Tag: Diplomacy

The Death Of American Diplomacy

For a few years I was employed by the US State Department as an analyst….and I have watched the role of State as the diplomatic corps for the nation diminish…..until we come to today and the whole idea of diplomacy has become something of a dream replaced with idiots that would not know true diplomacy if it bit them in the ass.

Today Donny’s secretary of state, Rubio, is so incompetent that he allows his role in the world to be dictated by a mad man….

In the past few days, senior US diplomats in two friendly countries – France and Denmark – have been summoned to receive diplomatic protests from the host government. This is unusual.

Denmark has called in the US charge d’affaires (as the ambassador has not yet been confirmed) after intelligence reports suggested there were covert efforts by the US in Greenland to stir up opposition to Danish rule.

And in Paris, the new US ambassador, Charles Kushner, was summoned after publicly criticising the Macron government for not doing more to curb anti-semitism – but sent one of his staff instead.

Trump’s approach to diplomatic relations dispenses with the usual niceties, the traditional courtesies, and cuts to the chase: who’s bigger than who? The suggestion is that if it is Trump, then he expects you to do what he wants. Where a foreign government continues to disagree with his policy, he seems willing to support efforts, as in Greenland, to change the government or publicly pressure them to change.

US president Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) advised his successors to speak softly and carry a big stick. Trump clearly prefers to speak loudly and use the stick liberally, especially on the country’s allies. This is a new US diplomatic game.

https://theconversation.com/how-the-trump-administration-changed-the-rules-of-international-diplomacy-by-a-former-british-ambassador-264053

American diplomacy is in rapid decline……use India as an example…..

Recent US administrations (Bush, Obama, Trump) have often decided to send career foreign service officers to New Delhi—which is all to the good, after all, Pickering was a career foreign service officer. Such men and women often bring a deft touch in confronting nettlesome problems.

President Joe Biden’s (or the person who was actually making the decisions for Biden) choice for Ambassador to India was, for reasons that remain obscure, the nepo-mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti. The downward trend in quality seems set to continue. Last week, President Trump announced that a former errand boy for Sen. Rand Paul’s office (an office that seems to attract self-important types who think that plagiarizing Wikipedia is a substitute for speechwriting) who somehow parlayed that role into a publishing partnership with the Trump sons (the partnership produced the imaginatively titled Letters to Trump—available for a cool $100 at trumpstore.com) will be his nominee to head the diplomatic mission in New Delhi. Sergio Gor, a 38 year old native of Malta with zero diplomatic or foreign affairs experience (but, as it happens, ample experience as an amateur wedding DJ) will take the reins in New Delhi pending Senate confirmation (or, more likely, a recess appointment). It is said that for the last 7 months Gor has been the Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, but there is little evidence of his time there, as scores of political appointments remain unfilled.

From Galbraith, Moynihan and Pickering to Garcetti and Gor. The long decline of American statecraft continues.

https://original.antiwar.com/james-carden/2025/08/28/the-decline-of-american-diplomacy/

This decline is troublesome because the world is a tinder box than ks to the last 5 presidents and without some sort of diplomatic mission this decline will accelerate to reach of no return.

It is sad because the US could be an agent for peace but that idea has been kicked to the curb by warmongering d/bags…..matters not the party both are as guilty as the other.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Remember That Free Plane?

I am talking about the free plane that Qatar ‘donated’ to Trump to be used as the new Air Force One….now we see just how free it truly was…..is that $1 billion?

The cost to renovate a “free” Air Force One gifted by Qatar remains a tightly kept secret, with the White House classifying the price tag. But a $934 million budget transfer, quietly moved from the ballooning nuclear missile modernization program, is widely believed to be funding the overhaul, the New York Times reports, noting Air Force officials have privately admitted pulling from that total. President Trump has defended accepting the lavish “gift,” arguing it’s a win for taxpayers. However, some lawmakers and watchdogs are uneasy, pointing to ethical quandaries and the unusual use of funds earmarked for nuclear defense.

