The End of the Innocence, Reprise

The End of the Innocence, Reprise

When "happily ever after" fails
And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales
The lawyers dwell on small details
Since daddy had to fly

O' beautiful, for spacious skies
But now those skies are threatening
They're beating plowshares into swords

For this tired old man that we elected king

Armchair warriors often fail
And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales
The lawyers clean up all details

Since daddy had to lie

-       The End of the Innocence, Don Henley

"Iraq, was the worst decision, going into the Middle East was the worst decision ever made in the history of our country ... We're not leaving unless they pay us back for it," he said of the joint air base.

-       Trump warns he may hit Iraq with sanctions, doubles down on Iran threat – Axios

By JM Hamilton (1-11-2020)

Pelosi is winning, and indirectly, showing how US foreign policy is conducted, via the president.

Despite Trump’s frequent pronouncements that impeachment will make him stronger for 2020 and rally his base, the POTUS has arguably come unglued.  Witness Trump’s assassination of a key foreign head of state, General Qasem Soleimani.  

Assassinating foreign heads of state is illegal, even by US standards (which increasingly is a very low moral bar, from which to conduct foreign policy).  But since Trump, and his GOP lackeys, believes he’s above the law – whether making up various stories in regards withholding Ukrainian foreign aid, or coming up with assorted rationalizations to justify the killing of Iran’s premier general – this latest attempt, by the administration, to distract from the president’s criminal conduct and impeachment headache, could actually land the US in WW3.

The president’s latest screwup demonstrates how far the House Speaker has dug underneath Trump’s exceptionally thin skin – not only w/ the impeachment hearings but subsequently, by exhibiting zero rush to release the articles to a gerrymandered Senate.  Trump’s ego demands redemption, and the Senate will kowtow.  Hence, aggravated & angered, it’s no accident that the narcissist-in-chief would roll out the Clinton playbook and start up a war w/ Iran (in a now all too familiar Wag the Dog strategy).  War w/ Iran, apparently, is what the president has been aiming for, since he tore up the Iranian nuclear agreement (and launched provocation after provocation upon the Iranian government and its people).  Talk about the apogee of folly: the Iranian people were rebelling against their government; now, thanks to Trump, they’ve rallied around the religious dictatorship.  

Despite Trump doing everything possible to bait Iran into war, we must not forget the fact that some of Israel’s top military leaders (as well as US Generals) supported the Iranian Nuclear agreement, negotiated by the Obama administration.  The logic being, anything that keeps nukes out of the hands of yet another Middle East actor is a good thing.  (Don’t get me wrong, JMH abhors any theocracy, especially the Christian fundamentalist Taliban that has successfully dictated US social mores, since the nation’s founding.)  

Trump, however, actually acted like (not unlike Obama), and said, he got it in 2016, when he called for an end to failed Middle East nation building.  Many will remember, Trump ran on pulling US troops out of the Middle East money pit.  Now that the American people are looking at one final year, w/in his first term, the POTUS has reneged on his foreign policy (FP) promises.  

Moreover, in the chaos that is Trump’s FP there is a constant theme.  That theme is in protecting the assets & interests of commercial enterprise in the Middle East, and around the globe: namely, Big Oil, the MIC, multinationals/donor class, and assorted despots & foreign governments.  As such Trump has done a complete reversal on his FP campaign pledges and doubled down on the deep state (the DOD, MIC, and intelligence/surveillance services - both domestic & foreign), which he used to decry, seemingly, on a daily basis.  

That America was founded upon rebelling against the very colonialism/empire/imperialism/state sponsored monopoly (see East India Trading Company and the Boston Tea Party) for which, Trump now stands...  appears completely lost on this president, his political base, & generations of proceeding presidents.  In short, America was initially formed to fight empire and imperialism’s inherent tyranny.  And yet, for decades, the US has become the very empire - with colonial and imperialist designs & machinations - that our forefathers rebelled against.

Trump, however, is just another in a long line of presidents, who lied to (or misled) the American people in order to drag them, yet again, into another bloodbath war.

