[Peace-discuss] [Peace] NPR: “US military withdrawal caused Turkish invasion”

Tue Oct 15 18:15:46 UTC 2019

Yes, I wrote it.

===

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1

On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 2:00 PM David Johnson <davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net>
wrote:

> Did you write this Bob ?
>
>
>
> Very good article, and my compliments if you are the author.
>
>
>
> David johnson
>
>
>
> *From:* Peace [mailto:peace-bounces at lists.chambana.net] *On Behalf Of *Robert
> Naiman via Peace
> *Sent:* Tuesday, October 15, 2019 9:29 AM
> *To:* peace
> *Subject:* [Peace] NPR: “US military withdrawal caused Turkish invasion”
>
>
>
>
>
> The alarm went off at 6 AM, and *Fair and Balanced* National Pentagon
> Radio “informed” me that the cause of the Turkish invasion of northern
> Syria was that Trump withdrew U.S. troops from northern Syria  [U.S. troops
> whose presence Congress never authorized, U.S. troops whose presence was
> therefore unconstitutional.]
>
>
>
> This is the story that pro-war, pro-Empire legacy US media are selling to
> the American people right now. See, we told you so. Withdraw the US
> military from anywhere, catastrophe will ensue. This is the Blob worldview.
> This is the neocon worldview. This is the Richard Haass-John Bolton-James
> Stavridis-Paul Wolfowitz-Nikki Haley-Samantha Power-Dennis Ross-Lindsey
> Graham-Eliot Engel worldview. The solution to every problem is more US
> military power. “If all you have is a hammer, every problem is a nail.”
> Anyone who wants to withdraw US military power from anywhere is an
> uncaring, heartless, John Bircher isolationist. This is why these people
> hate Article I of the Constitution. This is why these people hate the War
> Powers Resolution. These people see the Constitution and the War Powers
> Resolution as annoying obstacles which might interfere with the hegemony of
> their worldview that the solution to every problem is more US military
> power.
>
>
>
> We few, we happy, happy few, know that the Blob-neocon-NPR story is a lie.
>
>
>
> Brett McGurk is no pacifist. Brett McGurk is no isolationist. Brett McGurk
> is no hippy-dippy flower child, no latte-sipping liberal surrender monkey,
> no latter-day Neville Chamberlain.
>
>
>
> Brett McGurk was Trump’s envoy to the coalition against ISIS. Brett McGurk
> believes in what he considers to be the appropriate use of US military
> power. Brett McGurk believes in international military alliances.
>
>
>
> In 2018, Brett McGurk, knowing that Trump wanted to get out of northern
> Syria – as he had promised the American people he would do as a candidate -
> pushed for the Administration to help the US’ Syrian Kurdish military
> partners negotiate a deal with the Syrian government and Russia. Exactly
> the thing that former Obama official Rob Malley, now [again] with the
> International Crisis Group, says the Trump Administration should have done,
> that’s exactly what Brett McGurk wanted to do. Brett McGurk behaved exactly
> the way an Administration official is supposed to behave in such a
> situation. The democratically elected US President sets the broad
> direction. Administration officials try to figure out how to implement the
> broad policy that the President has established in a way that maximizes
> benefit and minimizes harm.
>
>
>
> Why did Brett McGurk fail? Because he was sabotaged by John Bolton and the
> neocons, who didn’t want a deal, because the thing they cared about wasn’t
> protecting the Kurds. The thing that the neocons cared about was their
> geopolitical chess game with Russia and Iran. The question neocons ask
> themselves isn’t, “What’s good for America?” The question neocons ask
> themselves is, “What would do the most to hurt ‘U.S. adversaries?’” –
> where, of course, the neocons get to unilaterally determine who the ‘U.S.
> adversaries’ are in the situation – even if the neocons’ proposed U.S.
> policies would also hurt America, more than real diplomacy with ‘U.S.
> adversaries’ [i.e. the neocons’ adversaries] would.
>
>
>
> What is the moral of this story?
>
>
>
> “Personnel is policy.”
>
>
>
> What did neocons Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz do when they saw Colin
> Powell as an obstacle inside the Bush Administration to their efforts to
> invade Iraq and overthrow its government? They created a “cabal” inside the
> Bush Administration – that’s what it was called, “the cabal,” I’m not the
> one bringing the word “cabal” to the conversation – to push for war with
> Iraq, and excluded Colin Powell from it. They saw U.S. intelligence
> agencies as an obstacle to their desired war, so they created their own
> “intelligence” apparatus inside the Pentagon. That was the genesis of the
> Valerie Plame–Joe Wilson–Scooter Libby scandal. Valerie Plame, a CIA
> employee who was an expert in WMD, tried to push back against Rumsfeld and
> Wolfowitz’ cabal, that had determined that they wanted to invade Iraq by
> any means necessary, and was determined to “fix the intelligence” to
> engineer the outcome that they wanted. In a way, Valerie Plame belongs in a
> higher circle of heaven than Joe Wilson. Joe Wilson was a whistleblower.
> Valerie Plame was just trying to do her job as a U.S. government employee,
> defending America from Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz’ “cabal.”
>
>
>
> What is the moral of this story?
>
>
>
> “Personnel is policy.”
>
>
>
> If the POTUS wants to withdraw U.S. military power from anywhere, if the
> POTUS wants to pursue real diplomacy with Blob-defined, neocon-defined
> ‘U.S. adversaries,’ the POTUS needs to populate a Blob-free, neocon-free
> Administration. There is no “half-pregnant” when it comes to populating
> your Administration with neocons and Blob loyalists. The right number of
> neocons in any Administration is zero. The right number of Blob loyalists
> in any Administration is zero. When Sheldon Adelson = Haim Saban comes and
> says, “You need to hire this person, you need to hire John Bolton = Dennis
> Ross,” the POTUS needs to say,
>
>
>
> “I take no delight in your feasts, to the melody of your harps I will not
> listen…”
>
>
>
> It makes no difference to this matter who we elect as President, as long
> as we don’t purge the neocons and the Blob loyalists.
>
>
>
> ===
>
>
> Robert Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
>
> (202) 448-2898 x1
>
>
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20191015/f380e8dd/attachment-0001.htm>