{"id":153683,"date":"2025-12-15T17:13:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=153683"},"modified":"2025-12-15T17:13:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:13:27","slug":"the-usa-seeks-a-suicidal-ukraine-in-asia-can-japan-or-sri-lanka-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/12\/15\/the-usa-seeks-a-suicidal-ukraine-in-asia-can-japan-or-sri-lanka-help\/","title":{"rendered":"The USA Seeks a Suicidal Ukraine in Asia: Can Japan or Sri Lanka\u00a0Help?"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

400th<\/sup> Weekly Edition<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

e-Con e-News 7-13 December 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who offered to suddenly call off \u2018in 45 minutes\u2019 the self-styled aragalaya<\/em>, which the merchant media had been pumping up, which had been spouting hot air for months, and was now at the gates of parliament in July 2022? Who offered to crown a mere parliamentary speaker as Executive President? Is it the forever-leaving-but-never going US envoy Julie Chung or long-gone-but-forever-haunting Indian envoy Gopal Baglay? Is the former Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena a gallant, for refusing such a poisoned chalice, and upholding parliamentary decorum? Or was Abeywardena, a \u2018grotesque mediocrity\u2019 playing \u2018a hero\u2019s part\u2019? Yet, does it matter who took on the role of undiplomatic peon delivering the instructions of their controllers in Washington &\/or Delhi?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The merchants\u2019 media can\u2019t seem to make up their mind if it was one or the other or both, or if it matters. Whoever it was, seemed to be able to deploy both the paramilitary Special Task Force (STF) at the Speaker\u2019s residence (to threaten or protect him, we are not told), or to assure the Speaker that such a grab for power would gain acceptance by the \u2018strugglers\u2019 (merchants, moneylenders, GNGOs, church, anarchists, nihilists, etc), a nod by the wielders of the state monopoly of violence (private & public), and thumbs up by the state monopoly of consent (the media, private & public).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Moving Finger writes; &, having writ,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Omar Khayy\u00e1m<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question of who wore the outer raiment of the rainmakers on that fateful day July 13 in 2022 was given new life with the publication of a book by the then-soon-to-be-next \u2018unelected\u2019 President Ranil Wickremesinghe\u2019s media advisor Sunanda Maddumabandara. The author appears to be a hand who writes, and yet his hand is moved by other hands. (Incidentally, this week saw the US embassy\u2019s Chamber of Commerce (AmCham SL), sit together with Wijeya Newspapers <\/em>and Unilever\u2019s Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), to \u2018Narrate Sri Lanka\u2019s Story\u2019<\/strong>,see ee Who\u2019s Who<\/em><\/strong>) Maddumabandara, as unreliable a narrator as \u2018media advisors\u2019 tend to be, claims the Speaker himself has told him it was the Indian envoy, Baglay. Maddumabandara\u2019s master Ranil Wickremesinghe, the recovering Anglican, has been flying in all directions (except Moscow & Beijing), visiting Red Forts & diverse Hindu temples. Wickremesinghe too is heroically portrayed as having refused a poisoned chalice and upheld parliamentary decorum, and attended the book launch, though the ousted President Gotabhaya Rajapakse did not, and has chosen not to comment on the matter in his biography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The JVP appears to have been the main (temporary) beneficiary of the aragalaya\u2019s strivings, and was also baying at the gates of parliament that day. They were apparently not the first choice of the imperialist conspirators, though they now seem to be following the Wickremesinghe script. Wickremesinghe\u2019s writ, which appears to echo the demands of the imperialist hegemon, sees his will being done, even if by remote control. The Island<\/em>\u2019s Shamindra Ferdinando (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>) highlights the claim made by nationalist analysts that it was the US Envoy who secretly made such demands. Ferdinando wonders who deceived the nationalists into claiming it was only the US Envoy, though all agree the ouster of a democratically elected President was a joint US-India project. The version in the Sinhala Divaina<\/em> of the Ferdinando essay omits his assertion that the nationalist analysts were deceived. Anyway, such speculations ultimately appear to be diversions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     After over 500 years of imperialist invasion & intrigue, it is more than time to shed illusions. The wars in Asia (West, East, North & South), and in Africa (again, in all its compass directions) are being led and coordinated by the USA. The wars in the Ukraine & on Palestine are led by the USA, with all their running dogs in tow and on cue. The USA is now the conductor of the Concert of Europe<\/em><\/strong>, with its white settler territories seeking to spread their \u2018occupying\u2019 tentacles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     While much is being made of Russian President V Putin\u2019s visit to India, the situation is fluid. While there are forces that seek a newer & better world, India was the largest English department in the world, and there are powerful interests, legacies of colonial vintage, in all our countries, who serve the imperialist hegemon\u2019s desire for manifest destiny<\/em><\/strong>, as presumably ordained by their white god (see ee Quotes<\/em><\/strong>). The US in order to assert its dominance as the sole superpower is stalking & striding the world, seeking belligerent allies (Europe, Japan), suicidal proxies (Ukraine, Israel), fake enemies & asymmetrical foes, threatening confrontation and, when thwarted, unfurling chaos through their \u2018grey channels\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u2018Technology is developed in the world that by using such technology,<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

