Gee whiz but I wish I wasn’t so prescient. A whole six months ago I wrote a post Joe Biden likes being a Cold War President, moaning a bit theatrically about Uncle Joe’s “senile swagger.” Well, it seems like Joe was just getting warmed up. United States Enters a New Era of Direct Confrontation With Iran, the New York Times’ David E. Sanger informs us, in a “news analysis” that I hope is at least two parts wishful thinking on Dave’s part, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part. Oh, and then there was that “Russian” missile that landed in Poland and killed two people that could have led to something closely resembling World War III until “we” figured out that it actually came from Ukraine. Sorry about that, as we used to say in Vietnam.
But even war with Russia—that World War III—pales in comparison with the dustup that Uncle Joe and his compadres are working up with China, something I’ve been kvetching about for a long time. But Uncle Joe and the folks around him just aren’t listening. Joe is a weak president, for many reasons, and it’s pretty much inevitable that he’s going to take the “easy” way out when it comes to core decisions. And, when it comes to foreign policy, that means pandering to the “needs”—needs and career path dreams—of America’s Military Intellectual Complex, which never stops living up to its proud motto— “Every Day Another Crisis—Guaranteed!”
Afterwords
The worst part of the MIC—aka “the Blob”—is that it’s bipartisan. “Everyone” agrees on the goal—continued American “leadership”/hegemony as far as the eye can see. The one difference is that the “left” blobites want to achieve this through alliances, while the “right” blobites want Uncle Sam to do it all alone. The only alternative to rear its ugly head on the foreign policy scene has been Donald Trump’s “Fuck you” (except for Saudi Arabia and Israel) foreign policy, and that’s not much of an improvement.1
If you’re in search of sanity—and you should be—check out the Cato Institute’s Doug Bandow at the American Conservative and Daniel Larison at his substack blog Eunomia. I subscribe to Eunomia but not the AC, because domestically it’s total MAGA. I wish life were simple but it’s not.
Concluding unscientific postscript: Could U.S. greed sabotage our new Cold War? Maybe!
Politico’s Barbara Moens, Jakob Hanke Vela, and Jacopo Barigazzi suggest that Joe Biden’s “Buy American” (and Beggar Europe) campaign is starting to piss Europeans off]. Europe accuses US of profiting from war: EU officials attack Joe Biden over sky-high gas prices, weapons sales and trade as Vladimir Putin’s war threatens to destroy Western unity.
The biggest point of tension in recent weeks has been Biden’s green subsidies and taxes that Brussels says unfairly tilt trade away from the EU and threaten to destroy European industries. Despite formal objections from Europe, Washington has so far shown no sign of backing down.
At the same time, the disruption caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is tipping European economies into recession, with inflation rocketing and a devastating squeeze on energy supplies threatening blackouts and rationing this winter.
You know, Joe, if you want to “lead”, you’re supposed to make sacrifices, not inflict them!
1. The only “strength” this “policy” had is that Donald, though he didn’t care how many people American forces killed as long he didn’t know about it, was a bit squeamish about actually pulling the trigger himself. Well, thank heavens for small favors. But it really was a favor.