The aircraft, currently decked out with gold trim and slated for high-end security upgrades, will be transformed at a Texas facility that specializes in secretive projects. The renovations include advanced communications, anti-missile defenses, and a thorough sweep for any potential Qatari-planted bugs. The true cost remains a guessing game. While the Air Force’s top official has floated estimates under $400 million, skeptics doubt the project will come in that low, and the classified status makes it impossible to verify. That comes as Trump loudly criticizes other government upgrades, including a $2.5 billion renovation of Federal Reserve headquarters, the Times notes.

That was so kind of Qatar to ‘donate’ the plane….but to what end?

Qatar has seem to replace the US as the diplomatic dynamo…..being the intermediaries to numerous conflicts.

As evidenced by its busy diplomacy during the Iran-Israel-US dispute earlier this year, tiny Qatar has transformed itself “into the diplomatic capital of the world,” writes Nesrine Malik at the Guardian. Malik’s deep dive into the subject, based on interviews with more than two dozen diplomats and academics over the past year, seeks to explain how and why. The “why” part is straightforward. Qatar may be incredibly rich, but it’s also small and sandwiched among giant powers. For the 54-year-old nation, then, diplomacy is “existential.” The “how” part is more complicated, but it begins with the discovery of the world’s largest natural gas field in the 1990s, a discovery that fueled the country’s wealth. Then came a palace coup in 1995 that brought the reform-minded Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani to power.

Unlike his father, al-Thani decided that Qatar would no longer be subservient to Saudi Arabia. On that front, the nation launched the Al Jazeera media network, which “took Arab political discourse out of the street and on to the airwaves, challenging orthodoxies, poking at sectarian tensions and antagonizing other Arab governments.” All told, the country has leveraged the network, high-profile investments, and the spectacle of hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup to become an influential yet neutral interlocutor in international affairs. At this point, Qatar finds that “there is more appetite for its services than it can handle,” writes Malik. It received three mediation requests alone in June.

(Read the full story.)

Is Qatar truly trying to be the world’s diplomats?

I have my doubts.

But I guess someone had to take up the mantle of diplomacy…..since the idiots Donny has put in charge are doing nothing to help the country or the world.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Death Of Diplomacy

Since Donny took office…the US has threatened Canada and Greenland, allowed the genocide in Gaza and the theft in the West Bank to go unchecked and now is trying to involve the nation in the stupidity that Israel has wrought.

What has happened to diplomacy?

The art of negotiation to settle international conflicts has died and it began with the Trump’s first try at world domination with some random oil guy in charge the came Biden and his SecState Blinken who was more warmonger than anything and now we have Rubio under the second Trump directorate…. in essence diplomacy is no longer and option on the world stage.

This brings us to today’s State Department under the ‘leadership’ of Rubio and under his hand the department is dying slowly on the whims of the self-promoter Donny.

There is no more important or prestigious cabinet position than the secretary of state. The first secretaries included such luminaries as Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Henry Clay. All became presidents or almost reached the presidency. In contemporary times, secretaries of state included Henry Stimson, George Marshall, Dean Acheson, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, and John Kerry. More recent secretaries have been less competent or successful (Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo), but no one has been more pathetic than the current secretary, Marco Rubio, who has embarrassed the country, the Department of State, and particularly himself in the first 100 days of the Trump presidency.

Rubio has made the Department of State virtually irrelevant, playing no role in key negotiations involving wars between Russia and Ukraine as well as between Israel and the Palestinians. Rubio is not participating in the sensitive talks between the United States and Iran to restore the Iran nuclear agreement. All of these matters are being handled by a billionaire real-estate developer, Steve Witkoff, who has no experience or knowledge in dealing with any of these issues. But Witkoff is worth $2 billion, and presumably Trump felt that clinching real estate deals is good training for crafting complicated international agreements.

