"Obama Suffers Setbacks in Japan and the Mideast," screamed a front-page headline in the New York Times, April 24, 2014. The article was referring to Obama's most recent foreign policy failures: no signed trade agreement (TPP) with Japan and the collapse of his Secretary of State's Middle East negotiations.

"Add to this the collapse of not one but two Geneva conferences on Syria, American helplessness in the face of Russian aggression against Ukraine and the Saudi king's humiliating dismissal of Obama within two hours of talks — no dinner — after Obama made a special 2,300-mile diversion from Europe to see him, and you have an impressive litany of serial embarrassments," chimes in the Washington Post.

Actually, you have much more than just that. You have a graphic picture of the inexorable and rather precipitous decline of US imperialism, more and more unable to influence events in the world, much less command them.

These mouthpieces of US imperialist's dominant wing lament Obama's failures because they endanger their vaunted "pivot or rebalancing to Asia." The Middle East negotiations are crucial for the US bosses ability to extricate themselves militarily from that region to then be able to concentrate more of their diplomatic, economic and military resources to Asia-Pacific.

Also vital to their Asia-Pacific strategy is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is a free- trade agreement being negotiated with twelve countries bordering the Pacific. It would open Asia's huge markets to US farmers and manufacturers and strengthen US influence in the region.

Both "influence" and "trade agreements" have serious military aspects which would bolster US imperialism's main reason for pivoting to Asia: to build up its military forces and alliances in the region to constrain China and eventually confront it militarily.

In this respect, the main outcome of Obama's trip was strengthened military ties. He signed a new ten-year defense pact with the Philippines that will station thousands of US troops there temporarily for the first time since the 1990's.

In Japan he stated unequivocally that the Senkaku islands would be covered by the US-Japan bilateral security treaty. This was the first time a sitting president explicitly made the commitment that "America would indeed come to Japan's aid in the event of a serious Chinese incursion." (The Economist 5/3/2014)

In Seoul, Obama said that the US stood "shoulder-to-shoulder" with South Korea in case of a North Korean provocation.  He also left standing current arrangements where, in case of war, South Korean armed forces come under direct US command.

Thus the main aspect of TPP is military. It is to exclude China and counter China's economic hegemony in East Asia.  Its goal is to restrict China's alarming economic growth, which has fueled double-digit increases to its military budget, propelling its rapid military modernization and build up.

This is allowing the growth--much feared by US imperialism--of a Chinese blue-water navy US dominion of the seas. According to Reuters, "Chinese shipyards are turning out new nuclear and conventional submarines, destroyers, missile-armed patrol boats and surface ships at a higher rate than any other country." (Oct. 5, 2013)

"Influence" is also important in this scheme. It means US bosses cajoling the region's rulers--especially those threatened by China--to open up their markets, natural resources, strategic military locations and cheap labor to satisfy their needs. It also means building a military alliance with regional powers and getting them to shoulder more of the cost of "protecting" themselves and contributing to the containment of China.

All this would give the US bosses more time to prepare to fight what is shaping up to be a China-Russia axis. Additionally, it could provide the economic resources for the military build-up they need without further impoverishing the US working class, especially the so-called middle class. "The threat to the United States is the persistent decline in the middle class' standard of living… and that, if it continues, poses a threat to American power." (Stratfor, December 31, 2013)

All this, dubious to start with, seems even more improbable now. Preparations for wider wars, with the further impoverishing of the US working class, are becoming an inescapable reality. The US bosses are once again being forced to put masses of workers, students and soldiers once again. Like the masses worldwide, as our May Day activities show, the masses are open to and thirsty for our revolutionary communist ideas.

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