one can predict which areas get the highest rainfall & which areas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

will be prone to floods. Enough & more data can be gathered using<\/p>\n\n\n\n

such technology, but till today we have failed to use this\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our country we are still looking up at the sky & saying it\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

about to rain or, after it rains, saying the rainfall has been heavy.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 then-opposition JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake (2016),<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now President (ee Agriculture<\/em><\/strong>, Who sowed the cyclonic wind\u2026?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s tea industry not impacted by Ditwah, traders\u2019 body says<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 <\/em><\/strong>see ee Agriculture<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While media argues back & forth about whether early warnings about the flooding (including from India, BBC, Al Jazeera etc, always sure to send mixed messages) and conspiracy theorists (divine & secular) abound regarding extra-special seedings of clouds, by imperialists in Asia<\/strong>, the tea trader chose to declare their deforested plantations were untouched, even as plantation workers <\/strong>insist that they too suffered inundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     In Sri Lanka, the US & Indian militaries bearing \u2018gifts\u2019 (which inevitably have to be paid back with exorbitant interest) have stomped their boots on the ground, while proclaiming to bring relief to the country. The best relief or the best aid<\/strong> these tax-avoiding philanthropists could give, as former PM Sirimavo<\/strong> Bandaranaike once quipped, is to leave the country alone<\/em><\/strong>. For what is given by one hand is usually taken by innumerable other hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     While Indian companies have been handed the production of electronic ID cards, the US\u2019 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT aka Murder Inc) claims to have developed an information system to collect Ditwar-related data \u2018free of charge\u2019. US\u2019 Microsoft will provide \u2018the necessary technical support\u2019; and another US Embassy outfit called GeoAI, combining AI & Geographic Information Systems (GIS) promises \u2018to strengthen early warning systems, improve emergency response and enhance long-term planning.\u2019 This is the same USA that has openly opposed (via their World Bank, and innumerable economists) and quietly subverted long-term economic planning by the Sri Lankan state (see ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>). What has happened to the numerous equipments installed in the country to supposedly early-warn us, even as they appear to be dual-use, collecting information on us & the seas around us? (see ee Who\u2019s Who<\/em><\/strong>, Japan\u2019s Doppler)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, packaged as a heavy-metal head-banging rock&roller, shows where she obtains her real cultural & political tunes from, by threatening to deploy even heavier metals \u2013 missiles in Taiwan against China<\/strong>. Warwick Powell <\/strong>discusses the backdrop: the paranoia (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>) the US exhibits against any North Asian alliance between Japan, China, Russia & Korea, and Japan\u2019s purported anxieties of an ageing population, midst rising food & energy insecurity (this is what prompts their need for Sri Lankan workers in labor-intensive operations). Warwick also describe the manoeuvres of US & Europe speeding into overdrive to prevent any coming together of India, Africa, China, Russia, which they seek to blockade & strangle, like what they are doing in Cuba & Venezuela etc. Warwick doubts any major nuclear confrontation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018What\u2019s the likelihood that<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington will sacrifice Washington,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

or put at risk Washington, New York,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miami, & every other city in between,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

in the name of defending Tokyo, or Seoul,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

or Taipei, or Manila for that matter?<\/em>\u2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warwick wonders if Japan is ready to take on the role of an Asian Ukraine<\/strong>, \u2018to go & fight & die for the USA\u2019. And while the USA\u2019s vassals in Europe, Africa & Asia seek to somehow become honorary whites <\/strong>or equals at least, the US plan seems to be to carve out \u2018geo-economic blocks\u2019, demanding their allies \u2018cut themselves off from important centers of power like China and to commit themselves solely to the USA.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should Japan have invaded Sri Lanka first, rather than attack the USA in Hawaii\u2019s Pearl Harbor? is the subject of an extended dissertation in the LankaWeb <\/em>(see ee Quotes<\/em><\/strong>). The Sri Lankan author Senaka Weeraratna laments, \u2018Day after day we are constantly bombarded with propaganda against the Japanese & the Germans despite the end of the war 80 years ago\u2019. The argument for Japan invading Sri Lanka first is based on the work of a Japanese militarist & prolific author of such books as How China Started the 2nd<\/sup> Sino-Japanese War: Why Should Japan Apologize to China?<\/em> There is no mention of Japan\u2019s colonization of China, Taiwan, or Korea, or of the massacres of 100,000s in Nanjing, etc. Weeraratna mentions DS Senanayake, Dudley Senanayake & JR Jayawardene (Ceylon) as friends & admirers of Japan. JR is credited with foregoing demands for reparations from Japan at the infamous Treaty of San Francisco in 1951<\/em><\/strong>, which turned Japan into a colonial US military base<\/strong>, with the US inscribing its constitution. JR curiously stated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We in Ceylon were fortunate that we were not invaded,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but the damage caused by air raids<\/strong>, by the stationing of<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

