Sunday, June 23, 2024

What's the Blobjective Now, WWIII?

Jacob Heilbrunn, "How the War in Ukraine Is Reviving the Blob" (5/6/22)

Biden’s escalation against Russia underscores the revival of Washington’s hawkish foreign policy mindset.

When Joe Biden was elected president, the Washington foreign policy establishment assumed that he would usher in a return to normalcy after the tumult of the Donald J. Trump era. But it didn’t quite turn out that way. Trump had put isolationism back on the American political map, or at least a less interventionist approach to the rest of the world, and Biden initially left it intact. He vexed the liberal hawks, not to mention unrepentant neocons, by reaching out to Russia and infuriated them by exiting Afghanistan. It seemed that his true focus was building back better at home, with foreign affairs a distinct afterthought.

Then came Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Almost overnight, Biden rediscovered his inner Cold Warrior and landed upon a fresh purpose for his presidency. Despite initial signs of restraint — and perhaps because of Ukraine’s surprising military success — Biden has shifted into a more pugnacious posture. The administration wants to leave Russia “weakened” from the war, in the words of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The New York Times reports U.S. intelligence is helping Ukraine target Russian generals. And Biden is seeking $33 billion more in aid for Ukraine from Congress that would deliver huge amounts of weapons and equipment and help rebuild Ukraine’s industrial base. Ukraine is already a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia, but step-by-step, Biden is moving closer to a policy of trying to defeat Russia, or to put it more bluntly, to fuel regime change in Moscow.

It’s an approach that has some worried about the possibility of a nuclear confrontation. But for the Washington foreign policy establishment, or, in former Obama administration official Ben Rhodes’ more evocative term, the Blob, the battle over Ukraine has come as something of a deliverance. The Blob is composed of both Democrats and Republicans — a disparate group of elite think-tankers, lawmakers, journalists and others in official Washington — who coalesce around a hawkish foreign policy, championing the old-time gospel of American leadership on the world stage.

Russia’s aggression has allowed the Washington mandarins not simply to resuscitate their credo, but also to storm the beachheads of their own adversaries, where the realists and non-interventionists who stress the importance of prudence and caution and the perils of military adventurism have dominated the terrain for a decade or so. No longer. As Andrew J. Bacevich, who has led a one-man crusade against militarism abroad, put it in The Nation, the Washington elites are at it again: “Virtually overnight, the acolytes of American power were hailing the war in Ukraine as signaling the coming restoration of a global Pax Americana. As for Afghanistan: Fuhgettaboutit!”

Already the traditional, hawkish wing of the GOP is mobilizing to once more promote the idea of American supremacy overseas. On Monday, the National Review Institute, for example, plans to host a forum on foreign affairs at the National Press Club with the Reaganesque title “Recommitting To Peace Through Strength.” The speakers will include stalwart Republican hawks such as Sen. Tom Cotton, Rep. Mike Gallagher and Elliott Abrams. It’s intended as a counter-blast to the recent “Up From Chaos” conference at the Washington Marriott that featured J.D. Vance, Sen. Rand Paul, Michael Anton and others on the Trumpian right who are averse to foreign entanglements in Ukraine and elsewhere. Meanwhile, GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger is proposing a bill to authorize Biden to deploy troops in Ukraine to restore its “territorial integrity” should Putin use chemical or nuclear weapons.
And as during and immediately after the Cold War, the push is bipartisan. Former Obama Defense Department official Evelyn Farkas, for example, has just been appointed executive director of the Washington-based McCain Institute. Farkas has declared, “We must not only condemn Russia’s illegal occupations of Ukraine and Georgia, but we must demand a withdrawal from both countries by a certain date and organize coalition forces willing to take action to enforce it.” She added, “Americans, with our European allies, must use our military to roll back Russians — even at risk of direct combat.” Sen. Chris Coons, a close Biden ally, has stated that America should contemplate “when we are willing to go the next step and to send not just arms but troops to the aid in defense of Ukraine.

Another sign that the Blob is regrouping comes in the form of the regular hour-long phone meetings on Ukraine and Russia that the Biden administration has been conducting since February with leading Washington think-tanks, including the Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Atlantic Council, the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), and the German Marshall Fund. The briefers from the administration have included National Security Council official Eric Green and Defense Department official Laura K. Cooper.

