Tag: Geopolitics

Is Biden Just Stumbling Along?

As his first major foreign policy act Pres. Biden ordered a ‘revenge’ strike at units within Syria…..

President Biden ordered an airstrike in Syria on Thursday, after recent rocket attacks launched on US forces in Iraq. The target was a structure thought to be used for smuggling weapons by two Shia militias backed by Iran, CNN reports. The goal of the US attack was to hurt the militias’ capability of carrying out any more attacks, per Politico, though the site, in the eastern Syrian town of Al Bukamal, has not been tied to the rocket attacks. The Defense Department had not publicly blamed any Iran-backed militias. Last week, per ABC, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the US “reserves the right to respond in the time and manner of our choosing.”

Was this a return to the old norm?

Is it a preview of what we have in store for our nation….more and a continuation of our endless wars?

US President Biden bellicosely proclaimed, “American is back,” in his major foreign policy priorities speech at the Munich Security Conference on February 19. Repeated twice for effect, Biden signaled the end of the Trump interregnum.

No more assuring words could have been uttered for George W. Bush’s former Defense Secretary Colin Powell and the 70 odd Republican national security officials, who wrote an open letter endorsing Biden out of fear that Trump would upset the bipartisan foreign policy consensus of regime change, forever wars, and the NATO alliance. Republican neo-cons now shelter in the Democrat’s big tent, today’s party of war.

The major difference from his predecessor is that the new US president promises a greater reliance on multilateral diplomacy and international cooperative agreements to achieve US imperial goals. Biden pledged to remain in the World Health Organization and to return to the Paris Climate Agreement, although compliance with the latter is voluntary and Biden defends fracking. After Trump withdrew the US from the UN Human Rights Council three years ago, the US will reengage as an observer. And Trump’s “Muslim ban” was reversed in Biden’s first day in office.

Joe Biden’s US Foreign Policy: Return to the Old Normal?

As I predicted earlier….there will be little change with the Biden presidency….our endless wars will continue to be endless.

The non-partisan Congressional Research Service maintains a list of every “notable” use of U.S. military force abroad. As of June of last year, the list ran on for 46 pages. Last night, President Joe Biden added his first entry when he ordered airstrikes on militia forces on the Iraq-Syria border. What happens next will help determine just how many more pages get added during the rest of the Biden administration. 

While details are still emerging, the basic outlines of the airstrikes appear to be that the president ordered them in retaliation for recent missile strikes on U.S. forces in Iraq, particularly the February 15 strike that killed a Filipino defense contractor and injured a U.S. servicemember in Erbil, Iraq. It’s worth noting that this was seemingly not an isolated incident, with multiple attacks having occurred off and on for some time now on various bases housing U.S. personnel throughout Iraq. 

As is often the case with recent instances of U.S. military force abroad, a debate has quickly emerged on what legal authority such an attack was conducted under and if it complied with international law. The administration claims it acted in self-defense. Multiple members of Congress have weighed in, with some of Congress’s strongest war powers champions either outright rejecting or raising significant concerns about the administration’s claims. 

Biden’s Syria strikes: A perpetual cycle of endless war

Our weary troops have nothing to look forward from a Biden Admin…..he will do little to end these continuous wars and conflicts….

You would think the the American people would grow weary of our endless adventurism and interventions…..but so far the sound of crickets prevails.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Want To Rule The World”

I could be talking about the tune by Patti Smith…..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YcE6LzK8vA

But I am not!

Nope not at all…..I am referring to an article by Robert Kagan who says the the biggest problem today is that the average American does not want to rule the world.

“All great powers” want to rule the world, declared Robert Kagan, propagandist for America as imperial power, democratic hegemon, aggressive unipower, and perpetual war machine. However, they typically fail. Wrote Kagan in a new Foreign Affairs article: “Much of the drama of the past century resulted from great powers whose aspirations exceeded their capacity.”

The U.S. has a different problem, he contended. The American people. Rather than realize their unique calling to sacrifice themselves and obey their betters when instructed to patrol the globe, they continued to look inward.

