Tom Luongo — Neocons Are About to Run Amok

In the past few days it became quite clear to me that Donald Trump made a deal with the Neocons in Washington. He traded part of his domestic agenda for ceding control of foreign policy to the D.C. establishment.

It’s obvious when you connect the dots. Signing the sanctions bill, the non-shift in Afghanistan policy, the tit-for-tat diplomatic aggression with Russia, weapons to Ukraine, etc. I’ve written extensively about this. Graham is suddenly touting his Obamacare replacement bill.

But, taking Graham at his word what this means is that the whole repeal vote was nothing more than a set up, because in no way could they have put this together in the last few weeks.

Therefore, this was held back from Trump and the rest of Congress for the purpose of finalizing a number of foreign policy initiatives that Trump was hostile to, namely expanded sanctions on Russia and Iran and a troop surge in Afghanistan...

The art of the deal? I don't usually agree with Tom Luongo on much, but this seems quite plausible to me. Trump does have to sign off on foreign and military policy and that gives him considerable leverage over the establishment to work deals like this. On the other hand, it's very difficult to tell what is happening in Trump's brain.

Russia Insider
Neocons Are About to Run Amok

Tom Luongo

Glenn Greenwald — Jeremy Corbyn Accused of Being Russian “Collaborator” for Questioning NATO Troop Build-Up on Border

The crazy.

The response to Corbyn’s call for better relations and de-escalation of tensions with Moscow was swift and predictable. The armed forces minister for Britain’s right-wing government, Mike Penning, accused Corbyn of being a collaborator with the Kremlin:

The Intercept
Jeremy Corbyn Accused of Being Russian “Collaborator” for Questioning NATO Troop Build-Up on Border

Glenn Greenwald

Oliver Stone — The Russians Are Coming

Summary of the crazy. 

Stone doesn't mention the method in the madness though, which is at least in part feeding the military-industrial complex. 

Another part is promoting the power structure, which is under populist attack and wobbling on its feet after the electoral blow struck by Donald Trump. 

A third is maintaining global hegemony in accordance Wolfowitz Doctrine. 

A fourth is imposing liberal globalization in accordance with the Washington Consensus. 

The Very Serious People are struggling to look serious.

Includes links to supporting material.

Oliver Stone at Medium
The Russians Are Coming
Oliver Stone

Sputnik — Trump Unable 'to Pursue a Detente With Russia Single-Handedly'

Although US President-elect Donald Trump has signaled willingness to establish a stable basis for US-Russian bilateral relations, the US establishment and NATO are likely to throw a wrench in the works, James W. Carden, former advisor to the US-Russia Presidential Commission at the US State Department, believes.

While observers are weighing up the possibilities of the US-Russian rapprochement under Donald Trump, James W. Carden, the executive editor for the American Committee for East-West Accord, believes that NATO is likely to come between Moscow and Washington....

These people are not going to pay any attention to Donald Trump's orders and he is going to have fire some people to take charge. Even so, it is questionable as to how successful he can be. There's a lot of people on the other side — deep staters, neocons, war hawks, liberal interventionists, etc. Even if he does get the upper hand, they will be a fifth column waiting to return at the first opportunity, e.g., should Trump be a one-term president.

One this is sure. If Trump cannot get control of the situation, his goal of defeating jihadism will be impossible to accomplish since the fifth column will be supporting it as useful proxies in achieving their  own objectives.

Trump may have beaten the bipartisan Establishment and the war party in the election, the battle for control is far from over.

Sputnik International
Trump Unable 'to Pursue a Detente With Russia Single-Handedly'

Stephen F. Cohen — Trump Should Pursue a Policy of Detente With Russia

What a President Trump will face in turning the US-Russian relationship around in the face of implacable opposition from neocons, war hawks, liberal interventionists in Congress and the deep state as well as the corporate media.

Russia Insider
Trump Should Pursue a Policy of Detente With Russia

Stephen F. Cohen | Professor emeritus of Russian studies, history, and politics at New York University and Princeton University

See also

US-Russia.org
Coming together to generate ideas for a new foreign policy agenda

Center for Citizen Initiatives
Détente Now
Gilbert Doctorow, Ute Finckh-Krämer, Ludger Volmer, Rolf Ekéus and Noam Chomsky

• GILBERT DOCTOROW Gilbert Doctorow is a professional Russia watcher going back to 1965. He is a board member and European Coordinator of the American Committee for East-West Accord.
• UTE FINCKH-KRÄMER Ute Finckh-Krämer, Member of the German Bundestag, SPD, is Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Deputy Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Arms Control and Disarmament in the German Bundestag.
• LUDGER VOLMER Ludger Volmer was a member of the German Bundestag from 1985 to 1990 and 1994 to 2002. He was undersecretary of state from 1998 to 2002.
• ROLF EKÉUS Rolf Ekéus of Sweden was executive chairman of the UN Special Commission on Disarming Iraq from 1991 to 1997. He chaired the drafting of the principles of the Charter of Paris in 1990, a founding document of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
• NOAM CHOMSKY Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor emeritus at MIT, has written many books and articles on international affairs, in particular on Israel and Palestine. His latest book is Who Rules the World?

Zero Hedge — War Breaks Out Between Neo-Cons And Libertarians Over Trump's Foreign Policy

"These figures [necons and foreign policy idealists] all generally believe that the United States needs to take an active role in the world from the Middle East to East Asia to deter enemies and reassure allies."

