<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><div id="container" class="container content-width3 font-size5">
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<div id="moz-reader-content" class="line-height4"><div id="readability-page-1" class="page"><div class="postArticle-content js-postField js-notesSource js-trackedPost" data-post-id="51ea7db498b4" data-source="post_page" data-tracking-context="postPage" data-scroll="native"><section name="cb0c" class="section--body section section--first section--last"><div class="section-content"><div class="sectionLayout--insetColumn section-inner"><figure name="d562" id="d562" class="graf-after--h3 graf--figure graf"><div class="aspectRatioPlaceholder is-locked"></div></figure><p name="141a" id="141a" class="graf--p graf-after--figure graf">Not a lot of people remember this, but George W Bush actually campaigned in 2000 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9SOVzMV2bc" data-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9SOVzMV2bc" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">against the interventionist foreign policy</a>
that the United States had been increasingly espousing. Far from
advocating the full-scale regime change ground invasions that his
administration is now infamous for, Bush frequently used the word
“humble” when discussing the type of foreign policy he favored,
condemning nation-building, an over-extended military, and the notion
that America should be the world’s police force.</p><p name="2cb0" id="2cb0" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">Eight
years later, after hundreds of thousands of human lives had been
snuffed out in Iraq and Afghanistan and an entire region horrifically
destabilized, Obama campaigned against Bush’s interventionist foreign
policy, edging out Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries partly
because she had supported the Iraq invasion while he had condemned it.
The Democrats, decrying the warmongering tendencies of the Republicans,
elected a President of the United States who would see Bush’s
Afghanistan and Iraq and <a href="http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2016/oct/21/jill-stein/jill-stein-green-party-candidate-correct-about-us-/" data-href="http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2016/oct/21/jill-stein/jill-stein-green-party-candidate-correct-about-us-/" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">raise him</a> Libya, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia, along with a <a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-01-17/obamas-covert-drone-war-in-numbers-ten-times-more-strikes-than-bush" data-href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-01-17/obamas-covert-drone-war-in-numbers-ten-times-more-strikes-than-bush" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">tenfold increase in drone strikes</a>. Libya collapsed into a <a href="http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/libya-failed-state-its-americas-fault-23325" data-href="http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/libya-failed-state-its-americas-fault-23325" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">failed state</a> where a <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/libyan-slave-trade-commodification_us_5a4f96a8e4b089e14dba6860" data-href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/libyan-slave-trade-commodification_us_5a4f96a8e4b089e14dba6860" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">slave trade now runs rampant</a>, and <a href="http://www.iamsyria.org/death-tolls.html" data-href="http://www.iamsyria.org/death-tolls.html" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">half a million people died</a> in the Syrian war that Obama and US allies <a href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-war-on-syria-can-show-you-whats-happening-in-our-world-6df7de60fd27" data-href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-war-on-syria-can-show-you-whats-happening-in-our-world-6df7de60fd27" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" target="_blank">exponentially escalated</a>.</p><p name="6ee9" id="6ee9" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">Eight
years later, a reality TV star and WWE Hall-of-Famer was elected
President of the United States by the other half of the crowd who was
sick to death of those warmongering Democrats. Trump campaigned on a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-military/trump-lays-out-non-interventionist-u-s-military-policy-idUSKBN13W06L" data-href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-military/trump-lays-out-non-interventionist-u-s-military-policy-idUSKBN13W06L" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">non-interventionist foreign policy</a>,
saying America should fight terrorists but not enter into regime change
wars with other governments. He thrashed his primary opponents as the
only one willing to unequivocally condemn Bush and his actions, then won
the general election partly by attacking the interventionist foreign
policy of his predecessor and his opponent, and criticizing Hillary