They failed to realize that their destiny is to impose order upon independent and subservient, judge innocent and guilty, wage war upon great and small, and, yes, kill anyone who and destroy anything which gets in the way of fulfilling this sacred duty. Instead of focusing on the wishes of Washington, D.C., the world’s imperial city, and rising to the greatness expected of them by supporting the aggrandizements of a globally dominant America, they focused on the local and personal – their careers and educations, their communities and towns, their clubs and associations, and their families and friends.

Robert Kagan Diagnosed America’s Biggest Problem: Americans Who Don’t Want To Run the World

Seriously?

Destiny?  Sacred duty? 

How dare the American people focus their attention on some mundane things as their careers and educations, their communities and towns, their clubs and associations, and their families and friends.  (Of course that was sarcasm in case you missed it)

Apparently I do not agree with Kagan on very much.

I believe that our destiny and/or duty is to this country and not wanting to rule the world.

We already have a wealth of politicians that feel we should rule and care little for what the American people desire.

I have a problem with pissing away taxpayer money on endless interventionism while the country and its people suffer from a wealth of problems…health, poverty, failing infrastructure, education and so many more that could be solved with the cash wasted on continuous wars.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Afghanistan–The Future

This post is about the future of US troops in the country…

Trump admin reached an agreement with the Taleban about the removal of US troops from the country…..but that may be put on hold with the new admin that wants to keep troops involved in the country for the present.

A new report that was ordered by the Trump admin tells a disturbing tale…..

When a report comes out of Washington that has been co-authored by a who’s who group of, among others, former Secretaries of Defense, Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Ambassadors, and U.S. Senators, it’s a good bet the results are solid. Unfortunately, in the case of the recently released Afghan Study Group’s report to Congress, this stable full of eminent members produced a policy paper that, if followed, would replicate the previous 20 years of costly, failed war – and cement that failure well into the future.

The congressionally mandated study group was formed in April 2020 with the charge to, “consider the implications of [President Trump’s February 2020] peace settlement, or the failure to reach a settlement, on U.S. policy, resources, and commitments in Afghanistan” and then make policy recommendations for Congress and the new Administration.

That is an appropriate charter, and those areas of study are factors Congress and the White House need to consider. Regrettably, however, the commission was filled with many of the very architects of America’s failed Afghan policies of the past two decades.

Their “new” recommendations look disturbingly similar to the policies that produced so much failure over the past two decades. Fortunately, there are superior, logic-based alternatives available to the Biden Administration for implementation.

Afghan Study Group’s New Report Would Guarantee Failure

Biden will have a decision to finally make…..and there seems to be only three options for him….

According to a report from Vox, President Biden has been presented with three options for how to either end the war in Afghanistan or prolong it. The Biden administration is currently reviewing the US-Taliban peace deal that was signed last year, which set May 1st as a deadline for a US withdrawal.

The first option is for President Biden to adhere to the deadline and withdraw the remaining 2,500 troops from Afghanistan by May 1st. The second option is to seek an extension of the deadline through negotiations with the Taliban. The third option is to scrap the deal and remain in Afghanistan indefinitely.

The report said the Biden administration will likely choose option two, citing unnamed US officials and experts that spoke with Vox. But it’s not clear if the Taliban has any interest in negotiating a deadline extension, as the group has been appealing to the US to withdraw.

The idea of an extension is to remain in the country while the Taliban and the US-backed Afghan government reach a deal to end fighting. But there’s no telling how long this could take or if an agreement could ever be reached.

Since the US-Taliban deal was signed, the Taliban has not attacked US or NATO forces, and no US troops died in combat in Afghanistan for an entire year, a first since the war started. But that will all change if the US stays in Afghanistan without the consent of the Taliban. It will mean an escalation of the almost 20-year war.

US officials also told Vox that the administration’s review of the US-Taliban deal is almost done, and an announcement is expected soon.

(antiwar.com)

But the rhetoric says that the US is going to be in Afghanistan until the weapons makers find a backbone and put needs of country above profit…..and that will not happen in my lifetime.

In case you doubt my words…..