enormous armies under the SE Asia Command<\/strong>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& by the slaughter-tapping of one of our main commodities,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

rubber<\/strong>, when we were the only producer of natural rubber<\/em><\/strong> for<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the Allies, entitles us to ask that the damage so caused should<\/p>\n\n\n\n

be repaired. We do not intend to do so, for we<\/p>\n\n\n\n

believe in the words of the Great Teacher [Buddha]\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USA\u2019s 1951 San Francisco Treaty,<\/em> opposed by the USSR because China was excluded from the Conference<\/em><\/strong> & it violated China\u2019s sovereignty over Taiwan, studiously gave no guarantees against theUSA\u2019s revival of militarism in Japan, now on full display<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s ee<\/strong><\/em> continues examining how socialism defeated fascism, even as the English & US hedged their bets, hoping the USSR with China & Germany with Japan would all destroy each other. It was the Red Armies of the USSR & China that held off & vanquished the brunt of the fascist attacks. Again, Roy Singham<\/strong> delivers incredible statistics on the sacrifice made. The Nazi Yellow Stars that Jews were later forced to wear were preceded by forcing Communists to wear Red Triangles<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Before fascism turned outward to conquer nations,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

it perfected mass murder at home. <\/em>Fascism\u2019s first<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

victims were domestic communists<\/em> from 1931-45<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was communists arrested in the 1,000s who filled the first concentration camps<\/strong>. Here in this ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> you can read of the love affair between the USA\u2019s Henry Ford & the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler: \u2018Western leaders did not just know \u2013 they applauded\u2019<\/strong>. US media praised Hitler\u2019s anti-communist violence as \u2018necessary housekeeping<\/em><\/strong>\u2019, revealing \u2018capitalism\u2019s preference for fascism over socialism.<\/strong>\u2019 Again, fascism itself had its roots in the colonization of much of the world<\/strong>, and particularly in the practices of the settler colonies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The development pattern of the white settler colonies<\/strong> is the focus of Chapter 4 of SBD de Silva\u2019s classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment<\/em><\/strong>. This ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> concludes this chapter, which seeks to also explain the seeming exceptions in the Congo & IndoChina (Vietnam), to SBD\u2019s division of the world into settler & non-settler colonies<\/strong>. While exhibiting certain advanced features<\/strong>, the Congo & IndoChina\u2019s basically colonial status prevented their advance <\/strong>into the ranks of developed countries. The settler colonies focused on their home markets & developed<\/strong> their societies, while non-settler colonies<\/strong> are constantly told to focus on exports<\/strong>, giving over our home markets to multinational corporations (MNCs<\/strong>) like England\u2019s Unilever in Sri Lanka. The settler colonies fought major battles with their European governments even as they repressed the indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This ee<\/em><\/strong> discusses more fully the example of Vietnam\u2019s economy, which was subject to genocidal wars waged by the Japanese, French & US governments. SBD discussed how industrial development took place in Indochina before WW2, due to \u2018adventitious factors\u2019<\/strong> such as being far from France, and a \u2018balcony on the Far East\u2019. Large numbers were employed<\/strong> in a range of industries. <\/strong>SBD de Silva, however, examines what \u2018made the French Parliament & industrialists willing to finance Ferry\u2019s conquest of Tonkin\u2019. He also detailed the 3 devices France used \u2018to pre-empt the Indochinese market\u2019. He noted how Indochina\u2019s exports to France were regulated<\/strong>, while \u2018French goods could enter Indochina freely\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> also continues Gustavus Myers\u2019 1917 History of Tammany Hall. <\/em>Here Myers, even as he drearily narrates the system of organized bribery in New York involving the monopolies \u2013 traction, railroad, telephone, electric lighting, industrial & other financial interests \u2013 finally highlights the criticism by US socialists, of so-called \u2018anti-corruption campaigns\u2019:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The political \u2018bosses\u2019 were only the tools of the great financial<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& industrial magnates; & that where the political \u2018bosses\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

gathered in their millions, the magnates accumulated their 10s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

or 100s of millions of dollars as their individual fortunes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why, queried the Socialists, concentrate attention on the instruments?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why not, said they, attack the power of the whole social, political<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& industrial system of which the political \u2018boss\u2019 was merely one<\/p>\n\n\n\n

expression?  This system, according to the Socialist party, was the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

capitalist system for the overthrow of which they declared & agitated.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
The USA Seeks a Suicidal Ukraine in Asia: Can Japan or Sri Lanka Help?<\/a><\/blockquote>