Trump Leaves Biden a Quarantine … Against China

Tom Paine 1949

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Mar 15, 2020
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It’s all too easy to make partisan criticism, to preach an end to “forever wars,” when it is aimed only at one or another of the two parties or their candidates. But in fact “American World Supremacy” has really been bipartisan policy for many decades. Trump’s go it alone “America First” policy did not end the U.S. goal of maintaining its world supremacy, though it weakened the alliances and institutions long a key part of that dominance. Militarily, “America First” in the Middle East meant assassinating Suleimani, embracing and supporting the Saudi Crown Prince butcher MbS in his war on Yemen, and kept U.S. troops illegally holding onto Syrian oil wells. Elsewhere the military budget swelled, as the U.S. introduced economic sanctions against enemies (and allies) all over the world.

The Obama “pivot to Asia” under Trump has waned and waxed from empty praising of XiJinping while ignoring human rights issues there to an all-out Cold War against China as it became politically useful domestically in an election and COVID pandemic year. Now the new Biden team (made up mostly of the old Obama team) needs to rebuild its own policies toward China (& Russia & our “historic allies”).

Here is an excerpt from a recent article by a prominent long-term ex-CIA analyst and scholarly critic of the U.S. intelligence community. It deals with difficult China policy problems and some strengths & weaknesses of individuals chosen to lead “the Biden foreign policy team.”


***

The effective use of diplomacy is likely to restore stability to the Sino-American bilateral relationship. Incremental military measures [my emphasis] in East Asia would only contribute to additional posturing and friction.

The Biden national security team will be experienced and expert, but there is no sign of an out-of-the-box thinker in the group. Tony Blinken is expected to be named secretary of state. He’s a solid choice to revive the morale at the Department of State and to restore the role of diplomacy. But he’s an interventionist who supported the use of military force against Libya in 2011, and sold Biden on the idea of fragmenting Iraq into three autonomous states (Shia, Sunni, and Kurd) in the wake of the 2003 invasion. Jake Sullivan, who played a key role in negotiating the Iran nuclear accord, is expected to be named national security adviser. He could restore sanity and stability to the decision making process. Neither one has ever addressed the idea of seeking conciliation with China.

Biden’s likely choice for secretary of defense, Michele Flournoy, is a China hawk, believing that beefing up U.S. military capability in Asia is the answer to the China problem. She is a product of the military-industrial complex, and presumably will not support the idea of reducing our bloated defense budget. The Pentagon sorely needs a reformer ...

Unfortunately, the Biden team is sending the wrong signals about the future of Sino-American relations. Last week, a veteran Washington Post reporter, Missy Ryan, noted that the Biden administration is preparing to “strike a relatively steady course at the Pentagon,” including “pressing ahead with efforts to respond to China’s rise.” There is really nothing that the Pentagon can usefully do about the increased presence and influence of China in East Asia. While the United States has been preoccupied for the past twenty years chasing ghosts in Iraq and Afghanistan, China has moved adroitly to modernize its air and naval forces... China’s sophisticated cruise missile technology has compromised the presence of the U.S. surface fleet in the Pacific, including our vaunted aircraft carrier presence. I participated in various war games at the Central Intelligence Agency and the National War College over the years; the United States never won a war game with China in East Asia...

The Biden team will be overwhelmed by the long list of internal and external problems that it will face due to the wretched inheritance from the Trump administration, but it cannot delay addressing its most important bilateral issue—China. Any measure of power would conclude that China is a rising international and regional power, while the United States is facing decline because of huge economic deficits and misplayed military policies. Biden will have to maneuver around an anti-China bias that has grown in U.S. political and punditry circles; recognize the political and economic power of the Chinese state; and find a diplomatic way to meet China halfway in response to Beijing’s increased influence.

www.counterpunch.org/2020/11/25/trump-leaves-biden-a-quarantinebut-against-china/

Melvin A. Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. A former CIA analyst, Goodman is the author numerous books.
 