Earlier this month, a study group established by Congress recommended that President Joe Biden extend the May 1 deadline for withdrawing troops from America’s longest war. It’s a strategy that many experts say runs the risk of abrogating the U.S.-Taliban agreement and potentially setting back the potential peace process in Afghanistan — or even dooming it to failure.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there is a striking similarity in the backgrounds of the individuals involved in these critical recommendations, which are likely to influence whether Biden maintains a “conditions based” U.S. military footprint in Afghanistan. Two of the group’s three co-chairs and nine of the group’s 12 plenary members, comprised of what the group refers to as “members,” have current or recent financial ties to major defense contractors, an industry that soaks up more than half of the $740 billion defense budget, and stands to gain from protracted U.S. military involvement overseas.

There was more diversity in views and financial interests among the 26 “senior advisers” that the group consulted. At least three of these advisers have warned publicly that the suggested troop withdrawal extension may pose significant risks. But the study group’s plenary is deeply intertwined with the military industrial base, with nearly $4 million the group’s co-chairs and plenary have received in compensation for their work on the boards of defense contractors.

Weapons biz bankrolls experts pushing to extend Afghan War

Oh goody!  A multi-generational war!

We are looking at another 20 years of this conflict if things do not change…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“We Have Your Back”

That is basically what Biden admin has assured the crown prince of Saudi Arabia…..

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Thursday and reaffirmed the US military’s commitment to the “defense” of Saudi Arabia.

…

Despite Washington’s efforts to end the war in Yemen, the US military presence in Saudi Arabia seems set to continue. The Trump administration sent troops to Saudi Arabia in 2019, the first time US forces were deployed to the country since 2003. Now, the US is looking to establish new bases in western Saudi Arabia. The idea is that western areas are not in the range of Iran’s ballistic missiles.

Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of US Central Command, discussed these western locations on Thursday, although he downplayed the idea that they would be permanent bases. “We are not looking for new bases. I want to be clear on that,” he said. “What we would like to do, without shutting down these [current] bases … is to have the ability to go to other bases to operate in a period of heightened risk.”

(antiwar.com)

Seriously……we have their back?

I mean WTF?

How much technology have we given/sold to KSA?  How much training have we given them?

Billions of dollars and we still have to protect them?

Let me see now…..the defense industry makes billions and our forces still have to protect them from ‘meanies’ in the neighborhood….ain’t capitalism great?

All the countries like KSA and Israel…get away with murder (both literally and physically) and yet we have to “protect” their adventurism…..

Why?

Apparently the weapons industry has all the power over our foreign policy.

Again….why?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“America Is Back”

That is the statement that Biden made in his first foreign policy speech.

President Biden gave his first major speech to foreign leaders Friday in a virtual address to the Munich Security Conference. Two big themes: He declared that democracy was “under assault” in the US and around the world, and he stressed that the US would once again be working closely with allies. Coverage:

  • New message: The New York Times sees the speech as a clear break from former President Trump’s “America First” theme. “The trans-Atlantic alliance is back,” said Biden, adding that the US is committed to NATO and “determined to reengage with Europe, to consult with you, to earn back our position of trusted leadership.”
  • A ‘fundamental debate’: Biden also asserted that “we are in the midst of a fundamental debate about the future direction of our world,” per the AP. The debate is “between those who argue that—given all of the challenges we face, from the fourth industrial revolution to a global pandemic—autocracy is the best way forward and those who understand that democracy is essential to meeting those challenges.”
  • Democracy: “We must demonstrate that democracy can still deliver for our people in this changed world,” he added, per Axios. “That, in my view, is our galvanizing mission. … We have to prove that our model isn’t a relic of history.” At another point, he said, “In so many places, including in Europe and the United States, democratic progress is under assault.”
  • China: “We have to push back against the Chinese government’s economic abuses and coercion that undercut the foundations of the international economic system,” Biden said, per the Washington Post. “Everyone—everyone—must play by the same rules.” He predicted competition with China is “going to be stiff,” adding: “That is what I expect. And that’s what I welcome.”
  • Russia: Biden also called out Moscow and pledged to rebuff its efforts to “bully and threaten” other nations. “The Kremlin attacks our democracies and weaponizes corruption to try to undermine our system of governance,” Biden said. “Russian leaders want people to think that our system is more corrupt or as corrupt as theirs. But the world knows that isn’t true.” The Times notes that Biden referred to Vladimir Putin only by his last name, without his title.

Back from what?

From Chaos?

