BIDEN’S FOREIGN POLICY SAME OLD IMPERIAL MILITARISM, NEWSLETTER #1
NOVEMBER 23, 2021
https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/11/omni-under-biden-imperial-foreign.html
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology
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CONTENTS 2020-2021
Kuzmarov, Hawk Biden’s Foreign Policy
Prashad, Biden Will Keep the Cold War Rolling
Rich War Hawks in Biden’s Foreign Policy Team
Tom Introduces Alfred McCoy on Biden’s Continuation of Obama’s Pivot toward China
Amy Frame, “Biden Oks $1 Billion in Weapons Sales to Saudis”
Erica Fine, “Apocalyptically Dangerous” Nuclear Weapons Development
Biden’s Secretary of State Sees No Change in Foreign Policy
TEXTS 2020-2021
“Beware of the Hawk: What to Expect from the Biden Administration on Foreign Policy”
By Jeremy Kuzmarov on Nov 08, 2020 04:56 am
Millions of people around the world breathed a sigh of relief with the defeat of Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. election and victory of the Biden-Harris ticket. Joe Biden’s victory speech exuded a feeling of optimism in its call for a new era of bipartisanship and decency in politics. However, it is unlikely that decency will prevail in the realm of foreign policy.According to a profile in The Atlantic Magazine, Biden prides himself on his close interpersonal relations with world leaders, which enables the advancement of mutual foreign policy goals.However, if the leader is unsavory, then these interpersonal relations become problematic.
Empirical Recalibration
As Vice-President under Barack Obama, Biden cultivated a close relationship with Iraqi leader Nouri al-Maliki who was known as the “Shia Saddam” for his sectarian policies that led to the growth of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).
Biden was also very close with Ukrainian President Petro Porosehnko, who was installed in a U.S. backed coup in 2014 and initiated a civil war in Eastern Ukraine that left over 13,000 people dead.[1]
In some circles, Biden is lauded for being a cautionary voice in the Obama administration on issues of war and peace.
In fact, he championed drone strikes and Special Forces operations as an alternative to the heavy deployment of ground troops, which is the CIAs preferred strategy.
Following the U.S. NATO bombing of Libya, Biden bragged that “we didn’t lose a single life” and that the war “served as a prescription for how to deal with the world as we go forward.”[2]
Image of destruction in Libya. Should this be the prescription for how we deal with the world going forward? [Source: Boston.com]
This statement is deeply disturbing in light of the fact that hundreds of Libyans were killed in U.S. air strikes and the country was left in ruins after its leader, Muammar Qaddafi was overthrown and lynched.
If this is the prescription for dealing with the world as we go forward, we are all in trouble.
From Dove to Hawk
MORE https://covertactionmagazine.com/2020/11/08/beware-of-the-hawk-what-to-expect-from-the-biden-administration-on-foreign-policy/
Biden’s evolution from a dove to a hawk reached its tragic denouement with his sponsorship of hearings in the Senate that brought together anti-Saddam dissidents who wanted regime change. Biden through these hearings helped secure support for the invasion of Iraq which resulted in over a million deaths. The young idealist who rode the wave of the 1960s protest movements into office had evolved by this time into a seasoned and unscrupulous political operator who had sold his soul for power. https://covertactionmagazine.com/2020/11/08/beware-of-the-hawk-what-to-expect-from-the-biden-administration-on-foreign-policy/
Jeremy Kuzmarov is Managing editor of CovertAction Magazine and author of four books on U.S. foreign policy including: Obama’s Unending Wars: Fronting the Foreign Policy of the Permanent Warfare State (Atlanta: Clarity Press, 2019).
| Posted Nov 18, 2020 by Vijay Prashad. “Why Biden will keep the U.S.-imposed Cold War rolling.” Mronline.org (11-19-20). Much will certainly change in the world of U.S. foreign policy when Joe Biden enters the White House. There will be a more measured tone, and less reliance upon Twitter to announce U.S. policy. | more… https://mronline.org/2020/11/18/why-biden-will-keep-the-u-s-imposed-cold-war-rolling/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-biden-will-keep-the-u-s-imposed-cold-war-rolling&utm_source=MR+Email+List&utm_campaign=c87c682f2d-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_MRONLINE_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4f879628ac-c87c682f2d-295821469&mc_cid=c87c682f2d&mc_eid=ab2f7bf95e |
Chloe Rafferty. “ Why the Military Establishment Backed Biden.” Red Flag News. Mronline.org (11-18-20).
