We have a big problem. (I say we to denote those of us living outside of the USA and those who are anti-war living within it.)
The indicators are very strong now that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will lead the party of war in 2021.
The Democrats are very clearly now the party of war. This might appear odd and inexplicable to some but I do not believe so and will attempt to explain below.
I suspect you believed as I did and so many others also that after the Iraq war was exposed as being built on various lies that would mark more or less the end of regime change wars of choice.
It did not. Why not?
I have seen Joe Biden embrace the divisive policy of aggression wholeheartedly and now his sidekick also. I see that the military industrial complex has something to do with that. But in my view there’s so much more underpinning it than that.
Now I don’t know if those following this agenda are fully convinced of its rightness but I suspect the majority do. Those with doubts certainly won’t be expressing them.
What are the elements underpinning this and what is the ‘this’ I’m speaking of.
The ‘this’ is the conviction (whatever it is based upon, whether reality of a group-thought agreement) is that the USA, UK and their allies are the powers that are safeguarding the world from those of what they conceive of as malign intent. It follows directly on from George W. Bush’s words about you are either with us or with the terrorists, with no place to stand with integrity in between these stances.
I am convinced we will see much more talk from Biden, Harris and others of ‘The Free World’, the same rhetoric we heard (if old enough like me) that was heard on a routine basis during the Cold War. Us (the saintly, democratic, freedom loving ones with the best, open and liberal societies) and them (all those who resist being like us in any way).
Why is this important to them? Because they probably believe the reasons they have for saying these things, despite all we know of what the U.S. UK and their allies have done to others down the years. No need to go into them all but death squads, coups and assassinations in Latin America will do for starters.
I am not going to go into the reasons why they might just be saying these things because its profitable for them and their donors or because it shores up their decreasing leverage due to the rise of China in particular or any other reasons that they might like to do this that are fraudulent. I suspect they believe in what they are doing. This is actually worse than if they were only pretending to believe it.
As I have said elsewhere much of this is to do with the rise of China. Its rise threatens the continuing power of the West and the USA in particular power and the levers of global economic, diplomatic and military influence that they have held for generations. I am fairly confident that they truly believe that without them in charge of the world everything will go to hell in short order. I am convinced they are totally wrong on this point and that the reverse would occur, a better, more orderly and safer world would transpire, but I am pretty convinced THEY believe their own views are right or at the very least they are not willing to take the chance that they are not.
I am not minded to call them cynical or self-interested in power for its own sake, nor am I minded to call them hypocritical or bad leaning toward evil. Sadly it’s not as easy as that it seems to me. If we could label them evil with evil intent then we could feel suitably and permanently angry that they continue to flaunt their evil before us.
I’m sorry to say they believe in this stance because this makes everything so much more obsessive and impermeable to reason or change. Everything about the upper echelon lifestyles they have led and now lead within that their privileged lives and the sacred patriotic space of higher U.S./UK education plus all the noble myths they are completely invested in about the sanctity of American purposes in the world... I believe they hold the views they do in something that can't be separated from sincerity.
I know! It’s hard to believe they could hold these views as we know so much that is contrary to these to these beliefs, myths, group-thought agreements and so on. But they truly don’t, if they were exposed to them it was only in passing, fleetingly and in situations where they were easy to ignore or override with the weight of all the others they hold as sacrosanct. They have lived within the bubble of American “purity” and beneficial intent their whole lives. It is as their lifeblood and they cannot conceive of any other reality.
This is what makes it so scary and what explains the seemingly incongruous dedication to the regime change consensus. 9/11 reinforced these beliefs and feelings but they were there before. As Jeffrey Sachs explains in his book ‘A New Foreign Policy (Beyond American Exceptionalism) these views, beliefs and policies (American mission to save the world for the righteous) has been there for SUCH a long, long time. And it is not going away anytime soon.
Trump has been an anomaly in his desire to draw back from the above. That Biden and the Democrats have embraced it is not as surprising as it seems. Trump is focused on economics and not on foreign policy.
Though the Bush era and his embrace of the neocon right seemed something of an aberration, in fact it was only somewhat of an increased focus on an already existing agenda; America’s decisive role in the world within an always outgoing and interventionist context.
The sophist speeches of Mike Pompeo mirror all this above. His rhetoric is right along the lines discussed about. He is all about America’s decisive role in the world, getting deeper involved than ever for the sake of "democratic values". His recent mention of Ortega in Nicaragua was something I’ve been expecting for a good six months now since a talk he gave in Egypt mentioning Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua in the same breath while assuring his audience that America was back and wouldn’t ever leave them (as if leaving them was the worst thing he could ever contemplate America doing).
Reading recent articles I see that the Biden-Harris stance will be no different than that of Pompeo. The big difference from the present administration's overall stance is that there will be none of the Trump talk against war, against NATO or against America’s allies. If the Democrats win there will be no more of that kind of talk. Zip. Not one word. The wagons of ‘The Free World’ will be circled in everlasting union, in tight, unbreakable, resolute agreement, all together, more strongly armed and even more aggressive toward what they see as their mutual enemies (China, Russia, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua and any others not within the wagon wall).
Biden will usher in the deepest division the world has ever seen, including the entire era of the Cold War where some diplomacy was on display. In this new Ice Cold War no diplomacy whatsoever will be offered, only the "offer" that the other side surrender... or be destroyed.
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