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It’s all too easy to make partisan criticism, to preach an end to “forever wars,” when it is aimed only at one or another of the two parties or their candidates. But in fact “American World Supremacy” has really been bipartisan policy for many decades. Trump’s go it alone “America First” policy did not end the U.S. goal of maintaining its world supremacy, though it weakened the alliances and institutions long a key part of that dominance. Militarily, “America First” in the Middle East meant assassinating Suleimani, embracing and supporting the Saudi Crown Prince butcher MbS in his war on Yemen, and kept U.S. troops illegally holding onto Syrian oil wells. Elsewhere the military budget swelled, as the U.S. introduced economic sanctions against enemies (and allies) all over the world.

The Obama “pivot to Asia” under Trump has waned and waxed from empty praising of XiJinping while ignoring human rights issues there to an all-out Cold War against China as it became politically useful domestically in an election and COVID pandemic year. Now the new Biden team (made up mostly of the old Obama team) needs to rebuild its own policies toward China (& Russia & our “historic allies”).

Here is an excerpt from a recent article by a prominent long-term ex-CIA analyst and scholarly critic of the U.S. intelligence community. It deals with difficult China policy problems and some strengths & weaknesses of individuals chosen to lead “the Biden foreign policy team.”


***

The effective use of diplomacy is likely to restore stability to the Sino-American bilateral relationship. Incremental military measures [my emphasis] in East Asia would only contribute to additional posturing and friction.

The Biden national security team will be experienced and expert, but there is no sign of an out-of-the-box thinker in the group. Tony Blinken is expected to be named secretary of state. He’s a solid choice to revive the morale at the Department of State and to restore the role of diplomacy. But he’s an interventionist who supported the use of military force against Libya in 2011, and sold Biden on the idea of fragmenting Iraq into three autonomous states (Shia, Sunni, and Kurd) in the wake of the 2003 invasion. Jake Sullivan, who played a key role in negotiating the Iran nuclear accord, is expected to be named national security adviser. He could restore sanity and stability to the decision making process. Neither one has ever addressed the idea of seeking conciliation with China.

Biden’s likely choice for secretary of defense, Michele Flournoy, is a China hawk, believing that beefing up U.S. military capability in Asia is the answer to the China problem. She is a product of the military-industrial complex, and presumably will not support the idea of reducing our bloated defense budget. The Pentagon sorely needs a reformer ...

Unfortunately, the Biden team is sending the wrong signals about the future of Sino-American relations. Last week, a veteran Washington Post reporter, Missy Ryan, noted that the Biden administration is preparing to “strike a relatively steady course at the Pentagon,” including “pressing ahead with efforts to respond to China’s rise.” There is really nothing that the Pentagon can usefully do about the increased presence and influence of China in East Asia. While the United States has been preoccupied for the past twenty years chasing ghosts in Iraq and Afghanistan, China has moved adroitly to modernize its air and naval forces... China’s sophisticated cruise missile technology has compromised the presence of the U.S. surface fleet in the Pacific, including our vaunted aircraft carrier presence. I participated in various war games at the Central Intelligence Agency and the National War College over the years; the United States never won a war game with China in East Asia...

The Biden team will be overwhelmed by the long list of internal and external problems that it will face due to the wretched inheritance from the Trump administration, but it cannot delay addressing its most important bilateral issue—China. Any measure of power would conclude that China is a rising international and regional power, while the United States is facing decline because of huge economic deficits and misplayed military policies. Biden will have to maneuver around an anti-China bias that has grown in U.S. political and punditry circles; recognize the political and economic power of the Chinese state; and find a diplomatic way to meet China halfway in response to Beijing’s increased influence.

www.counterpunch.org/2020/11/25/trump-leaves-biden-a-quarantinebut-against-china/

Melvin A. Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. A former CIA analyst, Goodman is the author numerous books.
The XiBiden team will be experienced? Bwaaaahhhaaaaaa....Experience in what? How to fuck the US by giving in to China who OWNS Joe?
 
