Ben Norton on the U.S.-Backed Coup in Pakistan, Neverending War in Ukraine, and a Multipolar World

Lowkey is joined by journalist Ben Norton to discuss the recent U.S.-backed coup in Pakistan, the West’s plan to turn Ukraine into a neverending war, and the new multipolar global order taking shape before our eyes.

Ben Norton is a Nicaragua-based journalist whose work is focused on U.S. foreign policy and international politics. He recently launched his new journalism platform, Multipolarista. His video content can also be found at Rokfin and on YouTube.

Today, he sat down to speak to Lowkey about the recent U.S.-backed coup against Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. Earlier this month, Khan was removed from his position following a vote of no confidence in his leadership, after several small parties from his coalition changed their allegiance.

Khan fought back, claiming that the United States had threatened him and that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu had effectively organized his ouster. There are several pictures of U.S. officials meeting senior Pakistani politicians shortly before the ouster.

The final straw, for the United States, appears to have been Khan’s refusal to join with the U.S. in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Khan’s political enemies have essentially confirmed his story, noting that Lu promised that “all would be forgiven” if they moved against him. “Beggars can’t be choosers,” said opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif, explaining that Pakistan was not in a position to defy U.S. orders.

Norton told Lowkey:

This is an incredible, blatant act of meddling by the U.S. government. Of course, anyone who knows the basic history of the U.S. knows that it has organized coups and impeachments and color revolutions around the world for many decades, but [Khan’s ouster] was pretty much done in broad daylight!”

Norton also discussed his new article, “NATO admits it wants ‘Ukrainians to keep dying’ to bleed Russia, not peace,” which details how Western nations are flooding the country with arms, not to stop the violence, but to keep it going indefinitely. The arming of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan during the 1980s appears to be the model they are following. These weapons do not come free, however, and are being sold with strings attached. Thus, Ukrainians will pay both in cash and in blood. As Norton warned:

Ukraine is going to be trapped in all this debt that it will have to pay back to the U.S. How is it going to pay it back? It is going to have to privatize state-owned assets, sell off natural resources, and cut wages for Ukrainians. And this is after years of [Western-model] neoliberal shock therapy imposed on Ukraine.”

The pair also discussed the changing global order, with a rising China leading a bloc of countries intent on being independent from the Washington-led system. This, Norton contended, is in part down to the punitive sanctions regime that the U.S. imposes on anyone who angers it, pushing other states closer together in common interests. Today, more than one-third of the world lives under American sanctions. “What this has done is that it has forced countries around the world to find alternatives,” Norton told Lowkey, adding:

By imposing more and more sanctions on countries, it has incentivized them to look for alternatives. They don’t want to hold their wealth in dollars because we have seen the U.S. government seizing the foreign currency reserves of Iran, Venezuela and Afghanistan. And now they just did the same thing to Russia!”

Join Lowkey today for a critically important discussion about current events and the future of the world, and do not forget to subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform.

The MintPress podcast, “The Watchdog,” hosted by British-Iraqi hip hop artist Lowkey, closely examines organizations about which it is in the public interest to know – including intelligence, lobby and special interest groups influencing policies that infringe on free speech and target dissent. The Watchdog goes against the grain by casting a light on stories largely ignored by the mainstream, corporate media.

Lowkey is a British-Iraqi hip-hop artist, academic and political campaigner. As a musician, he has collaborated with the Arctic Monkeys, Wretch 32, Immortal Technique and Akala. He is a patron of Stop The War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Racial Justice Network and The Peace and Justice Project, founded by Jeremy Corbyn. He has spoken and performed on platforms from the Oxford Union to the Royal Albert Hall and Glastonbury. His latest album, Soundtrack To The Struggle 2, featured Noam Chomsky and Frankie Boyle and has been streamed millions of times.