By "b", editor of Moon of Alabama
Drunk with arrogance, Biden is proving all imperialists are the same. Calling a world respected leader "a killer" shows the toxic exceptionalist myopia of the US establishment, its appalling rudeness, and the astonishing level of hypocrisy that defines all their policies and public utterances.
The foreign policy of the current U.S. administration is exactly the same as the foreign policy of the previous one. In short: disastrous.
There are dozens of examples: The "maximum pressure' campaign against Iran continues, the sanctions on Venezuela will be upheld or even strengthened, the bombing of Syria, no change on Yemen and so on.
The problem is that none of these 'we are tough guys' policies achieves any purpose.
From the outside world the behavior and tough talk of U.S. officials is seen a juvenile. It demonstrates a lack of knowledge, wisdom and strategy.
Consider these recent headlines about China:
- Blinken Rallies ‘Quad’ Democracies to Counter Assertive China - February 17, Bloomberg
- Blinken warns China against 'coercion and aggression' - March 16, Reuters
- Blinken denounces China's 'strings attached' vaccine diplomacy - March 17, Nikkei
- U.S. sanctions 24 Hong Kong and Chinese officials ahead of Blinken's key meeting - March 17, AP
- Bolstered by allies, Biden officials take blunt message to first China talks - March 17, AP
The United States will take an uncompromising stance in talks with China on Thursday in Alaska, officials have said, in the first face-to-face meetings between senior officials from the two rivals since U.S. President Joe Biden took office.
Beijing has called for a reset to ties, now at their lowest in decades, but Washington has said the Alaska talks will be a one-off, and any future engagement depends on China improving its behavior. <
Then, after days of badmouthing China, it finally dawned on Blinken that he needs China's help.
- Blinken urges China to convince North Korea to denuclearize - March 18, AP
- China must persuade North Korea to give up nuclear weapons, says Blinken - March 18, Guardian
Why, after so many bad words towards it, would China help the U.S. with solving the North Korea problem? It has zero incentive to do so.
The same aggressive behavior can be seen with regards to Russia. Baseless accusations of Russian election interferences are followed with more sanctions and threats topped off with Biden calling Russia's President Putin a 'killer'. As the Canadian Russia expert Paul Robinson writes:
As for Biden’s comments, well what can one say? Didn’t he just order the bombing of Syria. Doesn’t that make him a ‘killer’ too? Politicians should avoid this sort of language. I suspect, though, that what this and the intelligence report mentioned above indicate is that Russiagate, with its allegations of Trump-Putin collusion to undermine American democracy, has done irreparable damage to US-Russia relations. One gets the impression that there is now a deep, deep hatred of Russia within the US government, a hatred that prevents any sane analysis of Russian intentions and actions, as well as of US national interests. I fear that this will last for quite a long time.
Andrei Martyanov adds:
[The] degradation of the American political institutions, top-bottom, and its speed are mind-boggling. As for the class and culture--US political elite and US media machine don't have any. Biden merely confirmed it today.
...
One Russian saying posits that one can still negotiate with scoundrels, one cannot negotiate with idiots. When the opposite side is both, boy, talk about the United States turning into the third world country.
The hostility the U.S., by its behavior and words, creates against itself is not restricted to Russia and China.
Last week the French "Armed Forces Joint Reflection Circle" CRI, an independent think tank of former generals and high officers of the French forces, issued an open letter to NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg in which it accused him of having acting solely in the interest of the U.S. during the development of his NATO 2030 plan.
The letter details how Stoltenberg, NATO and the U.S. have caused the bad relations with Russia. It says that the U.S. is trying to use a fictional 'Russian threat' to pressure NATO countries into morphing into a global force, under U.S. command and independent of the United Nations, to then use it against China. This while the real threat to Europe is Islamic terrorism caused by the U.S. interferences in the Middle East and north Africa. The U.S. led NATO is thereby becoming a danger for Europe.
The accusations the French generals are launching against the U.S. go beyond anything one might hear from Moscow or Beijing.