... Trump’s go it alone “America First” policy did not end the U.S. goal of maintaining its world supremacy, though it weakened the alliances and institutions long a key part of that dominance...
Fake News. Asking Free-loaders to meet their commitments strengthened our alliances.
... Militarily, “America First” in the Middle East meant assassinating Suleimani, embracing and supporting the Saudi Crown Prince butcher MbS in his war on Yemen, and kept U.S. troops illegally holding onto Syrian oil wells. Elsewhere the military budget swelled, as the U.S. introduced economic sanctions against enemies (and allies) all over the world...
Fake News. Trump was right to take out the Iranian killer and to secure oil wells for the Kurds to keep these resources out of the hands of terrorists.
... The Obama “pivot to Asia” under Trump has waned and waxed from empty praising of XiJinping while ignoring human rights issues there to an all-out Cold War against China as it became politically useful domestically in an election and COVID pandemic year. Now the new Biden team (made up mostly of the old Obama team) needs to rebuild its own policies toward China (& Russia & our “historic allies”).
Fake News. Obama "pivoted to Asia" so many times he was spinning in circles. Obama did nothing to check China's lawlessness as China filled the pockets of the Kerry and Biden family.

SUBMIT OR SUFFER: Lying Outlaw Slaver CHINA.
Two things are impeding Chinese efforts to achieve superpower status; economic stability and a network of powerful and reliable allies. The problems with economic stability are linked to the more serious problems with establishing stable relationships with other countries. Chinese tradition prevents both of these because China traditionally recognizes only enemies and subordinate foreigners.
Lying Outlaw Slaver China are reported to have used a microwave weapon in a Himalayan skirmish with Indian forces earlier this year.
It’s all too easy to make partisan criticism, to preach an end to “forever wars,” when it is aimed only at one or another of the two parties or their candidates. But in fact “American World Supremacy” has really been bipartisan policy for many decades. Trump’s go it alone “America First” policy did not end the U.S. goal of maintaining its world supremacy, though it weakened the alliances and institutions long a key part of that dominance. Militarily, “America First” in the Middle East meant assassinating Suleimani, embracing and supporting the Saudi Crown Prince butcher MbS in his war on Yemen, and kept U.S. troops illegally holding onto Syrian oil wells. Elsewhere the military budget swelled, as the U.S. introduced economic sanctions against enemies (and allies) all over the world.

The Obama “pivot to Asia” under Trump has waned and waxed from empty praising of XiJinping while ignoring human rights issues there to an all-out Cold War against China as it became politically useful domestically in an election and COVID pandemic year. Now the new Biden team (made up mostly of the old Obama team) needs to rebuild its own policies toward China (& Russia & our “historic allies”).

Here is an excerpt from a recent article by a prominent long-term ex-CIA analyst and scholarly critic of the U.S. intelligence community. It deals with difficult China policy problems and some strengths & weaknesses of individuals chosen to lead “the Biden foreign policy team.”


***

The effective use of diplomacy is likely to restore stability to the Sino-American bilateral relationship. Incremental military measures [my emphasis] in East Asia would only contribute to additional posturing and friction.

The Biden national security team will be experienced and expert, but there is no sign of an out-of-the-box thinker in the group. Tony Blinken is expected to be named secretary of state. He’s a solid choice to revive the morale at the Department of State and to restore the role of diplomacy. But he’s an interventionist who supported the use of military force against Libya in 2011, and sold Biden on the idea of fragmenting Iraq into three autonomous states (Shia, Sunni, and Kurd) in the wake of the 2003 invasion. Jake Sullivan, who played a key role in negotiating the Iran nuclear accord, is expected to be named national security adviser. He could restore sanity and stability to the decision making process. Neither one has ever addressed the idea of seeking conciliation with China.

Biden’s likely choice for secretary of defense, Michele Flournoy, is a China hawk, believing that beefing up U.S. military capability in Asia is the answer to the China problem. She is a product of the military-industrial complex, and presumably will not support the idea of reducing our bloated defense budget. The Pentagon sorely needs a reformer ...

Unfortunately, the Biden team is sending the wrong signals about the future of Sino-American relations. Last week, a veteran Washington Post reporter, Missy Ryan, noted that the Biden administration is preparing to “strike a relatively steady course at the Pentagon,” including “pressing ahead with efforts to respond to China’s rise.” There is really nothing that the Pentagon can usefully do about the increased presence and influence of China in East Asia. While the United States has been preoccupied for the past twenty years chasing ghosts in Iraq and Afghanistan, China has moved adroitly to modernize its air and naval forces... China’s sophisticated cruise missile technology has compromised the presence of the U.S. surface fleet in the Pacific, including our vaunted aircraft carrier presence. I participated in various war games at the Central Intelligence Agency and the National War College over the years; the United States never won a war game with China in East Asia...

