John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY F. MICHAEL MALOOF IN RUSSIA INSIDER

 

“Trump’s Neocons Have Always Hated Arms Control Agreements, INF Is No Different

“Pompeo trying to put the upcoming death of INF on Russia when it’s transparent this has been on the neocon agenda for a long time”

 

It is true that the Neocons have always disliked arms agreements.

After all, and people tend to forget or overlook this fact, one of the basic tenets of the Neocons has been that the United States should use its military muscle to get what it wants in the world.

That openly brutal concept violated traditional, official American attitudes about its military, which the country has long pretended is about defense, hence the name Department of Defense.

Of course, given all the wars and interventions since WWII, that official view has always been pretty much empty words. There is absolutely nothing defensive about any of what America’s military has done for about seven decades.

And when it wasn’t done with the military, it was done with the CIA. Eisenhower – an avuncular, much-beloved figure – gave the CIA, which had just been created shortly before his term, pretty much free rein under the Dulles brothers, that Cold War team of Secretary of State and CIA Director. “Ike” was able to be the friendly face of America while they conducted the dirty work of empire without burdening him with too many details. That’s how the CIA grew into the arrogant and formidable organization Kennedy confronted after 1960.

But still, the pretence has been maintained. Now, the Neocons have been effectively saying for some years, forget the pretence. And Washington’s power establishment has listened closely since dropping the pretence appears to serve an urgent need to re-enforce its position and will upon the globe.

Washington’s power establishment recognizes that America’s relative place in the world has been slipping for decades as postwar competitors arose and succeeded, and that, if it didn’t do something about it, it would lose the immensely privileged position it has occupied since WWII.

After all, it’s mighty nice having well-rewarded and prestigious jobs in Washington, complete with a sense of people tripping over themselves to get your attention or seek some favor. These are jobs that basically involve telling other people what to do – from openly directing small states you regard as plantation properties serving American corporations to throwing your weight around in international organizations, making sure that the ninety-five percent of humanity who are not Americans do not get the idea that they somehow are entitled to influence, as through the UN.

“But like any Trump tactic to get attention, an initial bombastic approach such as the shocking announcement of treaty withdrawal is designed to control events and seek leverage in getting the changes he seeks.”

That is an accurate assessment by the author.

When results don’t quickly fall out of his initial explosion, he is left perplexed about what to do because he is not knowledgeable and not even particularly intelligent, nor is he patient or methodical. He has a very limited repertoire, we might say.

The Neocon gang fills the void, always ready to suggest what’s next. They are ideologues with clear, if rather malevolent, ideas of what they want, and they are unified with a fairly well-ordered supporting establishment.

That pattern of Trump’s psychology likely at least in part explain how the Neocons have gained so much influence in his administration in so short a time.

Other more individualistic advisors and appointees during meetings would tend to put an unwelcome burden back onto a perplexed Trump to make a decision from their various advice and observations. We see hints at this when he tweets, as he has a number of times, that this or that former advisor or cabinet member is stupid, the bright and able Rex Tillerson being only the most recent recipient of such an accolade.

Of course, there are also the political financial arrangements with Sheldon Adelson and other very wealthy individuals, arrangements with which he hopes to support his 2020 run for re-election. Adelson and some others to whom Trump looks are quite focused on Israel.

And, not to be dismissed, is some influence from his (much doted upon, for reasons unknown since her talents remain rather elusive) daughter and her husband, whose family is well-connected in Israel.

Much of what the United States has been through in the so-called “War on Terror”- more accurately called the Neocon Wars – represents little more than a kind of intense Israelization of American foreign policy. After all, Israel has spent seventy years enforcing its presence and belligerently expanding it at the expense of neighbors. It is what they know how to do.

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE FROM VETERAN INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONALS FOR SANITY IN RUSSIA INSIDER

 

Ex-US Intelligence Officers Warn Trump Over Syria Attack: ‘Don’t Be Surprised When the Russians Start Firing Their Missiles’

“We know that your advisers tend to be dangerously dismissive of Russian capabilities and intentions”

“Russian missile-armed naval and air units are now deployed in unprecedented numbers to engage those tempted to interfere with Syrian and Russian forces trying to clean out the terrorists from Idlib”

 

https://russia-insider.com/en/ex-us-intelligence-officers-warn-trump-over-syria-attack-dont-be-surprised-when-russians-start

 

An excellent statement of the situation.

Unfortunately, what John Bolton represents, as do Nikki Haley and a number of others in the administration, are the Neocons and the Israel lobby.

Those are the people pushing the renewed aggressiveness in Syria.

Just as with Trump’s (illegal) recognition of Jerusalem which was pushed hard for by Netanyahu and American Sheldon Adelson, billionaire and dogged Netanyahu supporter.

Trump should never have agreed to this de-stabilizing illegality, but he is worried about being re-elected in 2020, and Adelson offers tens of millions of dollars, as he has done many times for the politicians he likes. He literally keeps Netanyahu afloat with money and publicity support.

The truth is America has no genuine interests of its own in destroying Syria, and Assad is a pretty decent head of government for the region, but the men running Israel loathe him, and Washington is constantly made to feel their pressure.

After all, Israel’s government wants to keep the land it stole from Syria and perhaps steal more. Already, a Trump-appointed American official has publicly mused about the United States recognizing the occupied Golan Heights as part of Israel, and that goes against all international law and order.