Witkoff has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin four times in the past several months, but the Russian bombardment against Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, has only increased in that period. We know very little about Witkoff’s experiences in these meetings, but we do know that Trump falsely believes that Putin has made key “concessions.” The first concession, according to Trump, is that Putin will be “stopping the war.” The second is even more risible: Putin has agreed “not to take the whole country.” Even before the Putin-Witkoff talks, Trump endorsed Putin’s key demands: “Crimea will stay with Russia,” and Ukraine “will never be able to join NATO.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/04/29/marco-rubio-and-the-death-of-diplomacy/

You will noticed that Rubio and his master Donny have little to say about the conflict in Sudan or the total ethnic cleansing of Gaza….these should be high on the list of things to spotlight but instead Rubio is bust illustrating just how incompetent he is and nods approval for everything ignorant from Donny’s mouth.

Rubio is suppose to be America’s top diplomat and instead he allows Vance and Donny to speak for him.

When he took office he stated that it was to promote national interests….that is not his job.  He said that “to advance our national interest, we will build a more innovative, nimble, and focused State Department. This will require replacing some priorities, deemphasizing some issues, and eliminating some practices.”

Rubio has also called for a return to traditional diplomacy, deemphasizing what he views as divisive political and cultural causes. He has pledged to combat censorship and protect free speech, while also reprioritizing truth. On the environmental front, Rubio has promised to support sensible environmental protections while using diplomacy to advance American energy dominance.

He has done none of that lame ass promises….

Diplomacy is an instrument of power. It is essential for maintaining effective international relationships, and a principal means by which the United States defends its interests, responds to crises, and achieves its foreign policy goals.

Read more of the mission of the state department….https://2009-2017.state.gov/s/d/rm/rls/perfrpt/2002/html/18942.htm

For over a century the yes of the world have been on the US and now under the leadership of Rubio and his clueless master the US is going from global domination to global irrelevancy….

…

As the titular leader of this group of MAGA misfits, Trump projects a “transactional” approach to international diplomacy, which he wants to use to replace the American strategy for building global peace that the US adopted after World War II and that has succeeded remarkably since then in avoiding major conflict in a nuclear armed world.

Trump’s theory holds that the United States should forget about the rest of the world, and that we should avoid engaging in any action unless a maximum payment in cold cash can be exacted in exchange. Trump sees America’s traditional efforts to secure and guarantee world peace and eliminate global poverty as nothing less than an invitation to be taken for a sucker.

Previous administrations, Trump believes, were weak fools enabling the rest of the world to take advantage of American generosity. It makes no difference to Trump that the US profited enormously by its investments in Europe, or that helping emerging Third World nations opened access for American products to global markets and increased American influence in practically every corner of the planet. Sure, the US gained unprecedented stature as the world’s most powerful economy, but Trump thinks we should have asked for more.

While turning the US from a promoter of human rights and abandoning America’s role as a committed supporter of global free-market capitalism, Trump wants to go back to a world in which “might makes right,” and in which the powerful do as they want, while the less fortunate are left to do as they must.

Trump’s Chaos Moving America From Global Dominance Toward Global Irrelevance

In conclusion American diplomacy is dying a slow death and the “America First” agenda that Rubio so hardily embraced just may be that proverbial final nail in the coffin.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

It Was An Ambush!

Crap!  My treatments kept me from getting the breaking news on the mash up in the Oval Office….I apologize for the lateness of my post on the incident….

Friday Zelensky came to DC to meet with Trump and sign a minerals deal in a photo op…..did not end well at all….( I believe this is common knowledge by now)

World leaders typically play nice for the cameras in the Oval Office, but a meeting of President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky turned “remarkably fractious” on Friday, reports the New York Times.