The Biden team will be overwhelmed by the long list of internal and external problems that it will face due to the wretched inheritance from the Trump administration, but it cannot delay addressing its most important bilateral issue—China. Any measure of power would conclude that China is a rising international and regional power, while the United States is facing decline because of huge economic deficits and misplayed military policies. Biden will have to maneuver around an anti-China bias that has grown in U.S. political and punditry circles; recognize the political and economic power of the Chinese state; and find a diplomatic way to meet China halfway in response to Beijing’s increased influence.

www.counterpunch.org/2020/11/25/trump-leaves-biden-a-quarantinebut-against-china/

Melvin A. Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. A former CIA analyst, Goodman is the author numerous books.
Fake News. We have not "quarantined" China. We do a lot of business with China.

fredgraph.png

You might want to check things rather than parroting the propaganda of the Lying Outlaw Slavers of Beijing.
 

It’s all too easy to make partisan criticism, to preach an end to “forever wars,” when it is aimed only at .
Such a shame to see such a worthy topic for the CDZ being spammed into oblivion so quickly Tom.
What part of this do you wish to put emphasis?

I'll just suggest that it wasn't Trump that left Biden a quarantine against China. It is US foreign policy to ensure it survives competition by China.

I would only criticize the US on that because a different situation exists now from what has existed in the past for America. So I'll offer up a few mindbending conclusions for a start.

America has gone to war for economic gain against many nations since WW2 ended. And as for WW2, America went to war with Nazi Germany for the same reason.

And so now that minds are bent, I'll continue with suggesting why things are different: First because China is such a huge threat of being an equal or even greater power. That likely doens't need saying.
But mostly it's different because M.A.D. makes it different. Or at least 'different' in respect to all of the countries that America has opposed with war. Also nations that America opposed but didn't actively engage with in a hot war.

Russia is the exception to hot war!

Neither Russia, China, or the US is any different on their ambitions, in a final analysis that is honest. The difference now showing with China is on it's methods of achieving it's goals. Military means are out due to M.A.D. Other means are already being invented by China, while Russia still struggles to invent it's own answers. (Trump/Putin cooperation)

America has no choice. Regardless of who is president for a while. America's wealth respectively, depends on successful competition with China. The wealth and wellbeing of America's people depend on it too.

The question that poses in my mind is whether a peaceful coexistence is possible with China in which both China and America does quite well. Or well enough. The concept of M.A.D. sort of dictates that as being the best outcome for America. Invasion and conquering of China or America is now out of the question.

Have I addressed your motive for posting this thread?
 
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After Trump is gone, will his evil decline, accelerate, or just stagnate?

For a clue, America's racism problem and the denail of allowing the working class a piece of the American pie, indicates that it won't take a Trump from here on to keep America from coming back from the brink of revolution to join with the rest of the free world again.

The poison that is Trump is going to be with America until some satisfaction is gained by the revolutionaries. Sadly, that's almost certainly going to be bloody.

Perhaps the FBI demonstrating lethal force on a large scale could turn the tide before the worst happens?
 
A post that consists of nothing but one long polemic that has been cut and pasted from an anti- American propaganda site is not an actual invitation for a clean debate.

The propagandist who initiated it knows that as well as I do, too.
 
A post that consists of nothing but one long polemic that has been cut and pasted from an anti- American propaganda site is not an actual invitation for a clean debate.

The propagandist who initiated it knows that as well as I do, too.
Well then rather than just spamming the thread with more denial, you should appeal to mommy to have the thread moved or deleted. You're being less than helpful to anyone's POV with your insulting gif you use to get attention.
 
A post that consists of nothing but one long polemic that has been cut and pasted from an anti- American propaganda site is not an actual invitation for a clean debate.

The propagandist who initiated it knows that as well as I do, too.
Well then rather than just spamming the thread with more denial, you should appeal to mommy to have the thread moved or deleted. You're being less than helpful to anyone's POV with your insulting gif you use to get attention.
My sig line is just a scene from my favorite movie.

Interestingly, only one other poster has obsessed over it like you do, and the patterns of your rhetoric are strikingly similar.
 

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