“Members of this administration will never take a picture in front of Che Guevara…Under this administration we will no longer appease dictators and despots near our shores in this hemisphere. We will not reward firing squads, torturers, and murderers …… The troika of tyranny in this hemisphere – Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua – has finally met its match.”
“This Troika of Tyranny (the regimes in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua)– this triangle of terror stretching from Havana to Caracas to Managua is the cause of immense human suffering, the impetus of enormous regional instability, and the genesis of a sordid cradle of communism in the Western Hemisphere,” Bolton said. “The United States looks forward to watching each corner of the triangle fall… The Troika will crumble.”
That's John Bolton yesterday, in a speech he gave in Miami announcing new sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela.
The Cold War may have ended in 1991, but the specter of Marx has continued to haunt our hemisphere.
There are some bad actors in the world that the US has to deal with for strategic reasons (think Saudi Arabia), but not this collection of hostile regimes.
John Bolton understands a fundamental truth about foreign policy: When a regime plainly states that it regards the US as the enemy, take it seriously.
Timed before midterms. The Trump card is played. His unity through the patriotism of war will be the rubber match. On multiple fronts.
ReplyDeleteThe Clown Prince of chicken hawks.
ReplyDeleteWe're squeezing Iran hard, too. We finally have a foreign policy crafted by grownups.
ReplyDeletehttps://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/pompeo-sanctions-just-a-part-of-iran-regime-behavior-change-plan/
Yes, we well know. Nettie is ecstatic. Joltin' Bolton designed the Iraq fiasco so well. Like hell!
ReplyDelete"The Republican Party establishment has learned nothing from the Iraq disaster. Andrew Sullivan foresees worse to come. I wish I didn’t think he was right about this: And then last night, we saw McMaster fall on his sword, replaced by John Bolton, an unrepentant architect of the most disastrous war since Vietnam, a fanatical advocate for regime change in Iran, an anti-Muslim extremist, and a believer in the use of military force as if it were a religion. And this, of course, is also part of the second phase for Plato’s tyrant: war. “As his first step, he is always setting some war in motion, so that people will be in need of a leader,” Plato explains. In fact, “it’s necessary for a tyrant always to be stirring up war.”
DeleteTrump somewhat confused us on this score at first, because of his contempt for the Bushes and the Iraq War and his use of the term “America First.” For many excited (but utterly conned) conservative realists, he seemed to be returning to an older Republican non-interventionism. But of course, we now realize that his campaign screeds against the Iraq War were just his strategy to take out Jeb Bush and appeal to middle America; and that “America First” can also mean pure nationalist aggression overseas.
And everything we know about Trump’s character tells us that war is probably the only aspect of foreign relations he intuitively understands. He cannot exist as an equal party in an international system. He has to dominate other countries the way he does other human beings. And, when you look back, you see this has been obvious all along."
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/john-bolton-dog-of-war-trump/
Our allies no longer trust us because in two short years we have become untrustworthy. Our adversaries - far from fearing us - laugh openly to the Persimmon President's face. And global bad actors that we have suddenly cozied up to are recklessly violating international norms of decency and human rights, knowing that the USA won't do shit if it doesn't profit Trump or his sleaze-cabinet. This is the work of "grownups"? Better turn it back over to the kids. They could get it done.
ReplyDeleteI will give Bolton this, however. Thanks to his instrumental involvement in the worst American foreign policy blunder of the century, he is one of the few administration officials unlikely to have his reputation any more badly tarnished from his association with Trump.
DeleteAnyone foresee a Sino-Soviet alliance resisting our effort to clean up the Americas on just one of our potential multiple fronts. I mean, come on, if I and hundreds of millions in America want to punch him out, the countries he is bullying must want to more. Is it too late to avoid World War Trump?
ReplyDeleteThese are all interesting - from some perspective or other, I guess - general perspectives, but it sure is good to see our foreign policy specialists like Bolton, Haley and Pompeo calling out the true threats in this world: the Cuba-Venezuela-Nicaragua axis, Iran, the UN.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, Trump has no underlying set of principles beyond some kind of notion of "America First." But the people he's hired to see to our foreign relations and national security do.
It doesn't take a genius to broker peace. And there will be peace. Either before or after Wotld War Trump. You don't appease tyrants, but I thought even the "generalists" knew we don't starve their people either. If you liked Axis of Evil, you're gonna love Troika of Tyrrany.
ReplyDeleteSo the Peter Paul & Mary of Premption II get to strut & fret their hour on the stage, even though we thought we'd turn the page to what your silly ilk called American decline. Careful. don't throw stones...
ReplyDelete