  • “You’ve got to be more thankful,” Trump told Zelensky during the exchange, per the Washington Post. “You’re not really in a good position right now. You’re gambling with World War III. And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country—this country.”
  • The animosity began after Vance called diplomacy the key to peace, and Zelensky complained about Russian President Vladimir Putin breaking numerous agreements, reports NBC News.
  • Zelensky: “He killed our people, and he didn’t exchange prisoners,” Zelensky said of Putin. “What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about? What do you mean?”
  • Vance: “I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country, Mr. President. … I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media right now.” Vance added that Zelensky was conducting a “propaganda tour” and asked, “Have you even said ‘thank you’ once?” per the AP.
  • The Times calls the back-and-forth in front of TV cameras “one of the most dramatic moments ever to play out in public in the Oval Office,” underscoring the shift in the US view of Ukraine since Trump took office in January.
  • No deal: Zelensky left without signing an expected deal on mineral rights, reports the Hill.
  • Watch: See video of the fiery meeting in the Oval Office here.
  • The turn: Things began in cordial fashion, but they started getting testy after about 40 minutes when Trump was asked a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin, reports Axios. This devolved into a discussion in which the three men were at times nearly shouting over each other. Zelensky asked for security guarantees from the US, while Trump and Vance said he was in no position to make demands and complained that he wasn’t appreciative enough of US support.
  • “Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media,” Vance told the Ukraine leader, per the Washington Post. “You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.” To which Zelensky said: “Have you ever been to Ukraine? Come once?”
  • When Zelensky told Trump the US would feel the repercussions of the war despite the “nice ocean” separating America from the conflict, Trump shot back: “Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel,” per Politico. “We’re trying to solve a problem. You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel. We’re going to feel very good and very strong.”
  • Trump also told Zelensky: “You’re right now not in a very good position. You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.” And Zelensky answered: “I’m not playing cards. I’m very serious, Mr. President.”

I know some just cannot bring themselves to read so this is for those lazy people.

This is the quote that tells me this was an ambush the entire timne….

Following the presser, Trump posted on TruthSocial that the deal was off. “We had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today. Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure. It’s amazing what comes out through emotion, and I have determined that President Zelensky is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”

This video is the longer version…..for those interested….

Trump did Russia a favor…..

Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian prime minister and president and deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, was among those to voice his pleasure. “The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office,” Medvedev wrote on X. “And @realDonaldTrump is right: The Kiev regime is ‘gambling with WWIII.'” On Telegram, he also called Zelensky a “cocaine clown” and said, “The ungrateful swine got a hard slap in the face from the owners of the pigsty…That’s a good thing, but not enough.” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova also took to Telegram: “How Trump and Vance exercised restraint and didn’t punch this scumbag is a miracle of restraint.” And Konstantin Kosachev, deputy chairman of Russia’s senate, said Zelensky only hurt Ukraine with the meeting. “Zelenskyy lost this round with a deafening crash. And he will have to crawl on his knees for the next one.”

I am no fan of Zelensky and have not been kind to him here on IST (use archives to check) but I think he was set up by Trump and it was the theater that Trump wanted not the minerals deal….He, Zelensky, did not deserve the treatment he got publicly…..this sort of thinjg would have been best in private not in front of the cameras…..but what can we expect from a no class Cretan like Trump?

After all what do you think of the meeting and the contentious debate that followed?

Breaking news…..

The White House is considering ending all aid transfers, including weapons, to Ukraine after an Oval Office press conference turned into an argument between President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Zelensky.

According to The Washington Post, “The Trump administration is considering ending all ongoing shipments of military aid to Ukraine in response to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s remarks in the Oval Office on Friday and his perceived intransigence in the peace process.”

If the aid is terminated, Ukraine would not receive billions of dollars in weapons from the US, including missiles and ammunition that was approved through the Presidential Drawdown Authority.

The New York Times reported that weapons deliveries to Ukraine have “slowed to a trickle” even before Friday’s heated exchange. However, Trump is now considering cutting off other support to Kiev.

(antiwar.com)

Surely there are some thoughts on this.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ukraine Peace Talks

Ukraine news and the Little Marco show.

It is more talks for a ceasefire that could turn into something good….if you believe that then I think you are delusional….

The US and Russia to meet and discuss the conflict in Ukraine….