In short, should this group prevail, it would be the equivalent of 4 more years of HIllary Clinton running the State Department.

The outsider group [Libertarians and foreign policy realists] sees things differently.

They want to revamp American foreign policy in a different direction from the last two administrations. Luckily, this particular camp is also more in line with Trump’s views questioning the value of NATO, a position that horrified many in the establishment camp....

Trump realizes that the populist mood is America First and forget the foreign adventurism and attempts at state building — based on demonstrated results that have been clear failures.

Zero Hedge
War Breaks Out Between Neo-Cons And Libertarians Over Trump's Foreign Policy

Submitted by Tyler Durden

Alexander Mercouris — Syrian Peace Plan: US Seethes at Its Humiliation by Russia

A very well sourced article, which has recently appeared in The Wall Street Journal (attached below), shows the extent of the policy disarray in Washington following the US-Russian “cessation of hostilities” agreement.
It seems there has been a massive row.

The heads of the US military and the CIA are clearly furious at the way in which they feel the US has been humiliated, and in a series of angry meetings in the White House they have made their feelings known.

Though they rationalise their anger with talk about how Russia cannot be trusted, and how US allies in the regions like the Turks and the Saudis feel betrayed, that is what it amounts to.….

… the anger the hardliners feel does not promise well, and is absolutely not a cause for rejoicing, and certainly not for gloating. On the contrary, it is a cause for foreboding and for worry about the future.

Far from accepting their defeat, on past experience the hardliners will now be looking for ways to get even with Russia.

The fact they cannot do it in Syria will not hold them back, any more than failure in Vietnam in the 1970s held an earlier generation of US hardliners back.
What happened then was that the hardliners “avenged” the US's defeat in Vietnam by setting Afghanistan on fire - with catastrophic consequences for the whole world including the US.

The fact Afghanistan turned out a disaster will however hardly deter the hardliners of today from acting in the same way. If there is one constant in US foreign policy it is that when it comes to disasters it is the wrong lessons that always get learnt.

Far from being a factor in improving relations between the US and Russia, the fact the US feels humiliated in Syria is going to make relations between the two countries even worse than they already are, and is storing up more problems for the future.

From the WSJ article:

President Barack Obama’s top military and intelligence advisers, convinced Russia won’t abide by a cease-fire in Syria, are pushing for ways to increase pressure on Moscow, including expanding covert military assistance for some rebels now taking a pounding from Russian airstrikes.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter; Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan have voiced increasingly tough views in White House meetings, calling for new measures to “inflict real pain on the Russians,” a senior administration official said. Russia Insider

Russia Insider
Syrian Peace Plan: US Seethes at Its Humiliation by Russia
Alexander Mercouris

Christopher Black issues a warning below. Very dangerous situation and ugly outlook. "Operation Barbarosa" was the Nazi codeword for the invaston of Russia.

NEO

Operation Barbarossa 2: The Baltic Gambit

Christopher Black

Russia Insider
US Army Ships 5,000 Tons of Ammunition to Germany

Originally Appeared at German Economic News.

Translated by Werner Schrimpf

This is taking place within the context of the Wolfowitz doctrine that holds the US will not permit a military or economic challenge to US global hegemony. Add to that the fury of the US deep state of being not only frustrated by Russia but humiliated. Add to that nuclear weapons, and go figure. And add to that the fact that the people involved are (alleged) war criminals that have already established in evidence that the prohibition against illegal aggression and torture mean nothing to them.

This also explains in part why Rep. Tulsi Gabbard felt it incumbent to burn her bridges with the Establishment and endorse Bernie Sanders.

Jeffrey Sachs — Hillary Is the Candidate of the War Machine

There's no doubt that Hillary is the candidate of Wall Street. Even more dangerous, though, is that she is the candidate of the military-industrial complex. The idea that she is bad on the corporate issues but good on national security has it wrong. Her so-called foreign policy "experience" has been to support every war demanded by the US deep security state run by the military and the CIA.…

It is often believed that the Republicans are the neocons and the Democrats act as restraints on the warmongering. This is not correct. Both parties are divided between neocon hawks and cautious realists who don't want the US in unending war. Hillary is a staunch neocon whose record of favoring American war adventures explains much of our current security danger.

Jeff gets one right when it counts.

It is hard to know the roots of this record of disaster. Is it chronically bad judgment? Is it her preternatural faith in the lying machine of the CIA? Is it a repeated attempt to show that as a Democrat she would be more hawkish than the Republicans? Is it to satisfy her hardline campaign financiers? Who knows? Maybe it's all of the above. But whatever the reasons, hers is a record of disaster. Perhaps more than any other person, Hillary can lay claim to having stoked the violence that stretches from West Africa to Central Asia and that threatens US security.

Smackdown.

The Huffington Post
Hillary Is the Candidate of the War Machine

Jeffrey Sachs

Professor Sachs serves as the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Sustainable Development Goals, and previously advised both UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. Sachs is Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network under the auspices of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Sachs is co-founder and Chief Strategist of Millennium Promise Alliance, and is director of the Millennium Villages Project. Sachs is also one of the Secretary-General’s MDG Advocates, and a Commissioner of the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Development.