Category Archives: Foreign Policy

UPDATED (10/23): Has John McCain Heard Of ‘We The People’?

Constitution, Foreign Policy, John McCain, Neoconservatism

The ironically named National Constitution Center in Philadelphia has honored Sen. John McCain who cares not at all for the Constitution. In his acceptance address, the man dishonors voters who voted to be done with advancing John McCain’s ideas around the globe.

That’s how faithful McCain is to the unique constitutional principle of a government by the people, and not a government by a cabal of elites bent on advancing ideas with The People’s blood and treasure. A government by The People, not by one John McCain, is a bedrock of the US Constitution.

McCain on Monday cautioned against the US turning toward “half-baked, spurious nationalism” during an event honoring the war hero’s contributions.
Reflecting on his decades-long political history, McCain warned that to “fear” the world the US has led for the better part of a century, “abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe” and “refuse the obligations of international leadership … for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems” is unpatriotic.
“As unpatriotic,” he continued, “as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.”

MORE: “Sen. John McCain warns against ‘spurious nationalism’ in Liberty Medal speech.”

UPDATE (10/23): One very respectable journalist did not think McCain a hero.


The neocon and neoliberal creed:


America First:

They’ve Incited War With Russia, Now The UniParty Is Worried About … ‘World War III’

Democrats, Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Republicans, Russia, War

Republican Senator Bob Corker is worried that President Trump is “reckless enough to stumble [sic] the country into a nuclear war.” This from the two War Parties who’ve not stopped egging Trump on about Russia, fomenting American aggression against that potential partner. The president wanted—was willing—to make peace with Russian; the UniParty would have none of it. Now DemoPublicans are worried.

President Trump has failed miserably in forging forward with peace vis-a-vis Russia and sending out competent spokespersons to explain that campaign promise and the attendant policy of diplomacy and American First.

… Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, charged in an interview on Sunday that President Trump was treating his office like “a reality show,” with reckless threats toward other countries that could set the nation “on the path to World War III.”

In an extraordinary rebuke of a president of his own party, Mr. Corker said he was alarmed about a president who acts “like he’s doing ‘The Apprentice’ or something.”

“He concerns me,” Mr. Corker added. “He would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation.”

Mr. Corker’s comments capped a remarkable day of sulfurous insults between the president and the Tennessee senator — a powerful, if lame-duck, lawmaker, whose support will be critical to the president on tax reform and the fate of the Iran nuclear deal. …

MORE: “Bob Corker Says Trump’s Recklessness Threatens ‘World War III’.”

… In an interview with The New York Times on Sunday, Mr. Corker responded to a series of Twitter attacks on him by Mr. Trump. He said that the president was running the White House like it was “a reality show” and with bellicose threats that could set the nation “on the path to World War III.” Mr. Corker added that “every single day at the White House, it’s a situation of trying to contain him.”

Other Republican lawmakers, while privately nodding their heads, remained conspicuously silent on Monday morning, and many Senate Republicans no doubt were relieved not to be in session this week in Washington, where they would be intercepted in the hallways of the Capitol by reporters asking them to comment on Mr. Corker’s remarks. …

… Mr. Corker expressed concern shortly after the inauguration that Mr. Trump was a “wrecking ball” to American foreign policy but he largely tempered his criticism in hopes of helping to steer the nation’s first president to serve without any political or military background.

By last week, that hope was clearly gone. As Mr. Tillerson publicly denied he was considering resignation without denying that he had once called the president a “moron” — he let a spokeswoman deny it later — Mr. Corker volunteered that the secretary of state and two other officials were the only thing that “separate our country from chaos.”

Mr. Trump responded over the weekend by calling Mr. Corker “a negative voice” who “didn’t have the guts to run” for another term. Mr. Corker fired back on Twitter by saying “the White House has become an adult care center” and “someone obviously missed their shift.” He followed up with the Times interview. …

MORE: “Corker’s Blast at Trump Has Other Republicans Nodding in Agreement.”

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Neoconservatives Are Thrilled With President Trump’s Foreign Policy

Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Nationhood, Neoconservatism

Bloomberg’s Eli Lake is in neoconservative heaven: “… for Venezuela [Donald Trump] came very close to calling for regime change. ‘The United States has taken important steps to hold the regime accountable,’ Trump said. ‘We are prepared to take further action if the government of Venezuela persists on its path to impose authoritarian rule on the Venezuelan people.’
For a moment, I closed my eyes and thought I was listening to a Weekly Standard editorial meeting. …”

Mr. Lake is loving it. He thinks of this expansionism as “American exceptionalism.”

Is Mad Dog Mattis Off His Rocker Like Rocket Man?

Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Military, War

Six minutes into the clip, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson states, with reference to what Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has been saying: “Anyone who thinks North Korea won’t fight to the very death, with every citizen’s blood, is thinking nonsense.” We cannot get 85 percent of their underground facilities with a first-strike! Impossible!

In other words, if Mattis truly believes, as he has said, that there’s a military option in the Korean peninsula, one that won’t kill off millions; he’s gone off his rocker.

… according to Mattis, the Pentagon has a few tricks up its sleeve that wouldn’t involve the decimation of Seoul. When asked whether there was “any military option the US can take with North Korea that would not put Seoul at grave risk,” Mattis responded, “Yes, there are, but I will not go into details.”

Nonsense: “Mattis hints at secret ‘kinetic’ military options for North Korea.”

Some sense.