Top Trump administration officials are set to travel to Saudi Arabia next week to hold talks with Russian officials to discuss bringing the war in Ukraine to an end, multiple media outlets reported on Sunday.

The delegation is expected to include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy.

Rubio spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in a phone call on Saturday, following up on President Trump’s recent call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The Secretary re-affirmed President Trump’s commitment to finding an end to the conflict in Ukraine. In addition, they discussed the opportunity to potentially work together on a number of other bilateral issues,” the State Department said in a readout of the Rubio-Lavrov call.

Ukrainian officials said they were not invited to the talks in Saudi Arabia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview that aired Sunday that he will “never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine” if Ukrainian officials don’t participate in the negotiations.

While it’s still unclear how the war will end, the Trump administration’s policy toward Russia is a dramatic shift from the Biden administration. After Russia invaded Ukraine, President Biden refused to speak with Putin despite acknowledging the risk of nuclear was at its highest point at any time since the Cuban missile crisis.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also refused to engage in any meaningful diplomacy with Lavrov, holding only brief conversations with him about prisoner exchanges after the invasion.

(antiwar.com)

Say what?

The US and Russia to meet to discuss Ukraine?

Not a fan of this conflict but would it not be good idea to include the country most effected….in this case Ukraine?

I have a problem excluding the very nation that is dealing with the ravishes of war.

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz discussed some of the core issues for Donald Trump in the upcoming talks on ending the war in Ukraine. He did not confirm that Ukraine would be involved in the talks. 

On Fox News Sunday, Waltz explained, “Number one, it has to be a permanent end to the war, not a temporary end to the war. Number two, this can’t be ended on the battlefield. This has turned into a World War I-style meat grinder of human beings.” He continued, “Number three, I talked about how the structure of our aid has to change. Then number four, we’re talking about economic integration going forward as the best arbiter of peace.”

(libertarian institute.org)

Anyone that has been interested in the war and following the progress….can they see Ukraine agreeing to any of this?

Of course not.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Ukraine will “not recognize” upcoming talks between the US and Russia and denied that his country was invited to participate.

“Ukraine will not accept. Ukraine knew nothing about this. And Ukraine regards any negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine as having no results,” Zelensky told reporters while visiting the UAE.

…

Zelensky denied claims from US officials that Ukraine was invited. “Ukraine will not take part in the negotiations. Ukraine did not know they were planned. And the visit to the region was planned long before the US decided to meet Russia there,” he said.

…

Zelensky has said that European countries should be involved in the talks, but that idea has been rejected by both the US and Russia. Lavrov said Monday that most European leaders aren’t interested in peace.

(antiwar.com)

Just another waste of time and energy.

Ukraine needs a seat at this ‘shit show’

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Prevent Conflict And Promote Stability”

For as long as I can remember the US State Department has had the same, almost comical, slogan …..their goal is to “prevent conflict and promote stability’.

Recently the Biden White House has added to this delusion.

Every country, including our own, experiences risks and challenges related to stability and conflict. The international community grapples with issues that cut across borders, societies, ways of life, and economies. As the world has witnessed too often, the effects of conflict and instability are not constrained by borders or technologies. Cooperation and long-term investments in conflict prevention and stabilization are needed now more than ever to build peace across divided communities and boundaries. We must collectively bolster societal resilience to prevent and reduce the heavy human and financial costs of conflicts that undermine global peace, security and sustainable development.

On April 1, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration launched the implementation of the U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability with partner countries across the globe.  The Strategy outlines a ten-year, evidence-based, whole-of-government effort to foster peace and long-term stability through integrated U.S. diplomacy, development, and security-sector engagement with dual goals of strengthening national and regional peace, resilience and stability and enhancing the way our government operates in a variety of contexts.

(whitehouse.gov)

And how has that worked out for the US since 1990?

In Kosovo….and Somalia….Libya….Iraq….Afghanistan….and now Ukraine…..how is all this helping promote stability?

This is my favorite paragraph of the strategy from Biden…..