Looks like the same chaotic world that he inherited and we have been dealing with for decades.

Just what are we back from especially on the international stage?

Endless wars…..chest thumping in Asia…..confusion in the Middle East…..and god knows what in the Americas…..so I ask again….back from what?

Any answers?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Damn! Is There A New War On The Horizon?

We already have two endless wars….one is approaching 20 years and the other is nearing the 17 year anniversary.

That should be enough, right?

Well apparently the Hawks are gearing the government up for a new future endless war……this time it will be with China.

Why would I say this?

There are those that are beating the drums of war for the US and for Japan……

China toughened its language against Taiwan, warning that “independence means war.” A few days prior, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry reported 15 aircraft from the Chinese air force inside its air defense identification zone. This uptick in saber-rattling suggests the military challenge posed by China will likely continue, making it one of the Biden administration’s top priorities. Unlike the Trump administration, with its transactional approach to alliances, the Biden administration may find U.S. interests can be best served through strategic engagement with its allies, on this issue as elsewhere. In particular, part of the military challenge posed by China might be answered by turning to its longtime ally Japan and firming up one of the most intrinsic aspects of the United States-Japan alliance: warfighting.

The U.S.-Japanese relationship has deep roots. Perhaps due to the cultural strength of pacifism in Japan or the legal limits on what Japan’s Self-Defense Forces can do, however, the military aspect of the alliance has often been underemphasized in favor of broader strategic discussions about the stabilizing aspect of the alliance or economic and diplomatic cooperation. Beyond calls for greater interoperability, the specifics of the alliance’s military dimension are rarely highlighted despite the fact that the institutional relationship between their militaries and defense establishments are extremely complex, with several areas of possible improvement.

The United States and Japan Should Prepare for War with China

Of course that is just one publication’s opinion…..but I do not believe that it is that far from the fact.

What makes me think that the hammer is about to drop?

DC’s top War Hawk….Sen. Cotton…..

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) on Thursday called for a new US policy on what would happen in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Currently, the US arms Taiwan through weapons sales and maintains a policy known as “strategic ambiguity,” which means the US is not guaranteed to intervene if Beijing moves to take the island.

Cotton said he wants to make it “crystal clear” that a Chinese incursion on Taiwan means war with the US. “The United States needs to be clear that we will not allow China to invade Taiwan and subjugate it. Case closed. No further debate,” he said at a Reagan Institute event.

“Replace strategic ambiguity with strategic clarity that the United States will come to the aid of Taiwan if China was to forcefully invade Taiwan or otherwise change the status quo across the [Taiwan] Strait,” Cotton added.

The hawkish senator said the US should establish “red lines” for China that would “require a response” from Washington. Examples of Cotton’s red lines include China seizing Taiwanese-claimed islands, a Chinese invasion of a regional ally like India, or if Beijing permits an attack on US troops or allies by North Korea.

Cotton made the comments while he presented his plan to take on Beijing economically. In the plan, Cotton called for an economic decoupling from China. “Our economy has become far too entangled with China’s, providing the Chinese Communist Party with leverage over the US government and industry. It’s past time we decoupled from China,” he said.

Cotton’s report came after the US Chamber of Commerce released a study that said the US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would see a one-time loss of as much as $500 billion if US companies halved foreign direct investment in China. Besides the hit to the US’s GDP, decoupling with China would give Washington and Beijing less reason not to go to war if a naval incident happens in the South China Sea, where the US has stepped up its military presence and frequently sails warships.

(antiwar.com)

The US sends in the Navy to probe the enemy….

A US warship sailed near the Chinese-claimed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea on Wednesday. The US Navy’s Seventh Fleet said the guided-missile destroyer USS Russell made the provocative passage, conducting what the US calls a Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP).

The US started conducting FONOPs to challenge Beijing’s claims to islands in the region in 2015. These maneuvers were stepped up during the Trump administration. In 2020, the US carried out nine FONOPs in the South China Sea, a record high.

Wednesday’s FONOP marked the second of the Biden administration. Earlier this month, the USS John McCain sailed near the Paracel Islands, another archipelago in the South China Sea, after the warship steamed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait.