·      Johnson – Gulf of Tonkin;

·      Bush deux – Iraq & WMD; 

·      Bush deux, again – Launching into endless war & nation building w/in Afghanistan, when the US should have held OBL, Pakistan, & the Saudis accountable for 9-11;

·      Obama – Waffling eight ways to Sunday on Syria, only to suck the US into another martial quagmire (while failing to hold those responsible for the formation of ISIS/ISIL, the US included, accountable).

Now, as Iran heats up, Trump can join the pantheon of presidents who dragged this country into war, or perpetuated existing wars they vowed to end, by telling lies and more lies.  To wit, and apparently the latest whopper, General Qasem Soleimani posed an “imminent threat” to the US.  Apparently, a lie so egregious that the government won’t release its findings – and justification for the assassination - to the American people, let alone the US Congress.  

Such irony that the Evangelical POTUS, who claims God is on his side, has forgotten some of the basic and most fundamental tenets of the Bible, like:

·      Thou shall not kill (including extra judicial killings & drone strikes, making the US government de facto judge, jury, and executioner);   

·      Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s property (note, the Bible offers no caveats - or riders - for Iraqi and Iranian oil); 

·      And of course, the most famous of all, the Golden Rule: Love thy neighbor as thyself (last checked, the book makes no provision that this rule only applies for ultra-wealthy GOP campaign donors, who bow down to the president and stay at Trump resorts).  Then again, when has Trump used the Bible for anything else other than a political prop?

The reality is Trump is just continuing the US foreign policy that’s been in place, since WW2 (and yes, in no few instances, prior to the mid twentieth century…  see Manifest Destiny).  That is, the perpetuation of a bankrupting empire that threatens any nonwhite – resource rich – nation.  Resource rich nations (often referred to has EM or emerging markets) that don’t have the good fortune to possess nukes, & are nonwhite, are clearly under threat.  Twenty-first century colonialism defined.

When’s the last time the US attacked an Anglo-Saxon nation?  

When’s the last time the US attacked and occupied a nation with nukes?

If you want to see a fire breathing/earth scorching reason for nuclear proliferation, look no further than the US empire & FP.  

This was made abundantly clear when Trump told the Iraqi government to pound sand, when the Iraqi parliament ordered the US military out, in the wake of the Iranian general’s assassination on Iraqi soil.  So much for the falsehood and pretense that the US is a benevolent actor on the world stage, aiming only to spread peace, love, and understanding (and perhaps, a little bit of democracy along the way).

With that act, Trump ripped the benign mask off the bankrupt/festering visage that is the US empire…  and a US FP that serves exclusively, plutocrats, multinationals, & foreign governments.  Notice, the American people don’t even make the list, but the safety of same – the illusion of danger is created by nonstop fearmongering – is used to rationalize nearly ever US FP evil under the sun, from the aforementioned lies to extrajudicial drone killings.

It, the empire, was never about spreading democracy; it was never about decency or romanticized American virtues.  But rather, US foreign policy, since WW2, has been, predominately, all about the money.  Even the canard, often used during the height of the Cold War, that the US was just trying to contain communism, globally --- and more specific to today’s topic, in the 1950s, when the CIA overthrew Iran’s nascent democracy for oil & profits --- increasingly has the aroma of raw fertilizer. 

In regards FP, the US keeps doing stupid things, but this is what happens to bankrupt (fiscally & morally) empires.  History repeats.  Despite the many gifts handed to America by the Goddess above, we keep electing leaders, who perpetuate old fears, prejudices, myths about American exceptionalism, and the continued need for some 800 military bases around the globe (while nearly 20% of America’s children live in poverty).  Talk about a misplacement of priorities, blood stained hands, and $6.4 trillion added to the national debt… the US FP policy establishment should do themselves, America, & the world a favor, and march themselves to the Hague (and therein, await trial).  

We can thank Speaker Pelosi – perhaps by design or unintentionally - for driving Trump to such a manic state, that the president finally revealed the nation’s darkest FP secret.  Our heroic women & men, who serve, really are being abused - as security & speed bumps - by a global oligarchy …  a kleptocracy with delusions & hubris surrounding the need to maintain & perpetuate a fading US empire (in a vain attempt to control global markets).

If a money sucking empire & imperialism - and endless collateral damage - doesn’t make readers sick to their stomach, then perhaps we should all check to see if we have a pulse.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2020