This Strategy lays out a whole-of-government approach to advancing America’s national interests on the world stage. This means tapping into the expansive expertise and resources that reside across our Government, sharpening and updating those tools where needed, humbly applying the costly and painful lessons from the past, and transforming the way we work with each other. Our diplomats, officers, and experts in the State Department, the United States Agency for International Development, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Treasury, and others across Government, as well as members of the Foreign Service and Armed Forces, will work in close cooperation with multilateral organizations and a wide variety of local partners in each nation where these efforts will be pursued — including civil society organizations, community leaders, businesses, and government officials. Those who are closest and most  vulnerable to these challenges know best where the opportunities for peace and stability lie — they represent the strongest source of promise and immunity from destabilizing forces, and we must support their strength and resilience. From strengthening social institutions and state-society relations, to mitigating the spread of extremist ideologies, to confronting the corrosive impact of gender inequality, to cultivating greater trust between security forces and citizens, to guarding against the destabilizing threat of climate change — we will help foster locally led, locally owned solutions grounded in mutual trust and long-term accountability.

All this should be the opening act down at the ‘Chuckle Shack’

All this humor is wonderful rhetoric and great slogans but the actions show a different side to this comedy.

SecState has made my case for me….

The US will focus its efforts on arming Ukraine and not attempting to bring the war to a negotiated settlement, America’s top diplomat said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid out a plan to massively expand Kiev’s military before talks begin.

In a speech delivered in Finland on Friday, Blinken stated, “The United States – together with our allies and partners – is firmly committed to supporting Ukraine’s defense today, tomorrow, for as long as it takes.” He continued, “We believe the prerequisite for meaningful diplomacy and real peace is a stronger Ukraine, capable of deterring and defending against any future aggression.”

Blinken dismissed the idea of even a temporary pause in the fighting. “Some countries will call for a ceasefire. And on the surface, that sounds sensible – attractive, even. After all, who doesn’t want warring parties to lay down their arms? Who doesn’t want the killing to stop?” He said. “But a ceasefire that simply freezes current lines in place and enables Putin to consolidate control over the territory he’s seized…It would legitimize Russia’s land grab. It would reward the aggressor and punish the victim.”

Blinken Dismisses Calls for a Ceasefire, Says US Must Build Up Ukraine’s Military

None of his words will ‘prevent conflict and promote stability’

And yet the American believe the BS…..so damn typical.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden And Diplomacy

About two years and counting until our next theater we call a general election……how has our dynamite president done?  (Diplomatically speaking)

To begin with Biden has a crappy diplomatic agenda….at best it is a yawn especially since one of his political promises was to put diplomacy at the forefront of his administration…..that was an idle promise like most of his campaign promises.

Here is a good look at Biden’s lack of diplomacy….

Stephen Walt is underwhelmed by the Biden administration’s diplomatic performance to date:

I raise this issue because the Biden administration took office vowing to put diplomacy at the center of U.S. foreign policy, yet it has relatively few diplomatic achievements to show for its first two-plus years. On the plus side, US allies are far more comfortable with Biden and Blinken than they were with former President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and they’ve been willing to forgive some of the administration’s early blunders (such as the unnecessary snub of the French during the AUKUS submarine deal in 2021). But apart from improved optics, the administration’s diplomatic record is unimpressive.

The Biden administration wanted the public to see the “return” of diplomacy one of the major differences between them and the Trump administration, but in practice Walt is right that they haven’t delivered very much on that score. It’s true that the administration has done well in coordinating with European and other allies in providing assistance to Ukraine, but this has been a bit like pushing on an open door. The US has not had to do much arm-twisting or persuading to convince allied governments to get on board with supporting the war effort, since they have all been willing to do this at least to some degree. When it comes to getting fence-sitting countries on board, there has been much less success. Almost everywhere else, the Biden administration’s diplomatic efforts have either foundered or haven’t even begun.