Clinton’s hawkish no-fly zone agenda in Syria.</p><p name="27f6" id="27f6" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">Now he’s <a href="http://dailysignal.com/2017/12/21/trump-approves-us-lethal-weapons-sales-ukraine-angering-moscow/" data-href="http://dailysignal.com/2017/12/21/trump-approves-us-lethal-weapons-sales-ukraine-angering-moscow/" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">approved the selling of arms to Ukraine</a> to use against Russia, a dangerously hawkish move that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/world/europe/defying-obama-many-in-congress-press-to-arm-ukraine.html" data-href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/world/europe/defying-obama-many-in-congress-press-to-arm-ukraine.html" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">even Obama refused to make</a> for fear of increasing tensions with Moscow. His administration has <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2017/9/19/16227730/trump-afghanistan-3000-troops-mattis" data-href="https://www.vox.com/world/2017/9/19/16227730/trump-afghanistan-3000-troops-mattis" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">escalated troop presence in Afghanistan</a> and made it abundantly clear that the Pentagon has <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/jim-mattis-on-syria-were-not-just-going-to-walk-away-after-isis/article/2176990" data-href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/jim-mattis-on-syria-were-not-just-going-to-walk-away-after-isis/article/2176990" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">no intention</a> of leaving Syria anytime soon despite the <a href="https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/11/17/secretary-mattis-off-base-us-military-presence-syria-has-no-legal-grounds.html" data-href="https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/11/17/secretary-mattis-off-base-us-military-presence-syria-has-no-legal-grounds.html" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">absence of any reasonable justification</a> for US presence there. The CIA had <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/cia-creates-new-mission-center-to-turn-up-heat-on-iran-1496426232?mod=e2tw" data-href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/cia-creates-new-mission-center-to-turn-up-heat-on-iran-1496426232?mod=e2tw" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">ratcheted up operations in Iran</a> six months into Trump’s presidency, shortly before the administration began <a href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/us-empire-is-running-the-same-script-with-iran-that-it-ran-with-libya-syria-2bb37b5c5af" data-href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/us-empire-is-running-the-same-script-with-iran-that-it-ran-with-libya-syria-2bb37b5c5af" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" target="_blank">running the exact same script against that country</a> that the Obama administration ran on Libya, Syria and Ukraine.</p><p name="2074" id="2074" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">Maybe US presidents are limited to eight years because that’s how long it takes the public to forget everything.</p><figure name="1084" id="1084" class="graf--figure graf--iframe graf graf-after--p"><div class="aspectRatioPlaceholder is-locked"></div></figure><p name="cdd5" id="cdd5" class="graf--p graf-after--figure graf">In
the lead-up to the November elections those of us on the left who
backed third parties were promised over and over and over again by
Democratic party loyalists that if Hillary Clinton failed to secure the
election there’d be goose-stepping stormtroopers patrolling the streets
and murdering non-whites with impunity, concentration camps for Muslims
and white supremacist extermination programs. Comparisons to Hitler went
on nonstop, and anyone who failed to fall in line with the mainstream
liberal narrative can attest that they were accused of aiding actual,
literal Nazism on a regular basis.</p><p name="a09f" id="a09f" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">A year into Trump’s presidency, and not only did the apocalyptic predictions of national genocide fail to come true, <a href="https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21732561-deportation-has-also-become-considerably-more-random-donald-trump-deporting-fewer-people" data-href="https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21732561-deportation-has-also-become-considerably-more-random-donald-trump-deporting-fewer-people" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">he’s not even deporting as many immigrants as Obama</a>. He is, however, <a href="https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/8xvn8v/more-bombs-more-boots-more-casualties" data-href="https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/8xvn8v/more-bombs-more-boots-more-casualties" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">out-bombing him</a>.</p><p name="3565" id="3565" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">We
were promised another Hitler. Instead, we got another Obama, who was
himself another Bush. The march into corporatist Orwellian police state
at home and globalist oligarchic hegemony abroad continues unhindered
for the United States of America.</p><p name="7a13" id="7a13" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">And
of course that march would have continued had Hillary won as well, it
just would have looked a bit different. Fewer environmental
deregulations, likely catastrophic escalations against the Syrian
government and possibly Russia, the exact same approaches to Iran, just
as much hawkishness toward North Korea but minus the tweets about button
sizes, no attempts at dismantling Obama’s corporatist healthcare plan.
