Needs to build a sunblock wall and fast!
In a speech remarkable for his weak, quavering voice and increasingly brown appearance, former President Donald Trump called for America to "step back" from supporting Ukraine against the unprovoked Russian invasion, while also calling for the dismantling of the entire international security order, including NATO,
In the speech, which was simply an end-to-end recycling of Russian shill talking points, Trump called the complete withdrawal of American power to America's borders an "America First" policy, and said that any attempts to maintain alliances and an international order outside America were simply the actions of "warmongering Neocons."
In fact, a low-information American voter (about 90%) might even have got the impression that Ukraine had somehow invaded Russia, instead of the other way round, before pointing to the wrong place on a map.
Brown Trump is basically voicing Putin's pleas for peace because the Russian army is -- surprise! surprise! - losing the war and Putin wants out while he's still ahead on land acquisition. pic.twitter.com/1qz3B0qyi1
— Colin Liddell (@cbliddell) March 18, 2023
It is not yet clear why Trump made such a stupid speech. It may simply be a campaigning strategy to mobilise the populist dregs of the Republican Party to overcome the more sensible leadership elements, in order to ensure his selection as the party's presidential candidate. In that case, once Trump has secured the nomination or won re-election, he can be expected to "mainline" his position in line with the US power establishment and to support the international NATO-based order. Whether the Ukrainian War will still be continuing at that point is another question.
The other possibility is that Trump is an actual Russian asset and has been ordered by his Russian master Putin to beg for peace like a little bitch. The war is not going well for Putin, as sanctions and oil price capping start to bite. Also, he is probably going to get his arse well and truly kicked by the coming Ukrainian Spring Offensive.
Whichever it is -- internal GOP politics or Russia-asset-maxxing -- the Russians are lapping up this geopolitical moron show. This reveals that Trump's real base has always been located in a large colourful building in downtown Moscow with onion minarets on top.
Trump is basically just repeating what IR realists like Mearshimer and Walt have been saying for years and mixing it with some red meat to conservative primary voters. The best outcome is a Finlandized Ukraine and a quick end to the war so fewer people die and hostilities don't escalate further. Russia nuclear doctrine is that they will "escalate to de-escalate", so if they are getting their asses kicked by the Ukrainian Spring Offensive and Biden is talking about regime change, nuclear war breaking out would be a serious concern. In past articles you mocked the idea that Ukraine could be a neutral buffer state, as if there isn't historical precedent for this in Finland, Sweden, Austria, and Yugoslavia during the Cold War, or Belgium during the 1800s. Buffer states are a thing.
ReplyDeleteRussia does not threaten Central or Western Europe like the USSR once did, so US military intervention, much less regime change, is not needed. Walt has argued that the US should only get seriously involved on the continent to prevent an aggressive state seeking hegemony, like NSDAP Germany or the USSR. The idea repeated by people like Peter Zeihan that Russia has designs on Poland or the Baltic is a joke and would be a joke even if the Russia military wasn't underperforming in Ukraine.
The idea that the Europeans should contribute a bigger share to NATO is totally reasonable and often proposed by European leaders like Macron. Trump did not call for "dismantling" NATO in the speech or recalling all US military assets to the border. He called for "dismantling" the "globalist neocon establishment", which is a more abstract concept--really just red meat-- and "re-evaluating NATO's mission". You are free to disagree with these viewpoints, but it is wrong to simply dismiss them as Russian propaganda, or mischaracterize them, or conflate these reasonable views with bizarre fringe far-right ideas that the Russia are also probably promoting ("New Khazaria").
Almost all political commentary, and even academic poli-sci stuff, is funded either by wealthily domestic donors or foreign governments or other foreign actors. The Moonies own the Washington Times. The Falun Gong own the Epoch Times. Bezos owns the Washington Post. Paul Singer owns the Washington Free Beacon. Beltway libertarianism is a creation of the Koch Bros. The non-neo-nazi far-right exists because of John Tanton and that one racist Regenery family member. The US conservative movement exists because of the other, less racist Regenerys, the oil industry, and some other billionaires. Rod Drehr just lost his blog at the American Conservative because the one millionaire donor who paid Rod's entire six figure salary pulled the funding. TAC itself exists because of the Greek billionaire Taki Thera-whatsit and the Revlon hair products heir. David Brooks and George Will also have wealthy patrons with ulterior motives, it isn't just Counterpunch or the alt-right. You need to engage with the actual arguments and just take it for granted that someone is paying the commentator to make political comments for a living. Unz Review is shit because the articles on it are insane and stupid, not because the Russians pay for it. The only people publishing political commentary without these types of donors are low engagement anon accounts and random people one might argue about politics with at the pub. High engagement anon accounts are presumably some kind of op, or they graduate into having sponsors once they reach a certain level of exposure, or they are pushed into popularity through an algorithm. The politicians themselves have donors too--if anything Trump is more of an exception to this because he was able to partially self-fund his first campaign and, like Bernie Sanders, he gets a lot of small donations from middle class supporters.
An impressive wall of text. None of it is accurate though. Stop watching Fox News.
DeleteJust some advice. In college, when writing, the goal is to pack as much info as possible into a compact sentence or paragraph. Less words. More substantial information.
DeleteParagraphs are great. Google if.