the
Romanian government strongly denied".8
The nuclear energy program of Iran might be what seems to
initially be the Gordian knot binding and linking all these events
together and both the covert and overt military movements within the
Eurasian landmass from Europe to the Middle East and the borders of China,
but the rivalry to control the worlds energy resources seems to be at the
heart of the matter with even a broader ends or agenda of international
ascendancy. There look as if the march eastward for the United States will
not only stop with Afghanistan, and Iraq, but will have to attempt to
secure and go through Iran to get to Central Asia and secure a
consequential footing in the Eurasian heartland. Something that Iran
will not watch ideally nor China and the Russian Federation accept.
1 Peoples Daily, August
12,2006
Romanian, US pilots hold exercise at Black Sea coastal base
http://english.people.com.cn/200608/12/eng20060812_292455.html
2 Army Public Affairs,
Arnews: Army News Services, August 3, 2006
U.S., Romania, Bulgaria team up for Immediate Response 06
http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/read.php?story_id_key=9380
3 Global Research, August
21, 2006
Iranian War Games: Exercises, Tests, and Drills or Preparation and
Mobilization for War?
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=DAR20060821&articleId=3027
4 Global Research, August 24, 2006
Russia and Central Asian Allies Conduct War Games in Response to US
Threats
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20060824&articleId=3056
5 Peoples Daily, August 25, 2006
China, Kazakhstan hold anti-terror Drill
http://english.people.com.cn/200608/25/eng20060825_296744.html
6 The first was with
Kyrgyzstan in 2002, and the second was with Russia in 2005 held in both
Russian territory (the Russian Far East) and Chinese territory (Manchuria)
7 Globe and Mail, August 17, 2006 (originally from Associated
Press)
Venezuela-China oil ties increase.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060817.IBVENEZ17/TPStory/Business
8 Air Force Times, August
9, 2006 (originally from Associated Press)
U.S., Romanian pilots to train together
http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2011589.php