The U.S. military establishment will breathe a sigh of relief at Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. Nearly 800 former high-ranking military and security officials penned an open letter in support of the Democratic candidate during the campaign. | more…
AND Arms Sales, US LEADER AT WEAPONS BAZAAR
Biden OKs $1 Billion in Weapons Sales to Saudis?
| Amy Frame, Win Without War 11-23-21 | |||
Dick — during their first year in office, the Biden administration has approved billions of dollars in weapons sales to Egypt, India, Israel, the Philippines — and over $1 BILLION in arms sales to Saudi Arabia alone in just the past few weeks.
All despite these buyers’ dismal human rights records, poor levels of transparency and accountability of the sales themselves, and increased insecurity.
It’s just another way the failed status quo of U.S. foreign policy prolongs war and human suffering worldwide — but that’s where we come in. Our team is pulling out all the stops to build support to pass legislation to change these rules and finally and permanently block arms sales to human rights abusers — and we need your support.
Thanks for all you do to work for peace.
— Amy
_________________________
Dick — President Biden has quietly greenlit over $1 BILLION in arms sales to Saudi Arabia in recent weeks.
But that’s not all: during their first year in office, the Biden administration has also approved billions of dollars in weapons sales to Egypt, India, Israel, and the Philippines — despite their appalling records on human rights. Weapons from sales like these have been used by oppressive governments to kill their own people, get sold on the black market in Yemen, and have wound up in the hands of the Islamic State. MORE Saudi gets first major arms deal under Biden with air … – Reuters
So I’ll ask again: Can you donate $15 to help Win Without War permanently stop U.S. weapons sales from arming human rights abusers across the globe? Less than 1% of those reading will give, but if everyone who is gives now, we could close our $7,318 November gap in seconds.
| Right now, the United States is the largest exporter of war, Dick. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We’ve got the policy background, advocacy experience, and grassroots energy to stop the flow of weapons to human rights abusers — now, can we count on you? Thank you for working for peace, Michael, Amy, Abbey, and the Win Without War team Trillions Spent for a 20-years Failed War, Now Let’s Try China Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Washington Strikes Out TomDispatch tom@tomdispatch.com via gmail.mcsv.net 9-12-21 4:31 PM (3 hours ago) Alfred McCoy, Washington Strikes Out September 12, 2021 What is it about this country and enemies? It can’t even pretend to do without them. Of course, it just lost one enemy, the Taliban, in a humiliating fashion, even as President Biden bragged that no country had ever airlifted itself out of a losing war quite so brilliantly. (“No nation has ever done anything like it in all of history. Only the United States had the capacity and the will and ability to do it, and we did it today.”) In the process, he also announced that the forever wars of the last 20 years were finally ending. But don’t panic — not, at least, if you happen to be a failed commander from those wars or a CEO in one of the many companies that make up the industrial part of the military-industrial complex. There’s so much more to come. As Biden said, “The world is changing. We’re engaged in a serious competition with China. We’re dealing with the challenges on multiple fronts with Russia.” Keep in mind that, in these last two decades, the U.S. has spent an estimated $8 trillion just on our forever wars (and the care of the veterans of those conflicts). Worse yet, possibly $21 trillion went into those conflicts and the militarization of American society that went with them. That scale of investment can’t continue without an enemy. Of course, from its earliest moments in office, the Biden foreign-policy team has been focused on “pivoting” from war-on-terror targets to provoking China. That’s included threatening naval gestures in the Strait of Taiwan and the South China Sea, a calling-together of allies to confront Beijing in an ever-more-militarized fashion, and greater support for Taiwan. It all adds up to an enemy-filled future in which Congress must continue to invest ever more staggering sums in the military-industrial complex rather than in this country’s true infrastructure or genuine needs. In fact, the House Armed Services Committee promptly endorsed a plan to add an extra $24 billion (above and beyond the staggering $715 billion the Biden administration had requested for the 2022 Pentagon budget). The equivalent Senate committee had already given a thumbs up to a similar sum, indicating that the next Pentagon budget will be in the range of $740 billion dollars. California Representative Ro Khanna was among the few who gave the measure a thumbs down. (“We just ended the longest war in American history, now is the time to decrease defense spending, not increase it… We are already spending three times as much on our military as China did.”) In that context, let historian Alfred McCoy, author of the soon-to-be-published groundbreaking imperial history, To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change, tell you what full-scale defeat in Afghanistan really means for this country. He considers how, as taxpayer dollars are put into yet more militarization (and the global failure that goes with it), China has proven so much cannier about its investments on a planet that itself needs some genuine human investment before it becomes a gigantic Kabul. Tom The Winner in Afghanistan: China A Debacle Marks the Decline of Washington’s World Leadership By Alfred McCoy The collapse of the American project in Afghanistan may fade fast from the news here, but don’t be fooled. It couldn’t be more significant in ways few in this country can even begin to grasp. “Remember, this is not Saigon,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a television audience on August 15th, the day the Taliban swept into the Afghan capital, pausing to pose for photos in the grandly gilded presidential palace. He was dutifully echoing his boss, President Joe Biden, who had earlier rejected any comparison with the fall of the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon, in 1975, insisting that “there’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.” Click here to read more of this dispatch. AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS |
Unnecessary, apocalyptically dangerous weapons.
