What President Biden Won't Touch: Foreign Policy, Sacred Cows, and the US
Military
By Danny Sjursen, TomDispatch
23 November 20
Heres the strange thing. In 2016, Donald Trump campaigned vociferously to
end Americas forever wars and yet, as he fruitlessly fights departing the
White House four years later, hes probably going to leave more troops (and
air power) garrisoned across the Greater Middle East and Africa than were
there when he first arrived. American soldiers are still in Syria, still in
Iraq, and still in Afghanistan. And in his last moments, hes still talking
about removing some -- but not all -- of them. In 2019 (the last period for
which we have figures), the U.S. dropped a record number of bombs on
Afghanistan. Similarly, in the first seven months of 2020, there were more
U.S. air strikes in Somalia than during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama
years combined (and Kenya might be next). No matter that, in each case, the
president invariably claimed that the U.S. military was heading out the
door. As it turned out, he proved the easiest president imaginable for the
officials of the national security state to bulldoze, bully, or sneak
around. Think of him as the classic sucker-born-every-minute when it came to
this countrys forever wars.
And heres an even stranger thing. Hardly noticed in the hubbub, oil well by
oil well, suppressed environmental regulation by suppressed environmental
regulation, hes become ever more committed to making forever war on the
planet itself.
What a wartime president Donald Trump has, in fact, proved to be!
Now, in his own chaotic fashion, whether he thinks so or not, hes going to
turn over both versions of forever war to Joe Biden. In that context,
TomDispatch regular Danny Sjursen, author most recently of Patriotic
Dissent: America in the Age of Endless War, considers the national security
states forever-war system that captured The Donald and now seems about to
become part of the Biden years. God save us, if it truly does turn out to be
a forever system.
-Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch
In this mystifying moment, the post-electoral sentiments of most Americans
can be summed up either as Ding dong! The witch is dead! or We got
robbed! Both are problematic, not because the two candidates were
intellectually indistinguishable or ethically equivalent, but because each
jingle is laden with a dubious assumption: that President Donald Trumps
demise would provide either decisive deliverance or prove an utter disaster.
While there were indeed areas where his ability to cause disastrous harm
lent truth to such a belief -- race relations, climate change, and the
courts come to mind -- in others, it was distinctly (to use a dangerous
phrase) overkill. Nowhere was that more true than with Americas
expeditionary version of militarism, its forever wars of this century, and
the venal system that continues to feed it.
For nearly two years, We the People were coached to believe that the 2020
election would mean everything, that November 3rd would be democracys
ultimate judgment day. What if, however, when it comes to issues of war,
peace, and empire, Decision 2020 proves barely meaningful? After all, in
the election campaign just past, Donald Trumps sweeping war-peace rhetoric
and Joe Bidens hedging aside, neither nuclear-code aspirant bothered to
broach the most uncomfortable questions about Americas uniquely intrusive
global role. Neither dared dissent from normative notions about Americas
posture and policy over there, nor challenge the essence of the war-state,
a sacred cow if ever there was one.
That blessed bovine has enshrined permanent policies that seem beyond
challenge: Uncle Sams right and duty to forward deploy troops just about
anywhere on the planet; garrison the globe; carry out aerial assassinations;
and unilaterally implement starvation sanctions. Likewise the systemic
structures that implement and incentivize such rogue-state behavior are
never questioned, especially the existence of a sprawling
military-industrial complex that has infiltrated every aspect of public
life, while stealing money that might have improved Americas infrastructure
or wellbeing. It has engorged itself at the taxpayers expense, while
peddling American blood money -- and blood -- on absurd foreign adventures
and autocratic allies, even as it corrupted nearly every prominent public
paymaster and policymaker.
This election season, neither Democrats nor Republicans challenged the
cultural components justifying the great game, which is evidence of one
thing: empires come home, folks, even if the troops never seem to.
The Company He Keeps
As the election neared, it became impolite to play the canary in American
militarisms coal mine or risk raising Bidens record -- or probable
prospects -- on minor matters like war and peace. After all, his opponent
was a monster, so noting the holes in Bidens block of Swiss cheese
presumably amounted to useful idiocy -- if not sinister collusion -- when it
came to Trumps reelection. Doing so was a surefire way to jettison
professional opportunities and find yourself permanently uninvited to the
coolest Beltway cocktail parties or interviews on cable TV.
George Orwell warned of the dangers of such intellectual cowardice more
than 70 years ago in a proposed preface to his classic novel Animal Farm.
At any given moment, he wrote, there is an orthodoxy... that all
right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly
forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is not done to say it...
Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with
surprising effectiveness.