The Biden administration has also been sending aircraft carriers to conduct exercises in the South China Sea. Last week, two US aircraft carrier strike groups entered the waters. The USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Nimitz held rare dual-carrier drills, a signal that the new administration has no plans to curb US military activity in the region.

(antiwar.com)

Even NATO is thumping its macho chest as well…

In an effort to stay relevant, NATO is looking towards Asia to join the US in countering China in the region. During Friday’s Munich Security Conference, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg made it clear that Beijing is a top priority of the alliance.

“The rise of China is a defining issue for the transatlantic community.
With potential consequences for our security, our prosperity and our way of life,” Stoltenberg said. “This is why NATO should deepen our relationships with close partners, like Australia and Japan, and forge new ones around the world.”

At the end of 2020, NATO released a report that called for the alliance to increase its focus on China. The report said NATO should build stronger relationships with countries in Asia, like Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea, what it calls “like-minded” countries.

The report says NATO should consider forming a partnership with India, a country the US has been stepping up military cooperation with. The US, India, Japan, and Australia form the informal alliance, or dialogue, known as the Quad, a group NATO is keen to work with. The Quad is seen as a possible foundation for a NATO-style military alliance in Asia.

(antiwar.com)

This may seem like some sort of “War Game”….but it looks like they are searching for some sort of response to justify an action that has been building up.

This all smells like a new “Gulf of Tonkin Incident” in the making.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Afghanistan Forever

I recently read a statement made by a NATO official when asked about a possible NATO withdrawal he said that NATO would depart when there was more stability in the country.

Seriously?

After 20 years and the Taleban controls about 52% of the country……when would this stability miraculously appear?

The SecDef made it clear that there would be NO end to our involvement.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with NATO ministers on Thursday and discussed the war in Afghanistan and the approaching May 1st deadline for all foreign forces to leave as per the US-Taliban peace deal. While no decisions were made on the pullout, Austin assured his NATO counterparts that there will be no “hasty” end to the almost 20-year-old war.

According to a statement from the Pentagon, Austin “reassured Allies that the US would not undertake a hasty or disorderly withdrawal from Afghanistan.” He also reiterated that the Biden administration is conducting a “thorough review” of the US-Taliban agreement.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said after the meeting that no decision was made on whether or not the alliance is planning to leave before May. While NATO and the US claim the Taliban hasn’t lived up to its end of the agreement, one pledge the Taliban did stick with was not attacking the US or other coalition forces in Afghanistan.

I am sorry but there needs to be some sort of moral obligation for Biden to end this forever war…..

The U.S. is approaching its 20-year mark in the Afghan civil war. Intervening after 9/11, Washington speedily crippled al-Qaeda and ousted the Taliban. Alas, three successive administrations found it much harder to bring strong central government and Westminster-style democracy to Central Asia. So American military personnel remain on station. Like in the Hotel California, it appears that Americans can check out but never leave.

Even many hawks gave up justifying the war on humanitarian grounds, preferring to talk about the importance of staying to fight terrorism or achieve other ends. However, Ronald E. Neumann, a former US ambassador to Afghanistan, took up the challenge of justifying nation-building. He asked: “At this time, when so many young Afghans are dying to build the kind of society we preached to them, have we no moral responsibility to sustain what we helped build?”

This claim has enormous emotional appeal. But it cannot justify America’s indefinite, and likely permanent, participation in someone else’s endless (civil) war.

President Joe Biden Has a Moral Obligation To Bring America’s Troops Home from Afghanistan

When will the American people start demanding that this war comes to an end?

When will the troops become a more important part of the dialog?

Questions with few actual answers.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What To Do In The Middle East

Most regulars know that my studies and career was rooted in the Middle East…..it is time I got back to watching the events in the region.

We have a new president and the question is….will there be an adjustment in the Middle East.

The Brookings Institution offers a few ideas for our new president……

For over a decade, the United States has sought to wind down the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, reduce its military footprint in the Middle East, and redirect scarce resources to Asia. Global and regional trends reinforced this American desire to reduce the priority of the Middle East in its global strategy, and the military “pivot” is well underway. The challenge for American policy is how to protect its remaining and still important interests in that region in an era of austerity and fierce power competition, both in the region and globally. The incoming Biden administration should not waste the window for a reset.

