U.S. empire is essentially over

SUBHEAD: But the American foreign policy elite eagerly await an expansion of overseas wars under Hillary Clinton.

By Michael Krieger on 20 October 2016 for Liberty Blitzkrieg -
(http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2016/10/20/u-s-foreign-policy-elite-eagerly-await-an-expansion-of-overseas-wars-under-hillary-clinton/)


Image above: Uncle Sam rolling up his sleeves to take on Japan after beating Germany. From (https://www.hakes.com/Auction/ItemDetail/63091/JAPYOURE-NEXT-WWII-UNCLE-SAM-POSTER-BY-FLAGG).

[IB Publisher's note: Both the Left and Right wing of American journalism see the election of Hillary Clinton as an opportunity for War Hawks in America to gain traction on more intense military confrontation on several fronts, particularly Syria and Ukraine. This is about the last moment to dial back on the escalation towards WWIII.] 

Your average American Hillary Clinton supporter will smugly head to the polls on November 8th, entirely self-assured of his or her vital role in the defeat of fascism in these United States.

It won’t take long for such childish delusions to be vanquished by the horror of subsequent reckless and unnecessary imperial conflagrations that will be inevitably unleashed by their savior throughout the world.

The extreme dangers faced by the planet as a result of neocon warmonger Hillary Clinton becoming President have been apparent for a very long time. Oliver Stone and many others have vocally warned about it, and I’ve covered the topic on many occasions; including in the following posts:

Oliver Stone Opines on the Dangerous Extremism of Neocon Clinton
More Troubling Evidence That Hillary Clinton Will Start WW3 – Part 1
More Troubling Evidence That Hillary Clinton Will Start WW3 – Part 2
Lifelong Democrat and Former RFK Speechwriter Supports Trump


Now, courtesy of a newly published article at The Washington Post, we are once again forced to confront this very uncomfortable reality. Here are a few of the more disturbing excerpts from today’s piece:

There is one corner of Washington where Donald Trump’s scorched-earth presidential campaign is treated as a mere distraction and where bipartisanship reigns. In the rarefied world of the Washington foreign policy establishment, President Obama’s departure from the White House — and the possible return of a more conventional and hawkish Hillary Clinton — is being met with quiet relief.

The Republicans and Democrats who make up the foreign policy elite are laying the groundwork for a more assertive American foreign policy via a flurry of reports shaped by officials who are likely to play senior roles in a potential Clinton White House.

It is not unusual for Washington’s establishment to launch major studies in the final months of an administration to correct the perceived mistakes of a president or influence his successor. But the bipartisan nature of the recent recommendations, coming at a time when the country has never been more polarized, reflect a remarkable consensus among the foreign policy elite.

This consensus is driven by broad-based backlash against a president who has repeatedly stressed the dangers of overreach and the limits of American power, especially in the Middle East. “There’s a widespread perception that not being active enough or recognizing the limits of American power has costs,” said Philip Gordon, a senior foreign policy adviser to Obama until 2015. “So the normal swing is to be more interventionist.”

Taken together, the studies and reports call for more-aggressive American action to constrain Iran, rein in the chaos in the Middle East and check Russia in Europe.
The studies, which reflect Clinton’s stated views and the direction she is likely to take if she is elected, break most forcefully with Obama on Syria. Virtually all these efforts, including a report that will be released Wednesday by the liberal Center for American Progress, call for stepped up military action to deter President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and Russian forces in Syria.

This is what passes off as “liberal” these days.

The proposed military measures include calls for safe zones to protect moderate rebels from Syrian and Russian forces. Most of the studies propose limited American airstrikes with cruise missiles to punish Assad if he continues to attack civilians with barrel bombs, as is currently happening in besieged Aleppo. So far, Obama has staunchly resisted any military action against the Assad regime.

Even pinprick cruise missile strikes designed to hobble the Syrian air force or punish Assad would risk a direct confrontation with Russian forces, which are scattered throughout the key Syrian military bases that would be targeted.

“You can’t pretend you can go to war against Assad and not go to war against the Russians,” said a senior administration official who is involved in Middle East policy and was granted anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations.

"Inside the White House, senior administration officials regularly dismissed calls for military force from the foreign policy establishment as the product of “too much college, not enough knowledge,” writes Derek Chollet, a former top Obama administration official, in his new book “The Long Game.”

Other White House officials derisively referred to Washington’s foreign policy experts as “the Blob.”

As much as I’ve criticized Obama for his many costly foreign adventures, he is an absolute peacenik compared to Clinton. Let’s never forget that the biggest foreign policy disaster of his Presidency, the destruction of Libya, was the brainchild of his then Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“Everyone has kind of given up on the Middle East. We have been at it for 15 years, and a lot of Americans think it is hopeless,” Hadley said. “We think it is not.”

What would we do without people like Hadley around to screw things up?

“The dynamic is totally different from what I saw a decade ago” when Democratic and Republican elites were feuding over the invasion of Iraq, said Brian Katulis, a senior Middle East analyst at the Center for American Progress. Today, the focus among the foreign policy elite is on rebuilding a more muscular and more “centrist internationalism,” he said.

This is an absolute disaster waiting to happen. As I tweeted earlier today:

"We stand at a very dangerous moment. The U.S. empire is essentially over, but the emperors haven’t got the memo."

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