EDITORIAL
Strategic Culture Foundation
How do we know there will be no change from the election of Donald Trump or Joe Biden? Because they are essentially two faces on either side of the same coin. This is more self-evident after the Republican national convention this week officially nominating Trump for the presidency which followed the Democratic convention last week putting forward Joe Biden as their candidate in the November election.
Both parties are wrapping themselves around the flag in a competition of jingoism and chauvinism. Literally. Speakers for either party have as mandatory backdrop, the ubiquitous stars and stripes bristling with nationalism as props. Republican and Democrats alike are increasingly talking up militarism in foreign policy, and about which candidate will be stronger against “adversaries”, about who will show the world more American “power”.
Regardless of who wins the presidency, the world will have to endure more rogue-state conduct by the U.S.
Republican incumbent President Trump claimed this week: “This is the most important election in the history of our country. At no time before have voters faced a clearer choice between two parties, two visions, two philosophies, or two agendas.”
Trump is as deluded as Biden is. There is no fundamental distinction between the two parties that are trusty instruments of American corporate capitalism and its imperialist warmongering. There may be cosmetic differences in tone regarding domestic policies. The Republicans, for example, have a more strident emphasis on “law and order”. But in terms of foreign policy and international relations, both parties function as different brands of the de facto War Party.
The inescapable corollary of this fact is that every U.S. administration regardless of political stripe has been involved in overseas wars, subversions and proxy conflicts since at least the Second World War, if not before. Sometimes promises are made to the electorate about ending this or that war, but inevitably the promises are always broken. Why? Because U.S. power under its prevailing capitalist system and oligarchic class structure relies on war-making for its very existence.
The unspoken but nonetheless existing War Party is bipartisan. It is sustained by a deep-state establishment of unelected strategic planners, military-industrial complex, security-intelligence apparatus, careerist politicians, lobbyists and the corporate nexus of Wall Street and big business. Trump uses populist language about “draining the swamp”. But he is part of the oligarchic swamp and its deep-state manifestations, as are his Democratic petty rivals like Joe Biden. Trump is a helpless flunkey of warmongering as much as Biden has been over his 47 years as a Congressman and former Vice President when he voted for every one of the many wars that the U.S. launched during those decades.
Under the Trump administration (a nominal term mind you, given the deep state-controlled War Party), U.S. military aggression around the world has not stopped, as he vowed to do when he ran in the last election in 2016. Since then, international tensions with China, Russia and Iran have become dangerously hotter.
The reality of the two parties of American imperialism is that they are but a rotating corporate dictatorship that is predicated on war, war and more war. Again, that is because war is an essential function of American corporate capitalism.
A minor difference is one of style. Trump’s boorish and egotistical manner has alienated many of Washington’s subordinates, euphemistically referred to as “allies”. This has, in turn, undermined American “leadership” which is a euphemism for hegemony and military power projection.
Hence, former Republican, military and intelligence officials have rallied behind Biden instead of endorsing Trump. They know that the Democrats are more attuned to the current stylistic needs for revamping American power. Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State in the GW Bush administration, has joined other former Republicans in backing Biden. Powell, a former army general who notoriously helped launch the U.S. war on Iraq in 2003 with outrageous lies, told the Democratic national convention last week: “With Joe Biden in the White House, you will never doubt that he will stand with our friends and stand up to our adversaries… a president we will be proud to salute.”
Biden will better endeavor to restore American power over subordinate “allies” and their warmongering machine known as NATO.
Biden is trying to outdo Trump in talking about being “more tough” on Russia and China. For his part, Trump claims that no-one is tougher on Russia or China than him.
Make no mistake. There is only party standing in the forthcoming U.S. presidential election. It’s the War Party.
A ridiculous American conceit is seen from petty bipartisan quarreling seeking to portray foreign powers vying to influence the election outcome. U.S. intelligence agencies claim that Russia is endeavoring to meddle in order to get Trump re-elected, while China and Iran are allegedly hedging their bets on Biden winning. This is idle conspiratorial thinking based on American paranoia and delusion. For the rest of the world knows already that neither “face” will make a difference to the core of American aggression.
No comments:
Post a Comment