Listening
to The Donald at the UN
By The Saker
September
21, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- Late this morning, outraged emails started
pouring in. My correspondents reported “getting
sick” and having their “heart ache”. The cause of
all that? They had just watched Trump’s speech at
the UN. I sighed and decided to watch the full
speech for myself. Yeah, it was painful.
You
can read the full (rush,not official) text
here or watch the
video
here. Most of it
is so vapid that I won’t even bother posting the
full thing. But there are a few interesting moments
including those:
“We
will be spending almost $700 billion on our
military and defense. Our military will soon be
the strongest it has ever been“
This short
sentence contains the key to unlock the reason
behind the fact that while the US military is
extremely good at killing people in large numbers,
it is also extremely bad at winning wars. Like most
Americans, Trump is under the illusion that spending
a lot of money “buys” you a better military. This
is completely false, of course. If spending money
was the key to a competent military force, the US
armed forces would have already conquered the entire
planet many times over. In reality, they have not
won anything meaningful since the war in the
Pacific.
Having
surrounded himself with “Mad Dog” kind of “experts”
on warfare, Trump is now reusing that old mantra
about how money buys you victory and this is
something extremely important. This kind of magical
thinking signals to the countries most threatened by
the USA that the Americans are unable to engage in a
basic “lessons learned” kind of exercise, that
history teaches them nothing and that, just like all
this predecessors, Trump conflates handing out money
to the Military Industrial Complex with preparing
for war. Frankly, this is good news: let the
Americans spend themselves into bankruptcy, let them
further neglect their military and let them continue
to believe that this kind of magical thinking will
bring them to victory.
[Sidebar:
for the record, I have met and studied with plenty
of excellent, well-educated, honorable, courageous
and patriotic American officers and the kind of
money-centered hubris I describe above is in no way
directed at them, if only because they know even
much better than I how bad the situation really is.
There are plenty of highly-educated officers in the
US armed forces who understand history and who know
that money brings corruption, not victory. But they
are mostly kept at ranks no higher than Colonel and
you will often find them in military teaching
institutions and academies. Having studied with
them and become good friends with many of them, I
feel sorry for them and I know that if they had the
means to stop this insanity they would]
America does more than speak for the values
expressed in the United Nations charter. Our
citizens have paid the ultimate price to defend
our freedom and the freedom of many nations
represented in this great hall. America’s
devotion is measured on the battlefields where
our young men and women have fought and
sacrificed alongside of our allies. From the
beaches of Europe to the deserts of the Middle
East to the jungles of Asia, it is an eternal
credit to the American character that even after
we and our allies emerge victorious from the
bloodiest war in history, we did not seek
territorial expansion or attempt to oppose and
impose our way of life on others.
The only
question here is whom exactly Trump’s speech-writers
are aiming that nonsense at? Do they really think
that there is anybody out there who sincerely
believes this? If the target audience are US middle
schools then, yes, okay. But does anybody believe
that US middle school students listen to UN
speeches?! Okay, maybe senile folks also believe
that, I sure know a few who will swallow it up and
ask for more, but why speak to that audience from a
UN podium? Is it not embarrassing when such
nonsense is greeted in total silence instead of a
standing ovation from all the putatively grateful
countries out there who are so deeply grateful for
all these altruistic and heroic sacrifices. My only
explanation for why this kind of nonsensical drivel
was included in this speech is that it has become
part of the ritual of typical American “patriotic
liturgy”: big hyperbolic sentences which mean
nothing, which nobody takes seriously or even
listens to, but who have to be included “because
they have to”. This reminds me of the obligatory
Lenin quote in any and all Soviet speeches and
statements, they also were basically filtered out by
any thinking person, everybody knew that, but that’s
how things went on then. It is really sad, and
scary, to see how much the USA of the 2017 looks
like the Soviet Union of the 1980s.
The
United States has great strength and patience,
but if it is forced to defend itself or its
allies, we will have no choice but to totally
destroy North Korea.
Wow! Now
that is a sentence which could only be written by a
person utterly unaware of the impact it will have on
the intended audience (in theory, all of mankind,
this is the UN, after all). Totally destroy North
Korea. I wonder how this will be received in South
Korea and Japan. No, I don’t mean by the puppet
regimes in Seoul and Tokyo, but by the people. Will
they simply dismiss it as hot air or will they be
horrified. I bet for the former reaction. It is
much more psychologically comfortable to dismiss it
all under the heading “nah, that’s crazy shit, they
don’t mean it and they sure as hell ain’t gonna do
it” rather than think for just a few minutes about
the implications and consequences of such a threat.