And thats precisely what progressive paragon Cornel West warned against
seven months ago after his man, Senator Bernie Sanders -- briefly, the
Democratic frontrunner -- suddenly proved a dead candidate walking. Vote
for Biden, but dont lie about who he really is, the stalwart scholar
suggested. It seems just enough Americans did the former (phew!), but
mainstream media makers and consumers mostly forgot about the salient second
part of his sentiment.
With the electoral outcome now apparent -- if not yet accepted in Trump
World -- perhaps such politeness (and the policing that goes with it) will
fade away, ushering in a renaissance of fourth estate oppositional
truth-telling. In that way -- in my dreams at least -- persistently
energized progressives might send President Joe Biden down dovish
alternative avenues, perhaps even landing some appointments in an executive
branch that now drives foreign policy (though, if Im honest, Im hardly
hopeful on either count).
One look at Uncle Joes inbound nieces and nephews brings to mind Aesop's
fabled moral: You are judged by the company you keep.
Think-Tank Imperialists
One thing is already far too clear: Bidens shadow national security team
will be a distinctly status-quo squad. To know where future policymakers
might head, it always helps to know where they came from. And when it comes
to Bidens foreign policy crew, including a striking number of women and a
fair number of Obama administration and Clinton 2016 campaign retreads --
they were mostly in Trump-era holding patterns in the connected worlds of
strategic consulting and hawkish think tanking.
In fact, the national security bio of the archetypal Biden bro (or sis)
would go something like this: she (he) sprang from an Ivy League school,
became a congressional staffer, got appointed to a mid-tier role on Barack
Obamas national security council, consulted for WestExec Advisors (an Obama
alumni-founded outfit linking tech firms and the Department of Defense), was
a fellow at the Center for New American Security (CNAS), had some defense
contractor ties, and married someone whos also in the game.
It helps as well to follow the money. In other words, how did the Biden
bunch make it and who pays the outfits that have been paying them in the
Trump years? None of this is a secret: their two most common think-tank
homes -- CNAS and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
-- are the second- and sixth-highest recipients, respectively, of U.S.
government and defense-contractor funding. The top donors to CNAS are
Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and the Department of Defense. Most CSIS largesse
comes from Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Raytheon.
How the inevitable conflicts of interest play out is hardly better
concealed. To take just one example, in 2016, Michèle Flournoy, CNAS
co-founder, ex-Pentagon official, and odds-on favorite" to become Bidens
secretary of defense, exchanged emails with the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
ambassador in Washington. She pitched a project whereby CNAS analysts would,
well, analyze whether Washington should maintain drone-sales restrictions in
a non-binding multilateral missile technology control" agreement. The UAE's
autocratic government then paid CNAS $250,000 to draft a report that (you
wont be surprised to learn) argued for amending the agreement to allow that
country to purchase American-manufactured drones.
Which is just what Flournoy and companys supposed nemeses in the Trump
administration then did this very July past. Again, no surprise. American
drones seem to have a way of ending up in the hands of Gulf theocracies --
states with abhorrent human rights records that use such planes to surveil
and brutally bomb Yemeni civilians.
If its too much to claim that a future defense secretary Flournoy would be
the UAEs (wo)man in Washington, you at least have to wonder. Worse still,
with those think-tank, security-consulting, and defense-industry ties of
hers, shes anything but alone among Bidens top prospects. Just consider a
few other abridged resumes:
Tony Blinken, frontrunner for national security adviser: CSIS; WestExec
(which he co-founded with Flournoy); and CNN analyst.
Jake Sullivan, a shoo-in for a senior post in a potential
administration: the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (peace, in
this case, being funded by 10 military agencies and defense contractors) and
Macro Advisory Partners, a strategic consultancy run by former British spy
chiefs.
Avril Haines, a top contender for CIA director or director of national
intelligence: CNAS-the Brookings Institution; WestExec; and Palantir
Technologies, a controversial, CIA-seeded, NSA-linked data-mining firm.
Kathleen Hicks, probable deputy secretary of defense: CSIS and the
Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded research and development center
that lobbies on defense issues.
An extra note about Hicks: shes the head of Bidens Department of Defense
transition team and also a senior vice president at CSIS. There, she hosts
that think tanks Defense 2020 podcast. In case anyones still wondering
where CSISs bread is buttered, heres how Hicks opens each episode:
This podcast is made possible by contributions from BAE Systems, Lockheed
Martin, Northrop Grumman, and the Thales Group.