Not much more than that.</p><figure name="047c" id="047c" class="graf--figure graf--iframe graf graf-after--p"><div class="aspectRatioPlaceholder is-locked"></div></figure><p name="6e83" id="6e83" class="graf--p graf-after--figure graf">Nobody
wants to hear this. The Democrats still want to believe that the
sitting president is simultaneously a Nazi, a Kremlin secret agent, an
idiot, and a lunatic, and Trump supporters want to believe that he’s a
populist savior fighting to liberate the nation from the claws of the
deep state. Because of their partisan blinders they will both find
reasons to believe they’ve got a savior or a traitor in the White House
despite the fact that their country’s actual policy and behavior remains
more or less the same.</p><p name="db51" id="db51" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">I <a href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-latter-ebafaadc293c" data-href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-latter-ebafaadc293c" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" target="_blank">still sometimes get Democrats telling me</a>
that Trump is about to flip into Hitler 2.0 any minute now and start
throwing non-whites into extermination camps. Whenever I point out that
they were wrong about their “your choices are Hillary or Hitler”
alarmism I get a bunch of them telling me “give him time”. Well he’s had
time. They were wrong. They didn’t get a Nazi, they got another shitty
neocon. And since the Dems have been paced into alignment with the
neocons there’s no one left to oppose their agendas, which is why we’re
seeing so little pushback on Trump’s Iran saber rattling.</p><p name="f42f" id="f42f" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">I
get Trump supporters telling me that he’s fighting the deep state, but
the only way you can believe that at this point is to redefine “deep
state” to mean “Democrats and their supporters”, which would actually
just be more partisan bickering, which is all we’re actually seeing at
this point. The only people you see pushing the collusion narrative and
working for impeachment at this point are Democrats and Never-Trumpers;
now that Trump has proven himself a good, compliant little boy the
intelligence community has been putting its energy into the anti-detente
propaganda effort to manufacture support for its new cold war
escalations instead.</p><p name="2ac6" id="2ac6" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">The
MAGA crowd tells me their guy has de-escalated the Syrian situation in
an attempt to paint him as less pro-war than his predecessor, but that’s
not even true either. Until US troops actually leave Syria, all this
administration has done is kill a bunch of people (<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/08/america-is-bombing-the-hell-out-of-syrian-civilians/" data-href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/08/america-is-bombing-the-hell-out-of-syrian-civilians/" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">many of them civilians</a>),
occupy parts of a sovereign nation, and refuse to leave. Why are those
troops still there when Syria and its allies are perfectly capable of
handling any remaining traces of ISIS as they have been? No good reason,
that’s for sure.</p><figure name="67d5" id="67d5" class="graf--figure graf--iframe graf graf-after--p"><div class="aspectRatioPlaceholder is-locked"></div></figure><p name="c42a" id="c42a" class="graf--p graf-after--figure graf">This
is not the fault of the American people. The American people
consistently vote against interventionist wars (as evidenced by the fact
that winning presidential candidates have to campaign against them),
and while they may be guilted by the tribe into flag-waving once the
troops are there, they consistently say no to every request for consent
for more empire-building wars. In my <a href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/us-empire-is-running-the-same-script-with-iran-that-it-ran-with-libya-syria-2bb37b5c5af" data-href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/us-empire-is-running-the-same-script-with-iran-that-it-ran-with-libya-syria-2bb37b5c5af" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" target="_blank">recent article</a>
about how the CNN/CIA narrative is running the same script for Iran as
they did for Libya and Syria, most of the pushback I received was from
good people who wanted to make sure I knew that they didn’t consent to
military intervention, they were simply offering their support for the
people of Iran.</p><p name="5b1a" id="5b1a" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">Which
is about as naive and sweet as a kid wanting to help the nice old man
find his puppy. I understand you wanting to help find the puppy America,
but for God’s sake please don’t get in that man’s van.</p><p name="3aaf" id="3aaf" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">So
the will of the American people has been heard loud and clear. They do
not consent to more regime change wars and more military interventions.