What’s the aim of these sessions? According to one participant, it’s possible to ask pointed questions, but “the whole point is to carry water for the administration. They’re buttering up the think-tank community. They want it to defend them publicly. They send follow up emails that reinforce the cycle of affirmation.”

NSC official Amanda Mansour is responsible for email blasts to the participants that contain what is called “notable commentary” relating to Ukraine and Russia that fortifies the administration’s stances. These Washington think-tanks — in particular the Atlantic Council and CEPA — play a role in both influencing administration policy and the public perception of it. The Atlantic Council, for example, has a number of former ambassadors, including Alexander Vershbow, John Herbst and Daniel Fried, who are frequent public commentators about events in Russia and Ukraine and in contact with Biden administration officials at the NSC and State Department. In late December, the Atlantic Council issued a statement signed by establishment worthies such as former Clinton administration Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott demanding that the Biden administration bolster American forces in Europe in the face of the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since then, it has been at the forefront of pushing Biden to move faster and harder on arming Ukraine with heavy weaponry against Russia, an approach that the administration has begun to embrace.

Herbst explained to me, “The administration still needs to do more. It’s moved faster over the past several weeks because of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley. That’s been essential.” He added, “we are policy people, and, yes, we have been in touch with the administration, leading the charge publicly on this. We also get a lot of interest from Congress on this.”

The driving force behind many of the opponents of Russian revanchism is a desire to return to the 1990s, when America stood tall and proud in the face of tyranny, before it all became discredited during the George W. Bush administration’s chimerical crusade to transform the Middle East into a bastion of democracy. Now, as Putin flounders in Ukraine, the Blob is becoming stronger than ever as it senses victory over Moscow.

Nothing symbolized the enduring sway of the Blob more vividly than the memorial service at the Washington National Cathedral last week for former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. As U.N. ambassador during President Bill Clinton’s first term, Albright was a thorn in the side of then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher and then-national security adviser Tony Lake, both of whom blanched at the thought of American military intervention in the Balkans to stop Slobodan Milošević's war of ethnic cleansing. In his impassioned eulogy, Biden drew an implicit parallel with the 1990s, when the democracy crusade flourished in the Balkans against Milošević, and today, when a renewed push to defend freedom is taking place in Ukraine against Putin.

“It was not lost on me that Madeleine was a big part of the reason NATO was still strong and galvanized, as it is today,” Biden said. He went on to call her a “nexus of the foreign policy community.”

Albright was a charter member of the Washington establishment — a former professor at Georgetown University, an aide to former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski during the Carter administration, and a former wife of Joseph Albright, a scion of the Medill-Patterson newspaper dynasty. And the establishment came out in full force for her ceremony. The contrast with an earlier service at the Washington National Cathedral, in September 2018, for John McCain, an inveterate cold warrior, was instructive. McCain had expressly decreed that the sitting president, Trump, should not be invited. At the service, his daughter Meghan wept that it marked the “passing of American greatness.”
Albright’s ceremony, which was attended by numerous foreign democrats, including Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who met everyone from USAID Director Samantha Power to Secretary of State Antony Blinken during her trip, suggests a different outcome. The crusading vision for democracy abroad that Albright represented wasn’t being interred. It appeared more vigorous than ever. The new Polish ambassador to Washington, Marek Magierowski, who attended the ceremony, told me that it evinced the vitality “not only of pro-democracy thinking, but also pro-NATO and pro-collective security.”

If the 1990s have served as a touchstone for the Washington foreign policy establishment — a singular moment when, as James P. Rubin, a former Albright spokesperson, recently recalled, America was “respected, admired and feared around the world” — then the assembled 1,400 guests demonstrated that pretty much everyone in Washington foreign policy circles wanted to associate themselves with her. It was Albright, after all, who predicted in her last column for the New York Times on Feb. 23 that entering Ukraine would be a colossal blunder: “Instead of paving Russia’s path to greatness, invading Ukraine would ensure Mr. Putin’s infamy by leaving his country diplomatically isolated, economically crippled and strategically vulnerable in the face of a stronger, more united Western alliance.”

She was right. The war in Ukraine has not only revived NATO but also the broader impulses that she represented. After playing defense ever since the misbegotten wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the “acolytes of American power” aren’t just winning. They’ve won.

27 comments:

  1. 0bama is gloating with glee over this. I look forward to watching Biden in The Emperor's New Clothes this week. 🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yep.

    Bi-den calling it "weakening".

    And liliPut calling it "total defeat and break-up".

    Yawn.

