“It is of first importance that the military be subordinate to civilian
government”
― John Rawls
The 72nd meeting of the United Nations was
destined to be an absolute fiasco with Trump’s foreign policy abducted by the
same war mongering lunatics that populated the George W. Bush and Barack Obama
Administrations. The agenda for Trump’s
debut as Leader of the Free World, was laid out in advance by U.N. Ambassador
Nikki Haley and Trump National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster.
With absolute zeal and elated excitement of kids on
Christmas Eve knowing they are about to get everything they ever wanted, Haley
and McMaster laid the groundwork for what would be an unmitigated disaster at
the U.N., “Neocons gone wild, Rocket Man vs. the Dotard.”
In a televised press conference, McMaster and Haley teased out
the neocon’s highlights of what could be expected at the UN with neocons in
complete control over American foreign policy.
According to McMaster, Trump’s neocon written speech will lecture the
attendees on 1) promoting peace, 2) promoting prosperity and 3) upholding the
sovereignty and accountability of all nations.
These 3 pillars are in direct contradiction to every action
taken by the neocons since they seized control over the American government in
2000. The speech should have been
entitled “Do as I say, not as I do.”
From Paul Craig Roberts:
Excerpt:
Trump’s UN Speech
I listened to part of Trump’s UN speech this morning. I was
so embarrassed for him and for my country that I had to turn it off. I wonder if whoever wrote the deplorable
speech intended to embarrass Trump and inadvertently embarrassed America as
well, or whether the speechwriter(s) is so imbued
with the neoconservative arrogance and hubris of our time that the speechwriter was simply blind to the
extraordinary contradictions that stood out like sore thumbs all through
the speech…
Trump went on at great length about
how America respects the sovereignty of
every country and the people’s will of every country, and how the US,
despite its overwhelming military power, never
tries to impose its will on any country…
What about Yugoslavia/Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Egypt,
Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Crimea, Ukraine, Venezuela, Honduras, Ecuador, Bolivia,
Brazil, Argentina, just to mention countries in the 21st century that have
been subjected to US military attacks, government overthrows, and removals
of political leaders who did not conform to US interests..?
I heard Trump complain that the UN Human Rights commission had as members countries
with the worst human rights records of
our time, and I wondered if he was talking about the United States.
Clearly, Trump, the speechwriter(s), the
State Department, the National Security Council, the US Ambassador to the UN, indeed the entire
administration, do not think that the
endless slaughter, maiming, orphaning, widowing, and dispossessing of millions
of peoples in many countries, producing waves of refugees, comprise human
rights violations.
The arrogance conveyed by Trump’s speech
is unprecedented.
The Trump of today is sounding a lot like George W. Bush and
Barack Obama, advocating for more war, extended war in Afghanistan, expanded
war in Syria, urging war with North Korea, demanding war with Iran. So what happened? Trump is being held hostage by the generals
who have successfully conducted a military coup in America. The Military Industrial Complex’s
handmaidens, the generals have now taken over the American Government. From Mint Press:
Excerpt:
Let’s Call “Trump’s Generals” What They Are: A Military Junta
Trump is fond of boasting about
“his” generals. But over the short course of his presidency’s first months, the
possession and control have reversed themselves. Mattis, McMaster, and Kelly have
banished all opposition and now pour the neo-con agenda straight into Trump’s
ear.
WASHINGTON – The U.S., long known
for its meddling in the affairs of other nations, also has a long and sordid history of supporting military juntas abroad,
many of which it forced into power through
bloody coups or behind-the-scenes power grabs…
Finally in 2017, karma appears to have come back to roost, as the current
presidential administration has now effectively morphed into what is, by
definition, a military junta.
…in the administration of President Donald Trump a group of military
officers has gathered unprecedented power and, for all intents and
purposes, rules the country.
Three generals at the center of power
In a recent article in The
Washington Post, titled “Military Leaders Consolidate Power In Trump
Administration,” Post reporters Robert Costa and Philip Rucker noted that “At
the core of Trump’s circle is a seasoned
trio of generals with experience as battlefield commanders: White House Chief of Staff John F.