In other words, given what we already know about Joe Bidens previous
gut-driven policies that pass for middle of the road in this anything but
middling country of ours, the experiences and affiliations of his A-Team
dont bode well for systemic-change seekers. Remember, this is a
president-elect who assured rich donors that nothing would fundamentally
change if he were elected. Should he indeed stock his national security
team with such a conflicts-of-interest-ridden crowd, consider Americas
sacred cows of foreign policy all but saved.
Bidens outfit is headed for office, it seems, to right the Titanic, not
rock the boat.
Off The Table: A Paradigm Shift
In this context, join me in thinking about what wont be on the next
presidential menu when it comes to the militarization of American foreign
policy.
Dont expect major changes when it comes to:
One-sided support for Israel that enables permanent Palestinian oppression
and foments undying ire across the Greater Middle East. Tony Blinken put it
this way: as president, Joe Biden "would not tie military assistance to
Israel to things like annexation [of all or large portions of the occupied
West Bank] or other decisions by the Israeli government with which we might
disagree."
Unapologetic support for various Gulf State autocracies and theocracies
that, as they cynically collude with Israel, will only continue to heighten
tensions with Iran and facilitate yet more grim war crimes in Yemen. Beyond
Michèle Flournoys professional connections with the UAE, Gulf kingdoms
generously fund the very think tanks that so many Biden prospects have
populated. Saudi Arabia, for example, offers annual donations to Brookings
and the Rand Corporation; the UAE, $1 million for a new CSIS office
building; and Qatar, $14.8 million to Brookings.
Americas historically unprecedented and provocative expeditionary
military posture globally, including at least 800 bases in 80 countries,
seems likely to be altered only in marginal ways. As Jake Sullivan put it in
a June CSIS interview: Im not arguing for getting out of every base in the
Middle East. There is a military posture dimension to this as a reduced
footprint.
Above all, its obvious that the Biden bunch has no desire to slow down, no
less halt, the revolving door that connects national security work in the
government and jobs or security consulting positions in the defense
industry. The same goes for the think tanks that the arms producers amply
fund to justify the whole circus.
In such a context, count on this: the militarization of American society and
the thank-you-for-your-service fetishization of American soldiers will
continue to thrive, exhibit A being the way Biden now closes almost any
speech with May God protect our troops.
All of this makes for a rather discouraging portrait of an old man's coming
administration. Still, consider it a version of truth in advertising. Joe
and company are likely to continue to be who theyve always been and who
they continue to say they are. After all, transformational presidencies and
unexpected pivots are historically rare phenomena. Expecting the moon from a
man mostly offering MoonPies almost guarantees disappointment.
Obama Encore or Worse?
Dont misunderstand me: a Biden presidency will certainly leave some
maneuvering room at the margins of national security strategy. Think nuclear
treaties with the Russians (which the Trump administration had been
systematically tearing up) and the possible thawing of at least some of the
tensions with Tehran.
Nor should even the most cynical among us underestimate the significance of
having a president who actually accepts the reality of climate change and
the need to switch to alternative energy sources as quickly as possible.
Noam Chomskys bold assertion that the human species couldnt endure a
second Trump term, thanks to the environmental catastrophe, nuclear
brinksmanship, and pandemic negligence he represents, was anything but
hyperbole. Yet recall that he was also crystal clear about the need for an
organized public to demand change and impose pressures on the new
administration the moment the new president is inaugurated.
Yet, in the coming Biden years, there is also a danger that empowered
Democrats in an imperial presidency (when it comes to foreign policy) will
actually escalate a two-front New Cold War with China and Russia. And
theres always the worry that the ascension of a more genteel emperor could
co-opt -- or at least quiet -- a growing movement of anti-Trumpers,
including the vets of this countrys forever wars who are increasingly
dressing in antiwar clothing.
What seems certain is that, as ever, salvation wont spring from the top.
Dont count on Status-quo Joe to slaughter Washingtons sacred cows of
foreign policy or on his national security team to topple the golden calves
of American empire. In fact, the defense industry seems bullish on Biden. As
Raytheon CEO Gregory Hayes recently put it, Obviously, there is a concern
that defense spending will go way down if there is a Biden administration,
but frankly I think thats ridiculous. Or consider retired Marine Corps
major general turned defense consultant Arnold Punaro who recently said of
Bidens coming tenure, I think the industry will have, when it comes to
national security, a very positive view.
Given the evidence that business-as-usual will continue in the Biden years,
perhaps its time to take that advice from Cornel West, absorb the truth
about Bidens future national security squad, and act accordingly. Theres
no top-down salvation on the agenda -- not from Joe or his crew of
consummate insiders. Pressure and change will flow from the grassroots or it
wont come at all.