    ReplyDelete
  3. \\who predicted in her last column for the New York Times on Feb. 23 that entering Ukraine would be a colossal blunder: “Instead of paving Russia’s path to greatness, invading Ukraine would ensure Mr. Putin’s infamy by leaving his country diplomatically isolated, economically crippled and strategically vulnerable in the face of a stronger, more united Western alliance.”

    OK, Google "when USA started diplomatic relations with Soviet Union?"

    ""
    On November 16, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt ended almost 16 years of American non-recognition of the Soviet Union following a series of negotiations in Washington, D.C. with the Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Maxim Litvinov.

    Recognition of the Soviet Union, 1933 - History State Gov
    Office of the Historian (.gov)
    https://history.state.gov › Milestones › 1921-1936
    ""

    AND. What happened JUST BEFORE

    ""
    Holodomor
    Famine
    The Holodomor, also known as the Ukrainian Famine, was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930–1933 which affected the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union. Holodomor. Голодомор
    ""

    So... seems like ONLY thing stopping liliPut's recognition from West and USA DEMNs in paticular -- NOT ENOUGH of Ukrainians ("nazis"?) killed.

    It seems...

    yawn.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Q, get your umbrella ready for "cretin" and his poo flinging to start...😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆

      Delete
  4. Meh.... he will turn his DEMN-cretinity SUPER-power to ELEVEN -- "IGNORE uneasy, breaking all DEMN-propaganda chimes FACTS". ;-P

    ReplyDelete
  5. I replied. That isn't ignoring. Where is my reply?

    ReplyDelete
  6. :-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

    And what did I said.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mystere: Q, get your umbrella ready for "cretin" and his poo flinging to start...

    That is MOSTLY what the cretin Mystere does -- fling his poo.

    Qtard: And what did I said.

    About what? I am not sure what you're talking about. I wrote a lengthy comment and published it. Now it is gone. Well, it seems I wrote some of my comment in a text document and saved it. But then I copied it into the "leave your comment box" and added some more. So that's gone. Unless Minus FJ releases it from the Spam folder. You think I'm lying? I didn't actually write a reply and saying it went to spam as a dodge? Because you've done that in the past?

    This is what I saved

    Minus FJ post: ...it didn't quite turn out that way.

    Because Putin made war on Ukraine.

    Minus FJ post: Trump had put isolationism back on the American political map, or at least a less interventionist approach to the rest of the world...

    Yeah? HOW did he do that? By surrendering to the Taliban in Afghanistan? By not ending the war on terror? Will he be doing MORE "less intervention" (as Qtard predicts) "bombing out" Moscow if he gets back in office?

    "Standing with Ukraine" is standing with democracy. republiturds HATE democracy passionately. Why they are opposed to helping Ukraine. They don't want Ukraine to have democracy. They don't want the US to have democracy. They would LOVE to have donald tRump as "president for life" aka the first dictator of the USA christianist theocracy.

    the rightturd fake christian Mystere can hardly wait. He will be very disappointed when he finds out the fake prophets he listened to lied. But he STILL won't believe it that donald tRump is NOT "God's chosen leader". Because he is a total dupe. And extremely stupid.

    Mystere: 0bama is gloating with glee over this.

    Yeah, that imaginary 0bama, spelled with a Zero instead of an "O". That guy (which exists in Mystere's and Qtard's delusions) is definitely gloating with glee. The real Obama has no reason at all to gloat with glee. I'm sure this makes him sad. Because it isn't anything to gloat with glee about -- at all.

    Yet, Mystere is gloating with glee. This is something he can attack Democrats over. That Putin attacked Ukraine and Democrats are standing up for Democracy. While republiturds are standing up for totalitarianism. Because they want it here too. A republiturd White Christianist totalitarian theocracy would be Mystere's dream come true. Why he is always babbling about sending Democrats to Gitmo to be executed. That's what totalitarians do.

    The totalitarian loving Qtard would be thrilled as well. Why IT keeps lying about WHO is helping and WHO is repeating Putin's propaganda. The IDIOT says it is "DEMNS" who are repeating Putin's propaganda and republiturds who have a "plan for victory" in Ukraine. The OPPOSITE of the truth. But Qtard dunno sh!t about the truth.