They do not want that.</p><p name="cec8" id="cec8" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">Through
the trickery of the mainstream media though, they are paced by
fear-mongering and guilting into a reluctant, bargaining, “Well okay
then…” consent which is quickly turned over into flag-waving enthusiasm
because you have to support your troops, don’tchaknow? And I get that!
Everyone knows a serviceman or woman; you don’t want to make them feel
sad or like their life is being wasted. That’s such a tragedy! Who wants
to make that conscious?</p><p name="4c85" id="4c85" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">Let’s
be clear, too: the troops are often from some of the finest of working
and middle-class families across the States, families whose strong sense
of morality about right and wrong led their young sons and daughters to
make the courageous decision to enter the armed forces. These young men
and women were born with the most exemplary of desires. They want to
make the world a better place and they are willing to make the ultimate
sacrifice to do so. People love these families and they love their
children.</p><p name="8e3e" id="8e3e" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">These
young people really are our best new humans. They are so committed to
the highest interest that they would put aside their self-interest to do
so. Do you know how rare that quality is in a human? And these young
people are being taken from us young, whether that be by death or by
destroying their beautiful minds as they are warped by the war machine
into thinking that evil is good. Taken and used to pump up the egos of a
selfish few.</p><p name="dc83" id="dc83" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">In
a healthy culture, the highest interest would dictate the desires of
these young men and women. Unfortunately, the “highest interest” which
should be assessed by the will of the people, is not being heard. It is
not being enacted. The will of the people has repeatedly said that it
does <em class="markup--p-em markup--em">not</em> want to send these
young people off to kill another country’s young people to shore up the
share portfolios of a few cancerous beings. <span class="markup--quote markup--p-quote is-other" name="anon_2e1719c237fc" data-creator-ids="anon">The will of the people consistently says <em class="markup--p-em markup--em">no</em>
to that, but it has been corralled by a small group of bloodthirsty
vampires, parasites who will happily lay any amount of young bodies to
waste to win their tiny dick battles until they are finally satisfied
with the amount of zeroes on their bank statements.</span></p><p name="b8bb" id="b8bb" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">Spoiler alert: they never will be.</p><figure name="6775" id="6775" class="graf--figure graf--iframe graf graf-after--p"><div class="aspectRatioPlaceholder is-locked"></div></figure><p name="21bb" id="21bb" class="graf--p graf-after--figure graf">Americans
talk about “seeing through the partisan bullshit” of US politics like
it’s some kind of magical superpower, but it’s not. Both parties act in
slightly different ways toward the exact same ends, <a href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/dems-and-gop-work-together-like-a-boxers-1-2-punch-to-knock-you-out-edbbefc92bf8" data-href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/dems-and-gop-work-together-like-a-boxers-1-2-punch-to-knock-you-out-edbbefc92bf8" class="markup--p-anchor markup--anchor" target="_blank">working together like the jab-cross combination of a boxer</a>
to advance the same warmongering, corporatist oligarchic agendas, and
there’s no reason to believe any of them about anything. America has two
corporatist war parties who serve a plutocratic class of elites; one of
them wears a cowboy hat, the other has pink hair. That’s it. That’s all
you need to see to free yourself from the illusion.</p><p name="98fd" id="98fd" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">Please
stop attacking one another for the evils that have been inflicted on
you by this small group of sociopaths, America. Stop buying into the
two-party good cop/bad cop schtick that the elites use to turn urban
Americans against rural Americans and turn your anger toward your real
enemies.</p><div class="">—Caitlin Johnstone</div><p name="4080" id="4080" class="graf--p graf-after--p graf">____________</p></div></div></section></div></div></div></div></div></div><a href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/trump-isnt-another-hitler-he-s-another-obama-51ea7db498b4" class="">https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/trump-isnt-another-hitler-he-s-another-obama-51ea7db498b4</a><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">###</div></body></html>