OMNI
BIDEN’S FOREIGN POLICY SAME OLD IMPERIAL MILITARISM, NEWSLETTER #1
NOVEMBER 23, 2021
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and
Ecology
omnicenter.org/donate/
CONTENTS 2020-2021
Kuzmarov, Hawk Biden’s Foreign Policy
Prashad, Biden Will Keep the Cold War Rolling
Rich War Hawks in Biden’s Foreign Policy Team
Tom Introduces Alfred McCoy on Biden’s Continuation of Obama’s Pivot toward
China
Amy Frame, “Biden Oks $1 Billion in Weapons Sales to Saudis”
Erica Fine, “Apocalyptically Dangerous” Nuclear Weapons Development
Biden’s Secretary of State Sees No Change in Foreign Policy
TEXTS in chronological order of publication
“Beware of the Hawk: What to Expect
from the Biden Administration on Foreign Policy”
By
Jeremy Kuzmarov on Nov 08, 2020 04:56 am
Millions of people around the world breathed a
sigh of relief with the defeat of Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. election and
victory of the Biden-Harris ticket. Joe
Biden’s victory speech exuded a feeling of optimism in its call for a new era
of bipartisanship and decency in politics. However, it is unlikely that decency
will prevail in the realm of foreign policy.According to a profile in The Atlantic Magazine, Biden prides himself on his close
interpersonal relations with world leaders, which enables the advancement of
mutual foreign policy goals.However, if the leader is unsavory, then these
interpersonal relations become problematic.
Empirical Recalibration
As Vice-President under Barack Obama, Biden
cultivated a close relationship with Iraqi
leader Nouri al-Maliki who was known as the “Shia Saddam” for his sectarian
policies that led to the growth of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(ISIS).
Biden was also very close with Ukrainian President Petro Porosehnko, who was installed in a U.S. backed coup in 2014
and initiated a civil war in Eastern Ukraine that left over 13,000 people dead.[1]
In some circles, Biden
is lauded for being a cautionary voice in the Obama administration on issues of
war and peace.
In fact, he championed drone strikes and
Special Forces operations as an alternative to the heavy deployment of
ground troops, which is the CIAs preferred strategy.
Following the U.S. NATO bombing of Libya,
Biden bragged that “we didn’t lose a single life” and that the war “served as a
prescription for how to deal with the world as we go forward.”[2]
Image of destruction
in Libya. Should this be the prescription for how we deal with the world going
forward? [Source: Boston.com]
This statement is
deeply disturbing in light of the fact that hundreds of Libyans were killed in
U.S. air strikes and the country was left in ruins after its leader, Muammar
Qaddafi was overthrown and lynched.
If this is the
prescription for dealing with the world as we go forward, we are all in
trouble.
From Dove to Hawk
MORE https://covertactionmagazine.com/2020/11/08/beware-of-the-hawk-what-to-expect-from-the-biden-administration-on-foreign-policy/
Biden’s evolution from a dove to a hawk
reached its tragic denouement with his sponsorship of hearings in the Senate that brought together
anti-Saddam dissidents who wanted regime change. Biden through these hearings
helped secure support for the invasion of Iraq which resulted in over a million
deaths. The young idealist who rode the wave of the 1960s protest movements
into office had evolved by this time into a seasoned and unscrupulous political
operator who had sold his soul for power. https://covertactionmagazine.com/2020/11/08/beware-of-the-hawk-what-to-expect-from-the-biden-administration-on-foreign-policy/
Jeremy Kuzmarov is Managing
editor of CovertAction Magazine and author of four books on
U.S. foreign policy including: Obama’s Unending
Wars: Fronting the Foreign Policy of the Permanent Warfare State (Atlanta:
Clarity Press, 2019).
|
Chloe
Rafferty. “ Why the Military Establishment Backed Biden.” Red Flag News. Mronline.org (11-18-20).
The
U.S. military establishment will breathe a sigh of relief at Joe Biden’s
victory in the presidential election. Nearly 800 former high-ranking military
and security officials penned an open letter in support of the Democratic
candidate during the campaign. | more…
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AND Arms Sales, US LEADER AT WEAPONS BAZAAR
Biden OKs $1 Billion in Weapons
Sales to Saudis?
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Dick — during their first year in office, the
Biden administration has approved billions of dollars in weapons sales to
Egypt, India, Israel, the Philippines — and over $1 BILLION in arms sales to
Saudi Arabia alone in just the past few weeks.
All despite these buyers’ dismal human rights
records, poor levels of transparency and accountability of the sales
themselves, and increased insecurity.
It’s just another way the failed status quo of U.S. foreign policy prolongs war and human suffering worldwide — but
that’s where we come in. Our team is pulling out all the stops to
build support to pass legislation to change these rules and finally and
permanently block arms sales to human rights abusers — and we need
your support.
Thanks for all you do
to work for peace.
— Amy
_________________________
Dick — President Biden
has quietly greenlit over $1 BILLION in arms sales to Saudi Arabia in recent
weeks.
