Monday, June 15, 2020

The Curse Of The American Cassandras — Stephen Kinzer

For nearly two centuries, Cassandras in the United States have warned that lording over the weak in faraway lands would serve as a rehearsal for doing the same at home. If we take every distant challenge as a threat, and respond with bristling shows of force, we condition ourselves to react the same way when our own people challenge official power. If we care little about “collateral damage” that results from our operations abroad, it’s logical not to care much about it at home either. American power has often been a knee on the neck of foreign countries.
Actually, the more appropriate image is a boot on the throat. That hasn't happened yet domestically (no massacres). So far, it's just a knee on the neck. But the US is on the slippery slope.

This short post is a powerful indictment of a liberal political system gone bad.

The American Conservative
The Curse Of The American Cassandras
Stephen Kinzer, former foreign correspondent and bureau chief for The New York Times

See also
The European Union’s foreign policy chief has ruled out a transatlantic alliance against China and dismissed “systematic rivalry” with Beijing, just hours before he is due to talk to his US counterpart.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell called for a “big, positive agenda for EU-China cooperation” on Sunday, just a day before he and the 27 foreign ministers from the bloc are expected to have a videoconference with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
AntiEmpire
EU Won’t Ally With US Against China, Foreign Policy Chief Says Before Pompeo Meeting
Stuart Lau

How China Kept Buying Venezuelan Oil Despite Uncle Sam’s Threats
Luc Cohen

Also

Not just the US. The UK is deeply involved and has been for centuries.

“Putin’s Gonna Get Me”.
Craig Murray
By extending the status of “enhanced opportunity partner” to Ukraine and the other five nations, NATO is expanding its military capabilities without taking on the risks associated with expanding its membership; Ukrainian troops can be sacrificed in some far-off land void of any real national security interest to the Ukrainian people, and yet NATO will never mobilize under Article 5 to come to Kiev’s aid on its own soil. In many ways, the relationship mirrors that of a colonial master to its subjects, demanding much while delivering little. At the end of the day, the status of “enhanced opportunity partner” is little more than that of a glorified minion who trades its own flesh and blood for the false promise of opportunity that will never materialize.
This gets even worse.

Dances with Bears
BBC HIDES NEW SKRIPAL WITNESS — NICOLAS GENT REPORTS NO SKRIPAL BLOOD SAMPLES WERE RECEIVED AT PORTON DOWN BEFORE NOVICHOK WAS DISCOVERED AND ANNOUNCED
John Helmer
See also

RT
NATO’s colonization of Ukraine under guise of partnership
Scott Ritter, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer. He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, in General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector

Sputnik International
Mexican President Says Ready to Ship Gasoline to Venezuela Despite US Sanctions


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