Kelly, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster.
“This is the only time in modern presidential history when we’ve had
a small number of people from the uniformed world hold this much influence over
the chief executive,” John E. McLaughlin, a former acting director of
the CIA…
Although Trump is fond of calling them “my generals,” they now… “manage
Trump’s hour-by-hour interactions and whisper in his ear – and those whispers,
as with the decision this week to expand U.S. military operations in
Afghanistan, often become policy…” “The
Generals Have Trump Surrounded.”
Also notable is the fact that this trio of generals has overseen the firing
of more independent, “outsider” voices, notably Derek Harvey and Steve
Bannon. Bannon, in particular,
was a thorn in the side of the generals, in light primarily of his staunch
opposition to the American “empire project” and new wars abroad… The
New York Times referred to McMaster as Bannon’s “nemesis in the West Wing,” precisely due to McMaster’s commitment to
American empire building.
With Bannon’s relatively recent
departure… the Trump administration – now unequivocally ruled by “the generals…”
as illustrated by Trump’s decision to send thousands more troops to
Afghanistan, a measure both Bannon and
Trump himself once opposed… Politico
published a report detailing the control exercised by Kelly over the
president, as he personally vets
“everything” that comes across Trump’s desk.
Politico referenced two memos that laid out a system “designed to ensure that the president won’t see any external policy
documents, internal policy memos, agency reports and even news articles that
haven’t been vetted…”
H.R. McMaster, who took control of the National Security Council
(NSC) following Flynn’s ouster in February, has been… personally controlling the flow of national security
information that makes it to the president… McMaster has drawn more ire than any other of
“Trump’s generals… and has actively
pushed for a ground war in Syria and a massive 50,000-troop surge in
Afghanistan.
The new model of command that arose
involved “pre-delegating authority to
Mattis… Since the great “war power giveaway,” Mattis has overseen the expansion of every theater of war Trump
inherited from his predecessor…
This likely owes to both Mattis’ and McMaster’s allegiance to
notorious neo-cons and war hawks… Though
the generals are in control and their junta established, they are not the ones
calling the shots… The military-industrial complex and the ever-hawkish
neoconservatives have taken over, refusing
to let the anti-interventionism the American people voted for make itself
heard…
By dehumanizing others, among many other things, these people are also
aiding the neocons and other forces of darkness to justify more war, more
suffering, and more destruction. ~
Mohammad Marandi
The extent of the lunacy of “The military-industrial complex
and the ever-hawkish neoconservatives” was on full display at the United
Nations meeting. The sophomoric peppering
of President Trump’s speech with the pejorative “Rocket Man” insults hurled at
North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un, exemplified the disdain the neocon’s hold, not only
for other world leaders but for peace itself.
From Aljazeera:
Excerpt:
'Tensions to rise' after Trump's
North Korea comments
Analysts say US president's fiery
language against North Korea and its leader distances the prospect of
negotiations… Using what was described
as "unprecedented" language,
Trump made his debut address at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday.
In a wide-ranging 45-minute speech, the most anticipated foreign policy
address of his tenure, Trump vowed that the US would "totally
destroy" North Korea if it is forced to defend itself or its
allies.
He also mocked Kim Jong-un, North Korea's leader, saying: "Rocket Man is on a suicide mission
for himself and for his regime. The United States is ready, willing and
able, but hopefully, this will not be necessary."
"I expected him to talk tough
and strong - but I did not expect him to talk quite that tough and quite that
strongly," said Donald Kirk, a journalist and author of several books on
Korea.
He said Trump's remarks made the prospect of negotiations extremely unlikely. "North Koreans are not going to back
down - if anything they are going to increase the tempo of their
programme," Kirk told Al Jazeera from South Korea's capital, Seoul.
"I think we can forget about North Korea saying, 'let's go to
negotiations.'"