Walt mentions ineffective or non-existent diplomacy in the Middle East, and he also notes that diplomacy has been notably lacking in US dealings with China over the last two years. The reflexive decision to cancel Blinken’s visit to Beijing over the balloon incident looks even worse now than it did at the time. Instead of taking the incident in stride and pressing ahead with diplomatic contacts, as a confident administration would do, the administration overreacted and sabotaged its own effort to begin repairing relations. The fear of appearing weak in the eyes of domestic hawkish critics has been the administration’s real weakness, and it keeps tripping them up.

…

Other states can see that US diplomats always take a distant second place to the military, and it is mainly through the military that the US deals with much of the rest of the world. US diplomacy is like a plant that is so starved of sunlight because it is trying to grow up in the shadow of a giant tree. As long as the military wields such outsized influence in Congress and commands so many more resources, there is little chance that diplomacy can flourish.

Read the rest of the article at Eunomia

I was not a supporter of Biden in 2020 for I am old enough to know what a corporate democrat he truly is…..so my expectations were low for is diplomatic presidency….more people should pay more attention to what these criminals promise for they seldom care through on them.

Since the Clinton years the US has had one foreign policy–WAR….and it has only progressively gotten worse.

It is easier to destroy than search for solutions….plus it is a lot more profitable.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Decline Of Diplomacy

This post is for all those naysayers that have nothing but crap to say about diplomacy.

In the 70’s I worked for the US State Department and I left there in 1980 when I saw the writing on the wall…diplomacy meant nothing it was all about the proxy wars we could finance and eventually fight.

Since 1970 I had been an antiwar person and thought that the state department would be at the forefront of all diplomatic endeavors….boy was I wrong!

Since 1980 diplomacy has been in decline….not accurate….it has been in free fall……

It takes enormous courage to protest a war, but when is it ever relevant to do so? There is a crisis in American democracy, yet there is no appetite to protest the decline of diplomacy. Many people believe Russia can’t be reasoned with and any chance for a negotiation is only a dream. Nobody should make a deal with the devil, they say. Americans have been led to believe that the heartbreaking war in Ukraine is beyond diplomacy.

And if there is no more time for talking, where then are we headed? Perhaps our distaste for dissent will weaken America, which was founded on the strength and value of American opinions. Differences of opinion are essential for a functioning democracy, this is the backbone of the first amendment. America’s diversity depends on its multitude of voices, which have never been more important. Dialogue is the practice of democracy.

World history continuously tells the story of peace and power, as progress is gained and lost throughout time. Bertrand Russell was once asked what message he would give to future generations. He suggested the necessity of tolerance, humans must learn to live together.

Intolerance has existed not just in recent history, but as a driving force behind all wars. In the face of global insecurity, only the strengthening of democracy through reason and discussion, has the potential to prevent tyranny. For freedom and equality to exist, disparate voices must be heard. Why then has criticism of the war been so readily dismissed as anti-American?

The Decline of Diplomacy

I still believe in diplomacy but as I read blogs and comments I think I am in a minority….Americans seem hell bent on world domination and interventionism…..it is veiled greed on the part of corporations that actually run this country…..

Be real!

If you do not have suitcases full of cash then your voice is little more than a fart in the wind.

At what point do Americans tire of war and the infliction of pain on the world?

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

How Did It Come To This?

I am talking about the US/NATO-Russia confrontation…..Russian troops on the Ukraine border. US/NATO facing off on the border was well…..US Navy gunships crowd into the Black Sea and the hard feelings just keep escalting.

I know Russia is NOT our friend…..after the fall of the Soviet Union the animosities lessened and then something happened for those hard feelings to return….

There are four ‘provocations’ that have brought the world to this point….

Western provocation number 1: NATO’s first eastward expansion. 

