MSC 2023 Attracts Historic Number of Congressional Attendees
By Renee Parsons
This is no small coincidence or perhaps no coincidence at all. Formed in 1963 which is long ago enough to be currently inconsequential, the MSC aspires to provide a platform for the ruling class on international diplomacy regarding security and foreign policy challenges. Its Munich Security Report 2023 “explores intensifying authoritarian revisionism and the growing contest between different visions for the international order. It also stimulates the debate on how the coalition defending the vision of a liberal, rules-based order can be enlarged and strengthened.”
The key phrase here is ‘intensifying authoritarian revisionism” rather than eliminating ‘authoritarian revisionism’ while defending its ‘vision’ of a US invented “rules-based order.” It is that ‘vision’ upon which the extraneous United Nations functions and upon which the Biden Administration base their foreign policy rather than an internationally recognized rule of law system supported by a foundation of legal principles. Not exactly the stage of ‘peace saboteurs’
Not exactly a stage for ‘peace saboteurs,’ the MSC gathered on February 17th with its usual like minded New World Order neo-con globalists who believe in their own flawless superiority and impeccable infallibility – for which no prevailing evidence exists.
As representatives of a government living in the past, the recent meeting provided an opportunity for the most Members of Congress to ever attend an MSC meeting in its sixty year history. Hobnobbing with the upper crust of European political elites who are equally living in the past, MSC attendance indicates a tentative belief that the US can be a winner in a nuclear exchange while the Russians, perhaps more aware of their own devastating nuclear capability, understand there will be no champions. As those Members of Congress continue to blindly accept the US hoop-la, their attendance confirms their pro Ukraine war bona fides while pledging billions of precious US taxpayer dollars (during a debt ceiling crisis) and a generous flow of weapons to continue the conflict.
What most of those Members failed to consider was the general anxiety amongst those European elites as well as a private recognition that the Ukraine war is not going as anticipated despite the effort to destroy Russia that dates back to December, 2013 when Sen. John McCain stood on the stage in Kiev and promised US support.
As a majority of members of relevant Committees with jurisdiction over war, the military, intel or American financial resources, their attendance confirms an unfamiliarity with the US role in the 2014 coup following McCain’s appearance from which the conflict developed. In other words, while Congressional dilletantes collect generous benefits gratis of the American taxpayer without reciprocation, they could take their work more seriously and become better informed Congressional scholars before making fools of themself.
While the MSC Agenda included an extensive array of thorny geopolitical topics devoted to expanding its hegemonic presence, American participants included Senators Lindsay Graham (SC), Christopher Coons (Del.), Robert Menendez (NJ), Mitch McConnell (Ky.), NJ Gov. Phil Murphy, Reps. Veronica Escobar (Texas), Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Mike McCaul (Texas), Homeland Dept. Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, SOS Antony Blinken and VP Kamala Harris.
Despite a predominant blackout on media, MSC attendance included the most Congressional Members ever with twenty eight Senators predominantly representing the Senate’s Foreign Relations, Armed Services and Intelligence Committees (eighteen Democrats, one Independent and ten Republicans): Senators Blumenthal (Conn), Britt (Ala.), Budd (NC), Cantwell (Wash), Coons (Del.) Cornyn (Texas) Cortes-Masto (Az), Durbin (Ill), Ernst (Iowa), Graham (SC), Heinrich (NM), Kelly (Az.), King (Me.), Klobuchar (Minn.), McConnell (Ky.), Menendez (NJ.), Peters (Mich.), Reed (RI), Ricketts (Neb.), Risch (Idaho), Schumer (NY), Shaheen (NH), Tillis (NC), Tuberville (Ala.) Van Hallen (Md.), Warner (Va.), Whitehouse (RI), and Wyden (Ore.). Only Senator Ricketts is looking at a 2024 re election. Accompanying Sen. McConnell were trainee Republican Senators Budd and Britt who were introduced as Republican Party support for NATO and Europe.
On the House side, twenty one Members were in attendance (eleven Democrats and ten Republicans) also predominantly representing the Armed Services, Foreign Affairs and Intelligence Committees: Reps. Boyle (Pa), Connolly (Mass), Ciccilline (RI), Crow (Co), Ellzey (Texas), Escobar (Texas), Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Himes (Conn.), Issa (Calif), Jackson (Texas), Mace (SC), McCaul (Texas), McCormick (Ga.), Meeks (NY), Miller (Texas), Pelosi (Calif), Self (Texas) , Sherill (NJ), Smith (Adam) (Wash.), Swalwell (Calif) and Turner (Ohio).
Without the nuisance of a required Congressional war powers vote, Texas won the prize for the most attendees; six Representatives and one Senator while all US Senators from the states of North Carolina, Rhode Island and Arizona Senators were in attendance. Upon his return from Germany, Sen. Tuberville expressed a prevalent although unspoken sense of not knowing how to “get out of Ukraine.” The truth is no more difficult than cutting off the money and stopping the flow of weapons….even a US Senator does not have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out…all it takes is a willingness to accept reality that Ukraine will not ‘win’ the war.
On the trip into Germany, Rep. McCaul, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs, known as a rabid militarist, could not resist a stop in Kyiv to shake the hand and meet with the drugster Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky who has been closing churches and drafting fifteen year olds. McCaul expressed an interest to see Ukraine ‘first hand’ and be ‘on the ground’ in the war zone as he was joined by Reps. Issa, Miller, Self, Ellzey and Sen. Risch in a press conference. The Congressional delegation called for more ‘lethal aid’ including F16s and more ATACMS (long range missiles). Upon their return from MSC, McCaul and Rep. Mike Turner, Chair of House Intel Committee reiterated their support for increased military aid to Ukraine. In pursuit of the full experience, Rep. McCaul might consider camping out at the Ukraine border to greet the Russian Sixth Army (or comparable) as they come across the border.
Even the potential of a nuclear exchange did not inhibit Senators Graham, Blumenthal and Whitehouse from support sending US long range missiles and F16 aircraft to Ukraine. As the truly deplorable VP Harris added her voice that the “US has formally determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity” without any details of that formal determination or providing any evidence.
Just prior to a visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, it may be understandable if the presence of China’s top foreign policy diplomat Wang Yi was a bit unsettling for much of MSC crowd. While refusing to oppose Russia’s ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, China’s bilateral energy and trade exchanges reached almost $200 Billion, bailing out on the dollar in place of the yuan; but it was the prospect of military assistance to Russia that gave the already anxious MSC insiders pause for deeper reflection.
*Renee Parsons served on the ACLU’s Florida State Board of Directors and as president of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter. She has been an elected public official in Colorado, staff in the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender, an environmental lobbyist for Friends of the Earth and a staff member of the US House of Representatives in Washington DC. She is a regular contributor to Global Research.
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