    Mystere, just like Minus FJ, is praying donald tRump will become "president for life" and exact vengeance on everyone the right hates -- Democratic politicians, Never-trumpers, illegal immigrants, gay people, American Muslims, people protesting the war on Gaza, people supporting Ukraine and opposing Putin's war crimes, people supporting democracy, etc. Basically ANYONE who isn't a straight White Christianist dotard supporter. Mystere will DEFINITELY gloat with glee if donald tRump becomes predisent and starts (as he has promised) persecuting and punishing these people.

    Qtard: AND. What happened JUST BEFORE ... The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930–1933 ... seems like ONLY thing stopping liliPut's recognition from West and USA DEMNs in paticular -- NOT ENOUGH of Ukrainians ("nazis"?) killed.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yeah, that's it. Because DEMNS are demons. LOVE killing on a mass scale. That's why FDR rewarded the Soviet Union with recognition. Because he liked that they starved millions of Ukrainians. And the EVIL Bi-den and his EVIL DEMN allies want The Soviet Union to KILL MORE!!! Why the demon Bi-den "stalled" aid to Ukraine. So MOAR Ukrainians would be killed!!! **evil laughter**

    ^^sarcasm^^

    Rewrite of what did not get saved...

    I don't know what FDR should have done. I'm not president so have never had to make such hard decisions. FDR wanted to make a trade agreement with Russia to help the USA which was suffering under the Great Depression. btw, at the time "the United States was the only major power that continued to withhold official diplomatic recognition from the Soviet Union".

    And, FDR's recognition of Russia got RESULTS. Which YOU SAID is "king".

    UPI ARCHIVES: U.S. recognition of Soviet Union expected to spur trade NOVEMBER 18, 1933.

    FDR's decision to recognize the Soviet Union was not an endorsement of the famine. It was a pragmatic move based on realpolitik.

    Realpolitik is the approach of conducting diplomatic or political policies based primarily on considerations of given circumstances and factors, rather than strictly following ideological, moral, or ethical premises. In this respect, it shares aspects of its philosophical approach with those of realism and pragmatism. It is often simply referred to as pragmatism in politics, e.g. "pursuing pragmatic policies" or "realistic policies". Source: Wikipedia.

    Who knows if this comment will go to spam or not? I saved it. So it can be republished AGAIN. Though disappearing again will surely somehow prove Qtard "right" -- re "And what did I said". I'm "ignoring" because I can't possibly come up with a rebuttal. Because Qtard's words were so expertly crafted refuting them is impossible (in IT's delusions). Also because IT stated "bare fact" that "DEMNs" are all evil. **sarcasm again**

    ReplyDelete
  9. \\You think I'm lying? I didn't actually write a reply and saying it went to spam as a dodge? Because you've done that in the past?

    Like when you deleted own comment where you refered to Joe's words as being from "Qtard"???

    Yeah.

    YOU ARE such a cheap trick pipsqueak LIAR.

    DID it come to you ONLY NOW?????? :-)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

    ReplyDelete
  10. Why shouldn't I delete a comment in which I make a MISTAKE and replace it with a corrected version that represents what I meant to say? What an idiot, trying to paint that as dishonesty. Your bullshit about that being a "cheap trick" is never going to "come to me". Because I tell the truth. I'm not ALWAYS lying and writing in NewSpeak.

    You're the liar. Your "And what did I said" has been proven wrong. I did write a comment. It will show up if Minus restores it. But even if/when he does, SOMEHOW me saying I wrote a comment will probably still be (to you) a "lie". I have never lied in any comment I published on this blog. Yet you say I lie constantly and that me telling the truth is a rare occurrence and probably only done by accident.

    Now your reply will likely contains lots of laughs. Because "Idiots need very little to start laughing" -- your accurate assessment of yourself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did Dervy's new binky make a Bigly booboo and dump like a JoeBiden?😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆

      Delete
  11. The Spam folder says its' empty. I restored some posts the other day, but if they're not here, you'll need to blame Blogger.

    ReplyDelete
  12. FDR was a crooked political clown. He made shady backroom deals, some which I won't post here to spare everyone of Dervish's hissyfits.

    ReplyDelete
  13. FDR was America's GREATEST president. In polls the #1 slot is usually between him and Abraham Lincoln.

    ReplyDelete
  14. \\FDR was America's GREATEST president. In polls the #1 slot is usually between him and Abraham Lincoln.

    Russian... venerate their Stalin too. ;-P

    And if it'll not be defeated -- Germans would venerate Hitler.

    Yawn.



    \\Blogger Joe Conservative said...