The next 'allied' nation that will have sound reason to turn hostile towards the U.S. might well be Germany:
The Biden administration Thursday stepped up its rhetoric against a gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, calling on all those involved in the project to “immediately abandon” their work.
“The Department reiterates its warning that any entity involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline risks US sanctions and should immediately abandon work on the pipeline,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
Nord Stream 2 is of vital importance to Germany's energy security. The German public was rather hostile to President Trump and Biden's victory was seen with relief. But when it sees how Biden pursues the same policies, and with a similar tone, it will turn on him. A more general 'anti-Americanism' would then arise.
The uncompromising and ever aggressive behavior the U.S. shows towards competitors as well as friends will not lead to a stronger U.S. position in the world. People and nations will learn to work around it. [Or oppose it.]
These rushed attempts to prevent the ending of its unipolar moment will only accelerate the move towards a new multilateral global system.
Posted by b on March 18, 2021 at 18:48 UTC | Permalink
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Kinda' confirms the existence, at least where foreign policies are concerned, of the "deep state" theories, and the old saying; "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss". Posted by: vetinLA | Mar 18 2021 19:01 utc | 2 AFP Breaking News (from Twitter) US warns entities involved in Nord Stream 2 to "immediately abandon work" White House says does not regret Biden calling Putin "killer"!! Posted by: Jackrabbit | Mar 18 2021 19:03 utc | 3 Pepe Escobar also has noted in his Telegram channel the craziness of Dem Dementia admin's work till now aptly: "DIPLOMACY'S DEAD, BABY. DIPLOMACY'S DEAD. The Empire of Chaos is in utter desperation, and on a Kill Bill rampage. Without a samurai sword. Some of us, including Alastair Crooke, Paul Craig Roberts, The Saker, and if we he was still alive, Prof. Stephen Cohen, have been warning everyone for a long time. It doesn't matter that Russiagate was completely debunked. The Dem Dementia administration is now on Russiagate 2.0 on steroids. This "intel" report on Russian interference in the - rigged - US elections does not even qualify as a bad joke. What Crash Test Dummy's handlers told him to say in that interview about Putin being "a killer", "without a soul" who will "pay a price", goes way beyond ANYTHING that happened during the Cold War. At least there was a measure of diplomatic decency in the superpowers relationship. What's happening now is totally reckless, totally irrational - not to mention terminally stupid: there is NO American foreign policy left. The Kremlin - as well as the Ministy of Foreign Affairs - already got the picture: they are dealing with a bunch of lowly gangsters which also happens to be criminally insane. For the record: Stupidistan is now at war ON THREE FRONTS. Against Russia, against China and against Iran. Declining empires are ALWAYS strategically stupid." Posted by: Seej | Mar 18 2021 19:05 utc | 4 Nord Stream 2 is of vital importance to Germany's energy security. The German public was rather hostile to President Trump and Biden's victory was seen with relief. But when it sees how Biden pursues the same policies, and with a similar tone, it will turn on him. <-- b However "hostile", Germany contributed to uni-lateral Trumpian sanctions, and so far, North Stream 2 is the only beacon of independence. Take Ukraine: Germany and France form half of Normandy Four, and provided name for Steinmeier formula. Ukraine resolutely resists proceeding with any obligations under that formula. Germany is silent on that and support annual extensions of sanctions, not to mention sanctions on Syria, Venezuela and whatever EU sanctions. Syria is an interesting example. It could be actually popular among German voters to facilitate reconstruction in that country and return of the refugees to their homeland. Iran and Russia are potentially good customers for German industry. Independence of German banks and other companies from whimsical sanctions from USA would help too. Seemingly, ingrained masochism is hard to overcome. Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 18 2021 19:06 utc | 5 Ukrainian government quite recently decided to insult China. Not only Chinese investors who got the majority stake in a major Ukrainian company (major in Ukraine, that is) were prevented from getting their hard paid ownership, but the buyers became targets of sanctions, practically, confiscation of property. The reaction, other than verbal, was a bit slow. But last week a large business/tourism delegation from China visited Crimea, officially sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and concluded a number of deals, with promise of more. What happened to Ukrainian purchase of Chinese vaccine is hard to tell. Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 18 2021 19:12 utc | 6 For the record: Stupidistan is now at war ON THREE FRONTS. Against Russia, against China and against Iran. Declining empires are ALWAYS strategically stupid." Posted by: Seej | Mar 18 2021 19:05 utc | 4 Alas, more than 30 years ago it was observed in USA that it benefits a politician to seem stupid, and being genuinely stupid is even better. Why do you think power to be within Democratic Party decided to maneuver the least intellectually able contender to win in the primaries? That in itself is not necessarily bad, but on the lower levels of government, you must prove stupidity (or at least utter lack of original thinking) to advance. Now we have new generations of opportunists hiding any sign of thinking, apart from passing all the required exams in elite schools etc. Let me think of the greatness and extinction of Irish elk. Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 18 2021 19:20 utc | 7 Seej @4-- Thanks for posting Pepe's comments, some of which are in his current article I linked to on the open thread. In my comment related to Pepe's article I noted his excerpt of Chinese academic Jisi and this specific part: "the Americans are eager to deal with problems before they are ready to improve the relationship." That observation is consistent with that of an entity that only wants its orders obeyed and seeks no relationship or friendship with any other entity since it sees itself as Top Dog, and #1 in every way. As with the Nord Stream project, we see the Gangster mentality--Do as I say or else! Not only does the Emperor have no clothes or much of a working memory, he's got erectile disfunction too that's well beyond the ability of Viagra to fix. Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 18 2021 19:22 utc | 8 So here we have Blinken, Winken and Nod providing direction for failing empire Blinken is obvious I am sure they will try to take America to new places, yet to be dreamt of....will the brainwashed of the West follow? About Germany and Nord Stream II.....To a degree that I am not sure of, Germany is like Japan, a fully owned colony of empire....this may be the time that the Germany nut gets cracked wide open....interesting times indeed. Where are the details of Blinken telling China how to behave? I can hardly wait for the next act of Blinken, Winken and Nod Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 18 2021 19:38 utc | 9 b continues to expound this line "Eventually the Europeans will turn on the Dark Throne", but I wonder how much of that is wishful thinking. Whoever is pulling Merkel's strings, in the end it was her face that was most associated with the Navalny clown show--almost as if she was looking for an excuse to ditch Nord Stream 2. The EU parliament repays China's COVID aid by sanctioning them, and the Dutch parliament had its own anti-Chinese eruption. Even European dislike of Trump was, in the final analysis, only what the Anglo state media toldthem to think. From my distance it seems that the project of keeping the post-Brexit EU on its Atlantic course is proceeding just fine. Come to think about it, this project has been going for 75 years now; nobody's left alive who knows anything else. I see Piotr Berman thinking along similar lines. Before one tosses around the "stupid" labels, one should consider that the Dark Throne skillfully observes what it's getting away with--at least in the short term. European media dutifully stenograph whatever provocations Washington comes up with. The Chinese I think should never agree to sit down with that Blinken trash until he's properly apologized for his reckless and baseless genocide accusation, but it seems they're off to Alaska all the same; likewise, the Russian reaction is predictably feeble. All in all, few signs on the horizon for serious change. Posted by: Ma Laoshi | Mar 18 2021 19:50 utc | 10
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Typo - it finally ''daunted to'' Blinken - it finally ''dawned on'' blinken..
thanks b! i appreciate and agree with yours and those pundits you quote.. i find it fascinating the accusation against stoltenberg! it seems like some in the eu are realizing what a trojan horse nato is and are prepared to address it and all its implications... this has to happen...
and of course there is no difference between any usa president.. at this point they are all working from the same page and carrying the same agenda.. it can't go on indefinitely... the world wil breathe a sigh of relief when this nightmare called usa hegemony dies... whether this is a creation of the financial pyramid called wall st and the city of london, or whatever, it can't continue...
Posted by: james | Mar 18 2021 18:58 utc | 1