Mission Accomplished? Obama goes all-out Neocon
September 25, 2014 in Barack Obama, Empire, Imperialism, Military-Industrial-Complex, NeoCon, Neoliberalism
By JC
Well, it was just a matter of time till President Obama revealed his all-encompassing foreign policy statement. Yesterday, speechifying in front of the U.N. General Assembly, Obama made it perfectly clear what his foreign policy consists of:
“We believe that right makes might…”
Uh, um, ok. I think that historians will have a hey-day with that one. And wedged somewhere in-between ebola and ISIL, he manages to paint Russia even further into a corner:
“We will impose a cost on Russia for aggression, and counter falsehoods with the truth. We call upon others to join us on the right side of history…
This speaks to a central question of our global age: whether we will solve our problems together, in a spirit of mutual interests and mutual respect, or whether we descend into destructive rivalries of the past.”
Unfortunately, Obama has lost Putin’s ear. Once upon a time, those of us who grew up in the Cold War 1.0 found cold comfort of the images of the two presidents of the two superpowers chock full of nuclear weapons carrying around brief cases (we called ours “the football”). Our existential anxiety was ameliorated by the new-fangled communication systems, and photos of the red phone at the desk of each president so they could always be in constant contact with each other (except when Yeltsin was too drunk, or Reagan too senile, or Clinton too… “preoccupied”), and ward off any mistaken notions of aggression that could trigger pushing the fatal fateful button.
But in today’s neocon-fueled foreign policy, we have an administration that relies on subversion, propaganda, strong arm tactics and innuendo to convey a sideways message to our counterpart in eurasia. MAD (mutually assured destruction) foreign policy was based on the notion that there were two rational actors on the world stage, and that given the choice between blowing the world up in a flurry of nuclear strikes or talking, the two actors would talk.
Well, those days are long gone, and while both superpowers have embarked each on a trillion dollar fools errand to “modernize” their nuclear weapons systems, it seems that the comforting visage of MAD has gone south, and rational actors have left the scene. It seems that when Obama calls Putin that he is getting shuffled off on voice mail, only to discover that the mailbox is full, as Andy Borowitz reports:
“In what he called “a provocative and defiant act,” President Obama charged on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has started letting his calls go directly to voice mail.”
Sometimes humor is a cruel revealer of what may have come to pass between the world’s superpowers. No longer do we hear of any efforts of diplomacy between Obama and Putin. It is all saber rattling on our side, and disbelief in what an empire in chaos and decline is doing to the “New World Order.” Here’s Henry Kissinger:
“Libya is in civil war, fundamentalist armies are building a self-declared caliphate across Syria and Iraq and Afghanistan’s young democracy is on the verge of paralysis. To these troubles are added a resurgence of tensions with Russia and a relationship with China divided between pledges of cooperation and public recrimination. The concept of order that has underpinned the modern era is in crisis…
But vast regions of the world have never shared and only acquiesced in the Western concept of order. These reservations are now becoming explicit, for example, in the Ukraine crisis and the South China Sea. The order established and proclaimed by the West stands at a turning point.”
I guess when the New World Order starts eroding, and Henry Kissinger becomes worried, and President Obama amplifies the Bush Doctrine, then, what is there left to do… besides renew my passport? Duck & Cover?
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September 25, 2014 at 12:23 pm
9/11 was coup d’état, and the result was military rule with a civilian front, long present but reinforced in near-emergency mode that day. They set forth to destroy seven countries in five years. They love their five year plans, but they got slowed down in Iraq, and then booted out. All the while the civilian sock puppets shuffle in and out due to elections, a side show at best.
Obama has as much sway over foreign policy as the student council does in a typical high school. We let them pretend, that’s all.
September 25, 2014 at 9:15 pm
The coup d’état was in 2000,don’t you think?
September 26, 2014 at 7:28 am
i’ve wondered about that, whether the incredible push to put Bush in the White House was driven by the need to put agents in place for 9/11. I doubt Gore presented a meaningful alternative and would have surrendered to the coup as quickly as Bush (8PM that evening).
The major consequence of the Florida debacle of 2000 to me appears to be the introduction of electronic voting throughout the country, making all elections easily manipulable by outside hands. What little democratic governance we had before was taken from us by those machines, so that Bush held office for eight years never having actually won an election. What does that say about us?
September 25, 2014 at 4:29 pm
CIA and NSA budgets appear to have increased over 50% in the last decade. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-is-largest-us-spy-agency-according-to-black-budget-leaked-by-edward-snowden/2013/08/29/d8d6d5de-10ec-11e3-bdf6-e4fc677d94a1_story.html
Now, that’s a lot of bureaucrats operating with a “black budget.” Lots of opportunity for mischief — and it goes without saying, possible death to anything still living in open opposition to the NWO.
Hey, no worries, Mate. CDC and HHS have the patent on Ebola. It’s all under control. http://www.google.com/patents/CA2741523A1
September 26, 2014 at 7:03 am
Eye of the big picture, Comrades.