    \\ The Spam folder says its' empty. I restored some posts the other day, but if they're not here, you'll need to blame Blogger.

    Google decided to cover for its DEMN-cretinity? ;-P




    \\Why shouldn't I delete a comment in which I make a MISTAKE and replace it with a corrected version that represents what I meant to say?

    Mistake???

    Or just some of your craziness revealed? ;-P

    Well... Joe here just adds new comment, with properly stating his mistakes.

    But -- DEMN-cretins like you -- cannot help it, need to cover for their "mistakes".





    \\What an idiot, trying to paint that as dishonesty.

    %-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))0

    %-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))0

    %-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))0

    %-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))0

    %-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))0

    %-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))0

    %-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))0

    %-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))0





    \\Your bullshit about that being a "cheap trick" is never going to "come to me".

    Ough'Coughs... because you are BIGGLY cretin. :-)))))))))))))))))




    \\Because I tell the truth.

    Unless... you consciously and deliberately lying.

    Yawn.

    And then admitting it.




    \\I'm not ALWAYS lying and writing in NewSpeak.

    Yeah.

    Not always.

    Only part of the time.

    And other part of the time you just demonstrate your unparalleled CRETINITY. ;-P

    And then... AFTER showing itself BIGGLY cretin.

    You trying to COVER it... with cretinic NewSpeak. :-)))))))))))))))))))))))))




    \\You're the liar.

    Yeah???

    And you have ANY backbone behind such accusation?

    Naaaaah. :-)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))




    \\I have never lied in any comment I published on this blog.

    Because you FORGOT every such time?

    Or... that was "SAMEBODY else" writing it? ;-P




    \\Yet you say I lie constantly and that me telling the truth is a rare occurrence and probably only done by accident.

    Yeah.

    And that is not my words only.

    I provide FACTS -- factual QUOTES.

    And EXPLAIN it, nearly every time.

    Yawn.



    \\Now your reply will likely contains lots of laughs. Because "Idiots need very little to start laughing" -- your accurate assessment of yourself.

    Little???

    But your ENDLESS SPREE OF LYING continues for two years already.

    But... continue-continue, cretin. :-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))







    ReplyDelete
  15. \\Blogger The Prophet Dervish Z Sanders said...

    \\ Yeah, that's it. Because DEMNS are demons. LOVE killing on a mass scale. That's why FDR rewarded the Soviet Union with recognition. Because he liked that they starved millions of Ukrainians. And the EVIL Bi-den and his EVIL DEMN allies want The Soviet Union to KILL MORE!!! Why the demon Bi-den "stalled" aid to Ukraine. So MOAR Ukrainians would be killed!!! **evil laughter**

    Still... that is all facts.

    And DEMN FDR recognizing USSR AFTER just commited one of biggest and cruelest homicides.

    And Biden TODAY... do not give F-16s... because "Ukraine? They do not need planes".

    But... totalitarian cretin VERY HAPPY... to laugh from it.

    :-((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((




    \\And, FDR's recognition of Russia got RESULTS. Which YOU SAID is "king".

    What results???

    Empowered it to became rival in Cold War????

    Was it such a plan -- to create NEW mighty sworn ENEMY???

    Is it such a plan in action -- today????

    To make China such enemy -- with number of nukes up to M.A.D. levels????

    %-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

    Because that is "REALPOLITIK" -- to create heinous sworn enemies... instead of making friends.

    Well... totalitarians need to reassure their subordinates that "they there -- are all enemies of ours"... to rule over people through fear...





    \\They don't want the US to have democracy.

    "Democracy... it's Rule of Democrats"? ;-P

    Quite easy to see -- why they wouldn't like it. ;-P

    ReplyDelete
  16. Cretin lost ability to provide lengthy outburts of shit? :-))))))))))))))))))))))))0

    ReplyDelete
  17. Not a news.

    Yawn.

    It long ago as overgrown into DEMN-propaganda induced cretinity.

    ReplyDelete
  18. If it weren't for so many imaginary racists in their opposition, there'd be no reason to vote for Democratic Party candidates. All they actually ever deliver are racist patronage positions for minority elites, never working people.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Well... you are beholder... not me.

    ReplyDelete
  20. ...and you, the skeptical interpreter of the "authority" of events as seen in hind-sight, or of the person(s) who spoke of them.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I... like that "probe object" in Physics -- one which allow state of a system in classical theory to be precisely(?) tested. ;-P

    ReplyDelete