The Neocons and the Israel lobby are entrenched and powerful in Washington.

But no one can say so openly in Western media.

Trump has buckled every time these people push him.

He likes to be regarded as strong and decisive, but he is not at all.

His weakness has been on display for all those who want to look, taking off their blinders of ideology. Why is Bolton even in his post?

Everyone has known what a horror he is for long years. You could not find a worse character if you tried.

There is a terrific interview in Sputnik from a rare American politician giving a fair-minded assessment of Syria. It is only the truth that many who study the situation understand, but it is so unusual to hear from an American political source.

I assume the Senator is not dependent on funds and publicity in his state from the Israel lobby or he would never speak this way. See:

https://sputniknews.com/interviews/201809101067877625-us-senator-black-syria-interview/

Further on John Bolton and the Neocons, as I write this, we have this development:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/trump-administration-palestinian-mission-embassy-washington-israel-john-bolton-plo-a8530656.html

 

 

John Chuckman

EXPANSION OF COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS IN RUSSIA INSIDER

 

“Provocations Have a History of Escalating Into War”   

“The Russian Government and President Putin are coming under pressure not from US sanctions, which are very good for Russia as they force Russia into independence, but from Russian patriots who are tiring of Putin’s non-confrontational responses to Washington’s never-ending insults and military provocations.”

 

“What is being eulogized is McCain’s hatred of Russia and his record as a warmonger. What Washington is eulogizing is its own commitment to war.”

Yes, but slightly more than that.

McCain was a faithful servant for the Neocons (and other portions of America’s Israel lobby such as AIPAC), the Neocons being a highly influential group in Washington’s power establishment who help drive the great new wave of American aggressive behavior, including the anti-Russian activities, Russia being seen as a barrier to complete American dominance.

McCain made his Neocon efforts close to a full-time job, and that earned him many rewards including plenty of campaign fund support, good press in the high-end newspapers, and helpful, influential contacts in his work.

We saw this in every step he took, in his many trips abroad, in those he supported and opposed abroad, and right up to his meetings with such ugly characters like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The Neocons fervently believe an aggressive US is good for Israel, and McCain supported the concept wholeheartedly.

He held irrational attitudes towards a number of subjects, including Iran and Russia, and these attitudes lack any reasonable explanation except through his alliance with the Neocons. There is no innate reason for a Senator from Arizona to hate Iran as much as he seemed to. He was almost deranged-sounding on the subject.

It simply reflected the same phenomenon we saw in 2012 when Newt Gingrich tried to get the Republican presidential nomination. Gingrich went around giving speeches in which he said things like, “You know, there really is no such thing as a Palestinian.” It just made no sense, suddenly blurted out and with no connection to any issue anyone cared about, but the reason for its appearance can be found in the fact that American billionaire, and huge Netanyahu supporter, Sheldon Adelson, was reported to have donated the best part of $20 million for his campaign.

A politician from Georgia concerned with telling Americans that there was “no such thing as a Palestinian” comes from the same place as a Senator from Arizona who goes on and on about the evils of Iran, a country which has attacked no one and a place most Americans couldn’t even locate on a map.

McCain was completely irreligious, as his personal behavior and language always showed, so the Old Testament mumbo-jumbo about Israel, something which does influence Christian Fundamentalists in America, had no hold on him, and, in 2000, when running for the Republican nomination, he even briefly revealed his contempt for America’s Fundamentalist Christians, big supporters of Israel. That included a harsh attack on Jerry Falwell, an influential Fundamentalist whom Israel’s Netanyahu has in the past sought out to talk with privately.

The whole big explosion in Florida got McCain lots of press and enabled him to put another notch in his belt as a maverick, but, in classic McCain fashion, as he has done many times, he was apologizing the next day, realizing he might have hurt his political career. He did the same thing with George Bush, who won the nomination, literally performing a public penance of hugging Bush desperately and wet-eyed at the Convention, for having verbally attacked the winner. Even Bush was embarrassed (see photo: http://chuckmangrotesques.blogspot.com/ ).

Indeed, all the events around McCain’s funeral – the inordinate praise for a man of few substantial achievements, the lavish bestowing of the title hero on someone who most certainly was not one, his virtual beatification in speech after speech and editorial after editorial – point to the influence of his powerful Neocon (and other American Israel lobby) connections.

You’ll find some other material on McCain: https://chuckmanwords.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/john-mccain-a-matter-of-character/

Here’s a further thought on Putin’s perceived (and disliked, by some Russians) non-confrontational behavior towards America. He is always a pragmatist, a clever one, and he never truly reveals ahead what he is intending. He plays his cards “close to his vest,” as they say. So, I think many hasty and impatient suggestions about him are just that, hasty and impatient.

Much as with the new impressive Russian weapons systems created on a defense budget literally one-tenth that of America’s, he tries to squeeze whatever advantages he can from a difficult international situation and looks for little openings and opportunities to exploit without noise and bluster. He is in many ways the opposite of blow-hard, close-to-non-achiever Trump.

I think we can take it for granted that he is a sincere Russian patriot and that he does not want war. We can see that in many of his behaviors and speeches in the news. War is not good for Russia, a Russia making great strides in leaving behind the depression and ruin of the collapse of the USSR.

He is also a very proud man, and rightly so. He certainly doesn’t work towards any kind of humiliation, ever. But he doesn’t let himself be pushed where he does not want to go.