But that’s not
all: during their first year in office, the Biden administration has
also approved billions of dollars in weapons sales to Egypt, India, Israel, and
the Philippines — despite their appalling records on human rights. Weapons
from sales like these have been used by oppressive governments to kill their
own people, get sold on the black market in Yemen, and have wound up in the
hands of the Islamic State.
It’s just another way the failed status quo of U.S. foreign policy prolongs war
and human suffering worldwide — but that’s where we come in. Win
Without War is furiously working with allies in Congress to build support to
pass legislation to change these rules and finally block arms
sales to human rights abusers. Our team is pulling out all the stops to
make it happen — and we need your support.
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The United States
sells $170 billion worth of weapons to countries across the globe each year —
despite buyers’ dismal human rights records, poor levels of transparency and
accountability of the sales themselves, and increased insecurity.
The result is more
unchecked weapons sales, more unnecessary violence, more civilian deaths.
But for four years,
the Trump administration ran with it — going on a weapons selling spree to some
of the most despicable dictators and human rights abusers in the world.
We had hoped to turn
the page with a new administration, but ten months in, it’s clear President
Biden will continue to sell weapons to just about whoever wants them.
Like earlier this
month, when the State Department announced it was approving a $650 million sale
of Raytheon-made missiles to Saudi Arabia. With this sale, President Biden is
breaking his promise to us and doing the exact OPPOSITE of what the UN and
other experts tell us would avoid further devastation in Yemen: fueling war
with more U.S.-made weapons.
It’s a story we see
play out again and again across the globe. And it’s got to end.
Congress is how we stop this. As we head into the last few weeks of 2021, we’ve
got an extremely small window of time where we can push Congress to make it
happen — that’s why we need your support to give it all we’ve got.
AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS |
Unnecessary,
apocalyptically dangerous weapons.
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Dick: As a candidate,
President Biden said the United States “does not need new nuclear weapons”
— so it’s mind bending that he’s leading us down the path to a nuclear
weapons heyday.
Biden’s proposed
Pentagon budget includes over $44.5 BILLION for nukes: new navy nukes, a brand
new intercontinental ballistic missile, and nearly $100 MILLION to keep the
last remaining largest U.S. nukes in service. It’s a blowout, and we wish we
were kidding.
But here’s the thing:
Biden’s proposed budget wasn’t entirely his own, it was a holdover from the
last year of the Trump administration. In fact, the Biden administration is
even doing a wholesale review of their nuke policy, called the Nuclear Posture
Review, right now.
That means, we have a
critical opportunity to press pause on a new nuclear arms race and pull
President Biden away from the path he’s on. And our team is seizing the
moment, working behind the scenes with allied Biden officials and
pressuring Congress — doing everything we can — to draw a line
in the sand that sends a loud and clear message: No more nukes.
But to do it, we’ve
got to ramp up our advocacy efforts, raise the alarm in the media, and mobilize
across the movement — and we need your support:
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The reality is that
this flood of cash funds completely unnecessary, apocalyptically dangerous
weapons — it’s a windfall for the weapons industry, but devastating for people
and the planet.
In fact, one of the
biggest risks with nuclear weapons? A simple mistake.
And it’s not
hypothetical. In 1980 a single computer chip failure caused random numbers of
attacking missiles to be displayed on the early-warning attack systems. Three
years ago an emergency alert system told everyone in Hawaii there was an
incoming ballistic missile threat and that people should take shelter
immediately. The message said it was not a test.
Right now, the global
trip wire is incredibly taut as multiple countries ramp up their nuclear
weapons development —greatly increasing the risk of technological error and
human miscalculation. With the United States poised to plow more money to fuel
the fire, every new nuclear weapon we build only increases the tension and
incentivizes others to add to their arsenal.
We’re looking at a new
nuclear arms race — in an even more unpredictable environment. The stakes
couldn’t be higher. We owe it to ourselves and to future generations to never
again allow a nuclear nightmare to unfold. And we’re not alone: President
Biden’s decades of foreign policy experience make him far less hawkish than
defense officials in his own party.
But frankly, that
might not be enough. That’s why we’re working furiously to ensure that the
administration gets their Nuclear Posture Review right, and pushing back on any
funding that might fuel a nuclear arms race.
Together, with your
help Dick, we’ve got to remind the White House, and Congress that we want a
future free from nuclear weapons. It’s part of a wildly ambitious,
multi-pronged and crucially important campaign pushing civil
servants, legislative aids, and lawmakers behind the scenes to stop a global
nuclear nightmare scenario — and we need your support to keep it all going:
As the only country to
use nuclear weapons in conflict, the United States has a moral obligation to
lead the world in ending this threat.
There is no
overstating the devastation of a nuclear war, and we are one small misstep away
from that horror today.
Thank you for working
for peace,
Erica, Amy, Faith, and
the Win Without War team
©
Win Without War 2020
1 Thomas Circle NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005
(202) 656-4999 | info@winwithoutwar.org
Biden’s ‘Secretary of State for regime change’ indicates no change in
U.S. foreign policy.
Mronline.org (1-25-21).
The new secretary
of state served as a senior foreign policy official in the Obama
administration–a period marked by increased global conflict and wars in the
Middle East. | more…
END BIDEN’S MILITARISM NEWSLETTER #1, November
23, 2021
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