“National Defense: The president launches attacks on the Islamic State with two weapons systems that were targeted for elimination by the administration years before their usefulness ended or any replacements were ready.
With the decision to launch air and missile strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria, in addition to ongoing strikes in Iraq in what is said to be the start of a long and sustained campaign to “degrade and destroy” the terrorist group, President Obama has stumbled upon a revelation:
The military whose budgets he’s slashed and weapons systems he opposed is suddenly quite useful.”
Read More At Investor’s Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/092414-718879-tomahawks-and-raptors-used-in-syria.htm#ixzz3EQUxovxy
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September 26, 2014 at 9:15 am
So, you’re saying the military-industrial-intelligence complex is alive and well?
September 26, 2014 at 9:20 am
JC – pretend it is not there,
September 26, 2014 at 12:18 pm
Swede,
You look through the other end of that thing to see “the big picture.” FYI, president’s don’t decide, contrary to what “The Decider” said. Another president won’t change anything that goes on at Foggy Bottom.
September 26, 2014 at 1:08 pm
“Big Picture” meaning two directives. First of all to deplete an already diminished military budget.
“(Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Monday it would shrink the U.S. Army to pre-World War Two levels, eliminate the popular A-10 aircraft and reduce military benefits in order to meet 2015 spending caps, setting up an election-year fight with the Congress over national defense priorities.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, previewing the Pentagon’s ideas on how to adapt to government belt-tightening, said the defense budget due out next week would be the first to look beyond 13 years of conflict, shifting away from long-term ground wars like Iraq and Afghanistan.”-Reuters
Then to “stop the bleeding” in his and his parties poll numbers when the balance of power in the Senate is concerned.
Prediction: Once the fall election is over and we’ve spent all our cruise missile’s they’ll be a noticeable reduction in our war campaign. Proving again that symbolism reigns supreme over substance.
September 26, 2014 at 3:32 pm
Agree, “symbolism reigns supreme over substance.”
Now, do you really think Obama and/or Hagel can decide Pentagon policy, budgets, or do anything to influence the “balance of power in the Senate….?”
Senate candidates in “competetive” races are all funded by Wall Street, are they not? Do you really think Wall Street, or the Pentagon, cares which party is scripted for Congress’s next great theatre production? Wall Street owns both parties, and vet all “viable” congressional candidates.
That would be a lock on power. So, don’t fret about “defense priorities,” they’re already baked into the recipe. The rest is theatre to give the impression that Congress actually still exists (more than symbolically).
September 27, 2014 at 9:29 am
A possible, though not necessarily logical, implication of your comments is that Wall Street and the Pentagon need to be either done away with or greatly weakened so our country can achieve something like democracy.
But how can their “lock on power” be loosened?
Armed rebellion isn’t really an option. The rebellion would be put down immediately. And the collateral damage would be terrible.
Trying to elect people who might work within the system to weaken the power of Wall Street and the Pentagon is, in your view, futile. It may even be somehow counterproductive.
So what practical ideas do you have about addressing the problem you’ve identified? I’m all for grassroot movements like Occupy — I’ve participated in several — but they seem to fizzle out and go away.
I think it might be time to return to old-fashioned existentialism. We need to act as individuals as though we were acting for all mankind. We need to act ethically knowing that our actions might be futile.
For me, this means choosing a combination of the trying-to-elect-people option and the join-grassroots-movements option. Maybe neither will work. They might be futile.
But they’re both better than being paralyzed by cynicism and looking for emotional support from others similarly paralyzed.
September 28, 2014 at 7:03 am
We live in a deeply thought-controlled environment, but don’t confuse frustration at the pasty-faced zombies that the American news/entertainment culture produces with cynicism. OWS was probably nothing more than a PSYOP to draw out the smarter ones and expose them so that Obama could crush them, reinforcing the sense of futility.
What is needed are smart, inquisitive, creative and energetic people who can long endure the frustration and remain optimistic in spirit even as reality is more conducive to pessimism. That is the definition of courage, in my mind, staying optimistic in the face of such oppressive power.
But honestly, chucking it all and imagining that electing minor players to tag on to a deeply corrupt party will yield positive change … windmillling is all that is. We are allowed partisan politics as our only loud voice for a good reason: it does not threaten power.
September 26, 2014 at 3:48 pm
Thanks, I love the photo!
I don’t know how much anyone thinks about the psychological concept of extinction, but it does remind me of the last ditch “acting out ” behaviors that often occurs right before an addiction or some other self defeating behavior is often put to rest.
I agree that ironic laughter good-hearted humor are powerful tools to use for living and leading by example. Karen Pryor, anyone?
September 26, 2014 at 7:16 pm
I imagine that in every generation there is always extinction talk, the current vehicle “climate change.” 7th Day Adventists and regular people, we’re kind of all the same.
But we do have problems that can be solved, people who can be developed, access to energy unimaginable 14 years ago. We just have to stop fighting out these elections as if they mattered, and concentrate on true ground level organizing.