Gulf Arab partners, facing fiscal constraints from lower energy prices and the COVID-19-induced global recession, are more open to conflict resolution in the proxy wars they hagve been fighting across the region. But their relative penury will also impede their ability to invest in stabilizing weaker neighbors, including key states like Jordan and Egypt. Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic of Iran is sanctioned to the hilt, and used to wielding regional influence on the cheap. Thus the balance of power in the region may even favor the Iranians as the pandemic begins to recede. The Biden team must set aside the Trump administration’s fruitless “maximum pressure” in favor of the mix of intelligence cooperation, diplomacy, financial and military tools that can effectively deter or disrupt subversive Iranian activity while incentivizing Tehran’s return to the nuclear negotiating table. And the Pentagon must undertake a zero-based review of its force presence in the Persian Gulf region to ensure it is both efficient and effective in fulfilling its core missions there.

The United States must rebuild what has historically been its most effective tool in the Middle East: diplomacy, especially in advancing conflict resolution. In Yemen and Libya, there might now be opportunities to pull competing regional powers out of the fighting and negotiate power-sharing governments that promote stability and reduce freedom of action for Islamist terrorist movements. Washington cannot let Israelis and Palestinians stew in their stalemated conflict — but rather than trying to reconvene talks, it should take a long-term approach to rebuilding foundations for compromise between the two societies while insisting that they both abjure destabilizing unilateral actions, and work to improve freedom, security, and prosperity for those living with the conflict every day.

Finally, the Biden administration must reestablish clear boundaries in relationships that were deeply unbalanced by President Donald Trump’s careless approach. Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) all have questions about the extent and durability of American security commitments to their neighborhood, and all three prefer to keep the U.S. closely engaged. Washington can pursue necessary de-escalation and nuclear diplomacy with Iran while engaging these key partners about where American interests begin and end, and where partners’ own preferences and behaviors present real obstacles to closer cooperation. As in all healthy relationships, honest communication and clear boundaries are essential to maintain mutual respect and good feeling.

What to do – and what not to do – in the Middle East

I disagree with almost everything that is written by this think tank…..especially the statement on the Israeli/Palestinian problem…..”Washington cannot let Israelis and Palestinians stew in their stalemated conflict — but rather than trying to reconvene talks, it should take a long-term approach to rebuilding foundations for compromise between the two societies while insisting that they both abjure destabilizing unilateral actions, and work to improve freedom, security, and prosperity for those living with the conflict every day.”

Really?

If they want a long term solution then maybe the place to start is with Israel.  The theft of land, destruction of crops, the hijacking of humanitarian funds, the random of harassment and arrests and those damn settlements would be a good start.

None of that means a damn thing….for the Biden admin will do business as it has been done for 50 years….especially in the Middle East.

The Biden admin is change that will not change.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Biden In Afghanistan

I believe that there are a few readers that think that I had nothing positive to say about our last president…..my reply to that is that hey should read more often.

When Trump tried to end the endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq I was behind the move and I wrote my approval of his plan.

Now we have a new president and a new plan for our troops in Afghanistan…..

With the deadline for a US withdrawal from Afghanistan approaching, a congressionally mandated report was released on Wednesday that calls for the Biden administration to stay in the country.

The US-Taliban peace deal signed in February 2020 set May 1st as a deadline for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan. The report, released by the Afghanistan Study Group, says the US should push the deadline back. The study repeats the usual talking points that hawks use to justify prolonging the almost 20-year war.

The report says if the US leaves by May, a civil war will break out since intra-Afghan peace talks are not complete. But that ignores the fact that fighting is already ongoing between the Taliban and the US-backed government.

Biden administration official said the US hasn’t made a decision on the Afghanistan withdrawal. “At this time, no decisions about our force posture have been made,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters, adding that the administration is reviewing the US-Taliban peace deal.

While the US hasn’t made an official announcement, there is little hope that the withdrawal will happen. The Pentagon said last week that the withdrawal timeline is uncertain, and NATO officials told reporters that foreign troops will be in Afghanistan after May 1st.

(antiwar.com)

Biden is halting the pullout…..does this signal another two decades of this conflict and our troops?

