{"id":423,"date":"2020-11-30T08:50:01","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T08:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=128976"},"modified":"2020-11-30T08:50:01","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T08:50:01","slug":"bidens-promise-america-is-backwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/11\/30\/bidens-promise-america-is-backwards\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden\u2019s Promise: America is Back(wards)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With President Donald Trump all but conceding to the transition team that will take over after January next year, interest now shifts to President-elect Joe Biden\u2019s choices for cabinet.  On the national security front, the imperial-military lobby will have reasons to be satisfied.  If Trump promised to rein in, if not put the brakes on the US imperium, Biden promises a cocktail of energising stimulants.<\/p>\n

While campaigning for the Democratic nomination, Biden tried to give a different impression.  Biden the militarist was gone.  \u201cIt time to end the Forever Wars, which have cost us untold blood and treasure,\u201d he stated<\/a> in July 2019. Pinching a leaf or two out of Trump\u2019s own playbook, he insisted on bringing \u201cthe vast majority of our troops home \u2013 from the wars on Afghanistan and the Middle East\u201d.  Missions would be more narrowly focused on Al-Qaeda and ISIS.  Support would also be withdrawn from the unpardonable Saudi-led war in Yemen.  \u201cSo I will make it my mission \u2013 to restore American leadership \u2013 and elevate diplomacy as our principal tool of foreign policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was an unconvincing display of the leopard desperately trying to change its striking spots.  During the Obama administration, the Vice-President found war sweet, despite subsequent attempts to distance himself from collective cabinet responsibility.  These included the current war in Yemen, the assault on Libya that crippled the country and turned it into a terrorist wonderland, and that \u201cforever war\u201d in Afghanistan.  In 2016, Biden claimed to be the sage in the administration, warning President Barack Obama against the Libyan intervention.  An impression of combative wisdom was offered.  He had \u201cargued strongly\u201d in the White House \u201cagainst going \u2026 to Libya,\u201d a position at odds with the hawkish Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who insisted on something a bit more than going to Libya. After the demise of Muammar Gaddafi, what then?  \u201cDoesn\u2019t the country disintegrate?  What happens then?  Doesn\u2019t it become a place where it becomes a \u2013 petri dish for the growth of extremism?\u201d  So many questions, so few answers.<\/p>\n

The Iraq War is another stubborn stain on Biden\u2019s garments.  His approval of the invasion of Iraq has been feebly justified as benign ignorance.  As he explained<\/a> to NPR in September last year, he had received \u201ca commitment from President [George W.] Bush he was not going to go to war in Iraq.\u201d  Bush looked him \u201cin the eye at the Oval Office; he said he needed the vote to be able to get inspectors into Iraq to determine whether or not Saddam Hussein was engaged in dealing with a nuclear program.\u201d  Then came the invasion: \u201cwe had a shock and awe\u201d.  For Iraqis, it was a bit more than shock and awe.<\/p>\n

With the warring efforts of the US in Iraq turning sour, Biden entertained a proposal<\/a> reminiscent of Europe\u2019s old imperial planners: the establishment of \u201cthree largely autonomous regions\u201d for each of Iraq\u2019s ethnic and confessional groups, governed by Baghdad in the execrable policy of \u201cunity through autonomy\u201d.  Not exactly an enlightened suggestion but consistent with previous conventions of dismemberment that have marked Middle Eastern politics.<\/p>\n

In considering Biden\u2019s record on Iraq, Spencer Ackerman of The Daily Beast<\/em> was clear<\/a> in describing an erratic, bumbling and egregious performance.  \u201cReviewing Biden\u2019s record on Iraq is like rewinding footage of a car crash to identify the fateful decisions that arrayed people at the bloody intersection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, we forward ourselves to November 2020.  The Trump administration has given a good cover to the incoming Democratic administration.  Considered putatively wicked, all that follows the orange ogre will be good.  In introducing some of his key appointments, Biden\u2019s crusted choices stood to attention like storm troopers-elect, an effect helped by face masks, solemn lighting and their sense of wonder.  \u201cAmerica is back,\u201d declared<\/a> Biden.  A collective global shudder could be felt.  The Beltway establishment, mocked by Obama\u2019s Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes as \u201cthe Blob,\u201d had returned.<\/p>\n

In the cast are such figures from the past as former Deputy Secretary of State and former Deputy National Security Adviser, Tony Blinken. He will serve as Secretary of State.  National Security adviser: former Hillary Clinton aide and senior adviser Jake Sullivan.  Director of National Intelligence: Avril Haines (\u201ca reliable expert leading our intelligence community,\u201d remarked<\/a> CNN\u2019s unflinching militarist Samantha Vinograd of CNN, herself another former Obama stable hand from the National Security Council).  Secretary of Defence: most probably Mich\u00e8le Flournoy, former Under Secretary of Defence for Policy.<\/p>\n

Blinken, it should be remembered, was the one who encouraged Biden to embrace the antediluvian, near criminal project of partitioning Iraq.  This does not worry The Guardian<\/em>, which praises<\/a> his \u201curbane bilingual charm\u201d which will be indispensable in \u201csoothing the frayed nerves of western allies, reassuring them that the US is back as a conventional team player.\u201d  He is a \u201cborn internationalist\u201d who likes soccer and played a weekly game with US officials, diplomats and journalists before joining the Obama administration.<\/p>\n

Johannes Lang, writing<\/a> in the Harvard Political Review<\/em>, is a touch sharper, noting that Blinken \u201cis a committed internationalist with a penchant for interventionism.\u201d  The two often go together.  As Blinken recently told<\/a> The New York Times<\/em> (members of the UN General Assembly, take note), \u201cWhether we like it or not, the world simply does not organize itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flournoy and Blinken have been spending time during the Trump years drawing sustenance through their co-founded outfit WestExec Advisors, a consulting firm promising to bring \u201cthe Situation Room to the Board Room.\u201d  Revolving door rhetoric is used unabashedly: We knew power; we can show you how to exploit it. Having served in a presidential administration, these individuals are keen<\/a> to use \u201cscenario development and table-top exercises to test ideas or enhance preparedness for a future contingency\u201d.  The consultants are willing to give their clients \u201chigher confidence in their business decisions,\u201d as Flournoy puts it, in times of \u201chistoric levels of turmoil and uncertainty around the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Flournoy set have also been the beneficiaries of the US defence funding complex, fronting think tanks that have received generous largesse.  In a report<\/a> for the Center for International Policy, Ben Freeman notes that, \u201cThink tanks very considerably in terms of their objectives and organization, but many think tanks in Washington D.C. share a common trait: they receive substantial financial support from the US government and private businesses that work for the US government, most notably defense contractors.\u201d  Flournoy\u2019s own Center for a New American Security now ranks second<\/a> to the RAND Corporation in the cash it gets from defence contractors and US government sources.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s Department of Defense agency review team, tasked with informing what is hoped will be a \u201csmooth transfer of power,\u201d has its fair complement of those from entities either part of the weapons industry or beneficiaries of it.  According to In These Times<\/a><\/em>, they make up at least eight of the 23 people in that team.  Think tanks with Biden advisory personnel include the militarily minded Center for Strategic and International Studies, which boasts funding from Raytheon, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Lockheed Martin Corporation and General Dynamics Corporation.<\/p>\n

America \u2013 at least a version of it \u2013 is back, well and truly.  The stench of wars continuous, and interventions compulsive, is upon us.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With President Donald Trump all but conceding to the transition team that will take over after January next year, interest now shifts to President-elect Joe Biden\u2019s choices for\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":424,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions\/424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}