And let me be clear here: the United States most
definitely
do have the means to totally destroy North
Korea. For one thing, they already did so during
the Korean war, and they can easily repeat that
today. That does not mean that they can win a war
against the DPRK. There is a huge difference
between laying waste to a country and winning a war
against it (see Israel vs Hezbollah). The only way
to meaningfully win a war against the DPRK is to
invade it, and that the Americans cannot do, not
even close. In contrast, the DPRK probably has the
means to invade at least the northern part of South
Korea, including Seoul. At the very least, they can
totally destroy it. Along with much of Japan. I
wonder if the USA decided to one day “protect” South
Korean and Japan by “totally destroying North
Korea”, will they be totally shocked when they
realize that the South Koreans and the Japanese will
turn out not to be grateful for such a “protection”?
Last month I announced a new
strategy for victory in the fight against this
evil in Afghanistan. From now on, our security
interests will dictate the length and scope of
military operation, not arbitrary benchmarks and
timetables set up by politicians. I have also
totally changed the rules of engagement in our
fight against the Taliban and other terrorist
groups.
What we see
here is undeniable evidence that far from being
“real warriors” or “strategists” the military gang
around Trump (Mattis, McMaster, Kelly, etc.) are
either primitive grunts or folks who owe their rank
to political protection. Why do I say that?
Because none of what Trump describes as a “strategy
for victory” is, in fact, a strategy. In fact, the
US has not had anything remotely resembling a
strategy in Afghanistan for years already. If it
wasn’t so sad, it would be laughable, really. What
we really see here is the total absence of any
strategy and, again, a total reliance on magical
thinking. Ask yourself a basic question: have you
ever heard from any Trump administration or any US
General anything which would suggest to you that
these guys have i) a clear goal in mind ii) an
understanding of what it would take to achieve this
goal and iii) a timeframe to achieve this goal and
iv) an exit strategy once this goal is achieved?
No? Well, that is not your fault, you did not miss
anything. They really don’t have it. The amazing
reality is that they don’t have a goal even
defined. How one achieves “victory” when no goal is
even defined is anybody’s guess.
[Sidebar:
without going into a lengthy discussion of
Afghanistan, I would say that the only chance to get
anything done, any viable result at all, is to
negotiate a deal with all the parties that matter:
the various Afghan factions, of course, but also
with the Taliban, Pakistan, Iran and even Russia.
Pakistan and Iran have a de-facto veto power over
any outcome for Afghanistan. This may not be what
the USA would want, but this is the reality.
Denying reality is just not a smart approach to
these issues, especially if “victory” is the goal]
In
Syria and Iraq, we have made big gains toward
lasting defeat of ISIS. In fact, our country has
achieved more against ISIS in the last eight
months than it has in many, many years combined.
The actions of the criminal regime of Bashar
al-Assad, including the use of chemical weapons
against his own citizens, even innocent
children, shock the conscience of every decent
person. No society could be safe if banned
chemical weapons are allowed to spread. That is
why the United States carried out a missile
strike on the airbase that launched the attack.
When I
heard these words I felt embarrassed for Trump.
First, it is absolutely pathetic that Trump has to
claim as his success the victories with the Syrians,
the Russians, the Iranians and Hezbollah have
achieved against the Wahabi-crazies of
Daesh/al-Qaeda/al-Nusra/etc, especially since the
latter are a pure creation of the US CIA! The truth
is that it was the Americans who created this Wahabi
monster and that they aided, protected, financed,
trained and armed it through all these years. The
USA also viciously opposed all the countries which
were serious about fighting this Wahabi
abomination. And now that a tiny Russian contingent
has achieved infinitely better results that all the
power of the mighty CENTCOM backed by the Israeli
and Saudi allies of the USA in the region, The
Donald comes out and declares victory?! Pathetic is
not strong enough a word to describe this
mind-bogglingly counter-factual statement. And
then, just to make things worse, The Donald
*proudly* mentions the failed attack against a
Syrian air force base which had nothing to do with a
false flag fake chemical attack. Wow! For any
other political leader recalling such an event would
be a burning embarrassment, but for The Donald it is
something he proudly mentions. The hubris,
ignorance and stupidity of it all leaves me in total
awe…
Next The
Donald went on a long rant about how bad Maduro and
Venezuela were, which was terrible, but at least
predictable, but then he suddenly decided to share
this outright bizarre insight of his:
The
problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has
been poorly implemented, but that socialism has
been faithfully implemented. From the Soviet
Union to Cuba to Venezuela, wherever true
socialism or communism has been adopted, it has
delivered anguish and devastation and failure.