The report they reference is from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). And while the office’s quarterly report does say that the drawdown “introduces some limitations on force capacity and on the train, advise, and assist mission,” the very next sentence says that leaders of the U.S. forces have said that that the drawdown to 2,500 troops was not currently adversely affecting its work.

It’s slightly odd of ABC News to attempt to paint SIGAR as some sort of critic of Trump’s troop withdrawal because for years now SIGAR reports have been the primary way that Americans who were still paying attention would know that our continued involvement in Afghanistan has absolutely failed to stabilize the country and served primarily as a massive money pit for defense spending and a threat to the lives of our troops.

Don’t Let Biden Sink Troops Back Into the Afghanistan Quagmire

How much longer must we waste money and blood in a dead end country?

I told my readers that Biden was a hawk….this just another example….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden On Foreign Policy

The Super Bowl is mercifully over….maybe now the people will start paying attention to the country and hopefully they will care about it as much as the care about some game.  (am I deluding myself?)

I have made my thoughts known on Biden and his foreign policy……I do not see him doing much to end the endless wars…..I see him giving the M-IC a free hand in the policies he and his admin will pursue…..

Just last week Biden made his big foreign policy speech…..

In his first diplomatic address since becoming president, Joe Biden on Thursday declared that “America is back” on the global stage, Reuters reports. “American leadership must meet this new moment of advancing authoritarianism, including the growing ambitions of China to rival the United States and the determination of Russia to damage and disrupt our democracy,” he said during a visit to the State Department with Vice President Kamala Harris. “We must meet the new moment … accelerating global challenges from the pandemic to the climate crisis to nuclear proliferation.” Biden also specifically called out Myanmar, urging military leaders there to put an end to the coup, and said the US will no longer support the Saudi Arabia-led military campaign in Yemen.

He also announced troop redeployments from Germany will be frozen, the limit on refugees allowed to enter the US will be increased, and US support for LGBTQ+ rights around the globe will be reaffirmed, CNN reports. “We are a country that does big things,” he said. “American diplomacy makes it happen and our administration is ready to take up the mantle and lead once again.” In a reference to former President Trump, Biden noted on Russia, “I made it clear to President Putin, in a manner very different from my predecessor, that the days of the United States rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions, interfering with our elections, cyberattacks, poisoning its citizens, are over.” The Atlantic Council offers key takeaways from the speech here.

I agree with the return of diplomacy and the cessation of arms deals to KSA, UAE….I do not agree with the troop things…..keep them in Afghanistan and Germany…..

Plus Biden’s fixation on Russia and ignoring the civil rights abuses of his friends in Egypt, UAE and KSA…..

Biden has a strange fixation on Russia. Vladimir Putin is a bad guy, but America’s dictator friends in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates are worse, as well as the leaders of Central Asia States with which the US is friendly. Biden included a riff about how “the politically motivated jailing of Alexis Navalny and the Russian efforts to suppress freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are a matter of deep concern to us,” yet dismissed China’s far more brutal assault on liberty with a throwaway line about “China’s attack on human rights.”

President Joe Biden Speaks on Foreign Policy: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Some good, some bad and some really ugly.

Keep in mind Biden’s record for all the years he has been in DC…..the ethnic cleansing, mass murder that was the Balkans…..https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/01/26/biden-would-like-you-to-forget-his-enthusiastic-support-for-ethnic-cleansing-mass-murder-islamic-terrorists-and-war-criminals/

I will admit that he, Biden, is 100% better than the previous person sitting in the throne of power….but he is far from someone I can totally support.

My concern that he will “go in search of monsters to destroy” (John Admas quote)

In 1821, John Quincy Adams famously stated that the United States ‘does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.’ But America also has a long interventionist tradition. Even a self-proclaimed realist like Theodore Roosevelt argued that in extreme cases of abuse of human rights, intervention ‘may be justifiable and proper’. John F. Kennedy called for Americans to ask what they could do not only for their country, but for the world.

Since the Cold War’s end, the US has been involved in seven wars and military interventions, none directly related to great-power competition. George W. Bush’s 2006 national security strategy proclaimed a goal of freedom embodied in a global community of democracies.

How will Biden intervene abroad?

I do hope that I am mistaken….but his track record is not all that squeaky clean on this front.

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