Kirk also said he expected that Trump's fiery approach would not be
adopted by other leaders who are otherwise highly critical of North
Korea's actions…
'Neoconservative line'
Mark Farha, assistant professor of
international relations at the Doha Institute, said that Trump had - once again
- embraced an interventionist foreign policy... he
adopted squarely a neoconservative line of regime change and war in
fact," Farha told Al Jazeera. "He
is trying to square the circle, because ... IF YOU HAD A POLL [IN THE US] 75
PERCENT OF PEOPLE WOULD BE AGAINST ESCALATION against Iran and North Korea, but here is Trump harking back to the
neoconservatives…"
"North Korea now has the script and the excuse to why they need
the [nuclear] programme," he told Al Jazeera. "If they haven't
got one they need to work very quickly to develop one if they have that direct
threat."
As was perfectly predictable, Kim Jong-Un responded in
like. From Slate:
Excerpt:
North Korea’s Kim Jong-un Responds to Trump, Calling Him a “Mentally
Deranged Dotard”
On Thursday, North Korean leader
Kim Jong-un responded to President Trump’s United Nations address in the pair’s
escalating nuclear rhetoric, saying in a statement that Trump would “pay dearly” for his speech where the president referred to
Kim as “Rocket Man” and threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea.
“I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard
with fire,” Kim continued in a statement released by the official Korean
Central News Agency.
The neocons and the generals used the 72nd
meeting of the United Nations to spit in the face of the world, who was
awaiting President Trump’s debut on the world stage. Much was anticipated from the President who
was elected on a platform in direct contrast to the warmongering globalist
agenda of Bush/Obama. Trump promised to “Make
America Great Again” by putting America and the American people first. But Trump’s agenda has been trashed by the
generals and neocons who desire stealing trillions from the American treasury
to wage wars of aggression.
One could say that the current crisis in North Korea was
created by Bush and Obama’s fealty to the neocon agenda. Just look at the fate of countries who agreed
to give up their nuclear ambitions. From
The Intercept:
Excerpt:
TRUMP INTEL CHIEF: NORTH KOREA
LEARNED FROM LIBYA WAR TO “NEVER” GIVE UP NUKES
THE MEDIA IS NOW filled with
headlines about North Korea’s missile test on Friday, which demonstrated that
its ICBMs may be able to reach the continental U.S. What isn’t mentioned in any of these stories is how we got to this
point — in particular, what Dan Coats, President Donald Trump’s director of
national intelligence, explained last week at the Aspen Security Forum.
North Korea’s 33-year-old dictator
Kim Jong-un is not crazy, said Coats. In fact, he has “some rationale backing
his actions” regarding the country’s nuclear weapons. That rationale is the way
the U.S. has demonstrated that North
Korea must keep them to ensure “survival for his regime, survival for his
country…”
In particular, “The lessons that we learned out of Libya giving up its nukes
… is, unfortunately: If you had nukes,
never give them up. If you don’t have them, get them.”
This is, of course, blindingly
obvious and has been since the U.S.
helped oust longtime Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011. But
U.S. officials have rarely if ever acknowledged this reality. Here’s the
timeline:
In December 2003, Libya announced that it would surrender its
biological and chemical weapons stockpiles, as well as its rudimentary
nuclear weapons program.
In celebrating Libya’s decision, President George W. Bush declared that
the rest of the world should take away the message that “leaders who abandon the pursuit of chemical, biological and
nuclear weapons, and the means to deliver them, will find an open path to
better relations with the United States and other free nations…”
In 2011, the U.S. and NATO conducted a bombing campaign to assist
Libyan rebels in overthrowing the Gaddafi government. Gaddafi himself was
captured by one rebel faction, who apparently sodomized him with a bayonet and
then killed him…
And, indeed, North Korea said this explicitly at the time. Its foreign ministry
stated, “The Libyan crisis is teaching
the international community a grave lesson,” which was that the deal to rid
Libya of weapons of mass destruction had been “an invasion tactic to disarm the country.”
The neocon’s presentation at the 72nd meeting of
the United Nations was a disgusting, belligerent, ignorant neocon view of a
subservient world, cowering before an imperialist master, America. What the world hoped for at the UN Meeting
from President Trump was a vision of a new world of peace, cooperation and
rebuilding but what they got was “Neocons gone wild, Rocket Man vs. the
Dotard.”
By Patricia Baeten
