Briefly Noted: War Spreads
Yes, the US is expanding its war on the world. No, I don’t mean the war on extra terrestrial shiny objects.
Nor am I referring to war on China—that, according to an American four star general, isn’t scheduled to begin until 2025.
Rather, I’m referring to our war on Hungary. And it makes sense, in a way. Viktor Orban is a Christian and therefore, ipso facto, an enemy of American and Western values. The fact that Hungary belongs to NATO is irrelevant—just look at our attack on Germany via Germany’s energy infrastructure. As people used to say, NATO membership and a quarter will get you a ride on a bus—or something like that. So …
Gotta luv that “locally driven”, right? Don’t mention the locale! just like, Don’t mention the war! The US declaration of war came shortly after the Hungarian government told the US “ambassador” to basically butt out of Hungary’s cultural affairs:
Hungarian foreign minister claims US ambassador’s opinion is ‘completely irrelevant’
And get a load of this that the cheeky devil actually said:
Hungary is a sovereign country. No one from outside can tell us how to live.
We’ll see about that! We’ll see your sovereignty and raise you our Rules Based Order, dude!
And then there was this provocation on Hungary’s part:
Waging war on the world doesn’t come cheap. In fact, the price keeps going up:
Now, here’s an interesting one. I don’t know much about Brandon Weichert, but he strikes me as basically hawkish, based on his CV. This is what he chose to include at the bottom of the article I’m about to quote:
Brandon J Weichert is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (both Republic Book Publishers), and Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (Encounter Books). He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon. More by Brandon J Weichert
Nevertheless, yesterday this cri de coeur from Weichert appeared at Asia Times:
Breaking Russia? More like breaking ourselves
America’s days as the primary player in Europe will close fast without a radical policy shift on Ukraine
Yes, I bolded “a radical policy shift”, just to make it perfectly clear that Weichert doesn’t mean we can get away with tinkering with Ukraine policy at the margins. Excerpts:
For too long Washington has refused to think strategically about some of the major foreign policy issues of our time. In the rare instance where Washington’s policymakers do think strategically, the strategies they concoct seem less like realistic attempts at applying state power and more like they were conceived over a game of Risk while under the heavy influence of alcohol.
…
The reasoning in Washington goes like this: for the “low cost” of Ukrainian lives and American taxpayer dollars, the West can end Putin’s strategic threat to the United States and its NATO partners.
Throw in some generous rhetoric of saving democracy and accusing any skeptics of the plan of being new Neville Chamberlains and you’ve got yourselves a winning dynamic. Besides, no Americans are dying. It’s not like Iraq or Afghanistan. This is a postmodern, “clean” great power war—and the Russians can do nothing to stop us.
This is the thinking. And, my friends, I’m here to tell you this is the same kind of two-dimensional analysis that got us mired in the failed Middle East wars of the last 20 years. …
In other words, typical Neoncon wishful strategery.
Weichert delves into a number of issues, past and present—and predicts that the Nordstream revelations by Seymour Hersh will do much to strengthen anti-NATO sentiment in Germany, which is already on the rise.
All of this, says Weichert:
… isn’t strategy. This is ideological naivete. And it’s risking another world war.
He concludes by first positing that America is in a “predicament.” That’s a lot like the first rule of holes: The first necessary step is to admit that you’re in a hole. I’m guessing that an increasing number of people within the ruling elite are coming to that realization, not least in the Pentagon. That’s a realization that usually comes late in the day for the US ruling elite. Then comes the traditional step: Sell out our erstwhile allies:
For America to get out of its current predicament, it must end its unflinching commitment to Ukraine and instead focus on shoring up NATO’s threatened eastern flank. NATO was a defensive multilateral alliance, not a vehicle for unilateral American power projection.
If Washington can get back to viewing NATO that way, a geopolitical catastrophe might yet still be avoided. Washington and Brussels must work to restore a semblance of diplomacy with Moscow, too.
If Washington continues pouring its resources, time and prestige into Ukraine’s lost cause, then the results will be as catastrophic for us as they were for Europe in 1914—and a Western victory under those conditions is not assured.
Whether Russia wins in Ukraine is not as important as what the ongoing conflict there will do both to the NATO alliance and America’s staying power in Europe. Presently, America’s days as the primary player in Europe are closing fast unless a radical policy reorientation can be affected.
I think the cows are out of the barn.
I saw this post a couple of days ago, which provides a bit of additional history on the "meddling" the U.S. has habitually done in Hungary:
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/02/09/smack-down-hungary-pushes-back-against-obnoxious-us-ambassador/
It would not surprise me if Pressman, given his marital status, was appointed by the Biden admin as a deliberate insult to Hungary and its prevailing moral beliefs. The arrogance, bullying, and subterfuge exhibited by our government toward others have nothing to do with what this country was intended to be.
May I re-frame your first sentence? The US government, acting independently of its citizens, is expanding its war on reality. With total control over the media, and the ability to censor opposing points of view, Washington is dictating its doctrine to the world. There once was a king called Canute who is said to have parked his throne on the seashore and commanded the tide not to rise.