| Erica Fein 9-12-21 | ) |
Dick: As a candidate, President Biden said the United States “does not need new nuclear weapons” — so it’s mind bending that he’s leading us down the path to a nuclear weapons heyday.
Biden’s proposed Pentagon budget includes over $44.5 BILLION for nukes: new navy nukes, a brand new intercontinental ballistic missile, and nearly $100 MILLION to keep the last remaining largest U.S. nukes in service. It’s a blowout, and we wish we were kidding.
But here’s the thing: Biden’s proposed budget wasn’t entirely his own, it was a holdover from the last year of the Trump administration. In fact, the Biden administration is even doing a wholesale review of their nuke policy, called the Nuclear Posture Review, right now.
That means, we have a critical opportunity to press pause on a new nuclear arms race and pull President Biden away from the path he’s on. And our team is seizing the moment, working behind the scenes with allied Biden officials and pressuring Congress — doing everything we can — to draw a line in the sand that sends a loud and clear message: No more nukes.
But to do it, we’ve got to ramp up our advocacy efforts, raise the alarm in the media, and mobilize across the movement — and we need your support:
| If you’ve stored your info with ActBlue, we’ll process your contribution instantly: $15 $22 $30 $45 $60 OTHER AMOUNT |
The reality is that this flood of cash funds completely unnecessary, apocalyptically dangerous weapons — it’s a windfall for the weapons industry, but devastating for people and the planet.
In fact, one of the biggest risks with nuclear weapons? A simple mistake.
And it’s not hypothetical. In 1980 a single computer chip failure caused random numbers of attacking missiles to be displayed on the early-warning attack systems. Three years ago an emergency alert system told everyone in Hawaii there was an incoming ballistic missile threat and that people should take shelter immediately. The message said it was not a test.
Right now, the global trip wire is incredibly taut as multiple countries ramp up their nuclear weapons development —greatly increasing the risk of technological error and human miscalculation. With the United States poised to plow more money to fuel the fire, every new nuclear weapon we build only increases the tension and incentivizes others to add to their arsenal.
We’re looking at a new nuclear arms race — in an even more unpredictable environment. The stakes couldn’t be higher. We owe it to ourselves and to future generations to never again allow a nuclear nightmare to unfold. And we’re not alone: President Biden’s decades of foreign policy experience make him far less hawkish than defense officials in his own party.
But frankly, that might not be enough. That’s why we’re working furiously to ensure that the administration gets their Nuclear Posture Review right, and pushing back on any funding that might fuel a nuclear arms race.
Together, with your help Dick, we’ve got to remind the White House, and Congress that we want a future free from nuclear weapons. It’s part of a wildly ambitious, multi-pronged and crucially important campaign pushing civil servants, legislative aids, and lawmakers behind the scenes to stop a global nuclear nightmare scenario — and we need your support to keep it all going:
As the only country to use nuclear weapons in conflict, the United States has a moral obligation to lead the world in ending this threat.
There is no overstating the devastation of a nuclear war, and we are one small misstep away from that horror today.
Thank you for working for peace,
Erica, Amy, Faith, and the Win Without War team
© Win Without War 2020
1 Thomas Circle NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005
(202) 656-4999 | info@winwithoutwar.org
Biden’s ‘Secretary of State for regime change’ indicates no change in U.S. foreign policy. Mronline.org (1-25-21).
The new secretary of state served as a senior foreign policy official in the Obama administration–a period marked by increased global conflict and wars in the Middle East. | more…
END BIDEN’S MILITARISM NEWSLETTER #1, November 23, 2021