In her memoir “Madame Secretary,” former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and secretary of state Madeleine Albright concedes that Clinton administration officials decided already in 1993 to endorse the wishes of Central and East European countries to join NATO. The Alliance proceeded to add Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary in 1998. Albright admitted that Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his associates were extremely unhappy with that development. The Russian reaction was understandable, since the expansion violated informal promises that President George H. W. Bush’s administration had given Moscow when Mikhail Gorbachev had agreed not only to accept a unified Germany but a united Germany in NATO.  The implicit quid pro quo was that NATO would not move beyond the eastern border of a united Germany.  

Four Western provocations that led to U.S.-Russia crisis today

Diplomacy is dead for the idiots on both sides have their fingers on the triggers of disaster….IMO it is time to bring this war machine known as NATO to an end…..

The possibility of further eastward NATO expansion and the reality of NATO military involvement in Ukraine are major causes of the current Ukraine crisis, but there is a stubborn refusal in the West to acknowledge the alliance’s role in creating the standoff with Russia. Not only are Western governments unwilling to take Russian security concerns seriously, but many in the West also seem determined to ratchet up tensions with Moscow no matter the consequences for European security. The Biden Administration has agreed to discuss relevant issues with the Russian government, but US and allied officials have already ruled out several of the most important concessions as impossible. If Western governments don’t change course soon, they will bear a large part of the responsibility for any escalation that follows.

Neutrality for Ukraine remains the obvious way out of the immediate crisis and closing the door on NATO expansion is in the best interests of all concerned, but this is a path that Western governments have already rejected out of hand. It is a measure of how disconnected US and NATO policies have become from real security interests that Western governments are risking peace in Europe in the name of destabilizing alliance expansion. Instead of asking whether the alliance needs new members, the US and its allies are exposing Ukraine to great danger to vindicate their “right” to join.

Closing the Door on NATO Expansion Is Imperative

We need a peaceful world and without some sort of diplomacy, a lost form of statecraft, this will NEVER be an issue that will end.

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Why Not Diplomacy?

Yes more history!

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This is for all those readers that are interested in the American Civil War.

Most people know the major players and the major engagements…..but what about before the first shots were fired in South Carolina?

Since I am a student of conflict and ways to try and avoid a disastrous war…..people have asked me why there was no diplomacy to try and avoid the deadly conflict…

Well there was diplomacy but it is just not interesting enough for the history books….plus it is not as romantic as the idea of a ‘noble cause’…..

Here is the look at diplomatic attempts during the war…..

February 2, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln and his Irish valet sneaked out of Washington City and took a steamboat down to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. The next day he met with three representatives of the Confederacy to discuss ending the Civil War. The Hampton Roads Peace Conference, as it’s known, is notable not for what was accomplished – nothing was – but for how, when, and why it took place at all.

In February, 1865, the Confederacy was clearly on the brink of collapse. The rebel armies were dogged but much diminished. General William Tecumseh Sherman had sacked Atlanta and was leaving a trail of devastation through Georgia. Ulysses S. Grant had Robert E. Lee pinned down at Petersburg, a rail center that was Richmond’s last defense. A Union naval blockade had cut off all supplies. Everyone knew the end was a few months away at best.

With the war all but won, why would Lincoln go out of his way, literally, to parley with the enemy? The simplest answer is that he was looking already to the postwar future, and how best to deal with the insurgents. Many hardliners in his Republican Party and his Cabinet thought they knew the answer: utterly crush the rebels militarily, hang their leaders, free all their slaves, confiscate their other property, and subjugate the South as a conquered, occupied enemy.

Lincoln believed that was no way to heal the nation. With the weight of more than half a million war dead on his soul, he “wanted to end the war quickly, peacefully if possible, not only to save lives, money, and property but also to build a stronger foundation for reconstruction,” writes James B. Conroy, author of a detailed book about the conference, Our One Common Country. “If the Confederacy could be persuaded to return to the Union voluntarily, enticed by reasonable concessions, the stage would be set for a more amicable, productive future than a military conquest could produce.”

https://www.wilsonquarterly.com/quarterly/conflict-resolution/the-road-not-taken/

Diplomacy is never a wasted energy….but did little during the American Civil War….

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