Since when
did Trump become an expert on political science and
world history anyway? Who does he think he is
lecturing? Yet another US middle school
classroom?! Does he not realize that a good number
of the countries represented at the UN consider
themselves Socialist?! Furthermore, while I don’t
necessarily disagree with the notion that Socialist
and Communist ideas have often been a disaster in
the 20th century, Socialism in the 21st century is
an entirely different beast and the jury is still
very much out on this issue, especially when
considering the social, political, economic,
ecological, psychological and even spiritual
disaster Capitalism is now proving to be for much of
the planet. Being the President of a country as
dysfunctional as the USA, Trump would be
well-advised to tone down his arrogant
pontifications about Socialism and maybe even open a
book and read about it.
I won’t
even bother discussing the comprehensively
counter-factual nonsense Trump has spewed about Iran
and Hezbollah, we all know who Trump’s
puppet-masters are nowadays so we know what to
expect. Instead, I will conclude with this pearl
from The Donald:
In
remembering the great victory that led to this
body’s founding, we must never forget that those
heroes who fought against evil, also fought for
the nations that they love. Patriotism led the
Poles to die to save Poland, the French to fight
for a free France, and the Brits to stand strong
for Britain.
Echoing the nonsense he spoke while in Poland, Trump
is now clearly fully endorsing that fairytale that
“The West” (in which Trump now hilariously includes
Poland!) has defeated Hitler and saved the world.
The truth is that the Nazis were defeated by the
Soviets and that all the efforts of the Poles,
French, Brits and even Americans were but a minor
(20% max) sideshow to the “real event” (Those who
still might believe in this nonsense can simply read
this). Yet again,
that the Americans would feel the need to
appropriate for themselves somebody else’s victory
is, yet again, a clear sign of weakness. Do they
expect the rest of the planet to buy into this
nonsense? Probably not. My guess is that all they
want is to send a clear messages to the
Comprador elites running most countries that
this is the “official ideology of the AngloZionist
Empire” and if they want to remain in power they
better toe the line even if nobody takes this stuff
seriously. Yup, back to a 1980s Soviet kind of
attitude towards propaganda: nobody cares what
everybody else really thinks as long as everybody
continues to
pretend
to believe the official propaganda.
[Sidebar:
When my wife and I watched this pathetic speech we
starting laughing about the fact that Trump was so
obscenely bad that we (almost) begin to miss Obama.
This is a standing joke in our family because when
Obama came to power we (almost) began to miss Dubya.
The reason why this is a joke is that when Duya came
to power we decided that there is no way anybody
could possibly be worse than him. Oh boy were we
wrong! Right now I am still not at the point were I
would be missing Obama (that is asking for a lot
from me!), but I will unapologetically admit that I
am missing Dubya. I do. I really do. Maybe not
the people around Dubya, he is the one who truly let
the Neocon “crazies in the basement” creep out and
occupy the Situation Room, but at least Dubya seemed
to realize how utterly incompetent he was.
Furthermore, Dubya was a heck of a lot dumber than
Obama (in this context being stupid is a mitigating
factor) and he sure did not have the truly galactic
arrogance of Trump (intelligence-wise they are
probably on par)].
In
conclusion, what I take away from this speech is a
sense of relief for the rest of the planet and a
sense of real worry for the USA. Ever since the
Neocons overthrew Trump and made him what is
colloquially referred to as their “bitch” the US
foreign policy has come to a virtual standstill.
Sure, the Americans talk a lot, but at least they
are doing
nothing. That paralysis, which is a direct
consequence of the internal infighting, is a
blessing for the rest of the planet because it
allows everybody else to get things done. Because,
and make no mistake here, if the USA cannot get
anything constructive done any more, they retain a
huge
capability to disrupt, subvert, create chaos and the
like. But for as long as the USA remains paralyzed
this destructive potential remains mostly unused
(and no matter how bad things look now, Hillary
President would have been infinitely worse!).
However, the USA themselves are now the prime victim
of a decapitated Presidency and a vindicative and
generally out of control Neocon effort to prevent
true American patriots to “get their country back”
(as they say) and finally overthrow the regime in
Washington DC. Step by step the USA is getting
closer to a civil war and there is no hope in sight,
at least for the time being. It appears that for
the foreseeable future Trump will continue to focus
his energy on beating Obama for the status of “worst
President in US history” while the Neocons will
continue to focus their energy on trying to impeach
Trump, and maybe even trigger a civil war. The rest
of us living here are in for some very tough times
ahead. As they say in Florida when a hurricane
comes barreling down on you “hunker down”.
The
Essential Saker: from the trenches of the
emerging multipolar world - $27.95
This article was first published by
The Saker
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