Yesterday I was alerted to a fascinating article by John Walsh, dating back to the weeks before the US forced Russia into war in Ukraine: WWII redux: The endpoint of US policy The threatened peoples of East Asia and Europe can stop the US drive to restore its global domination
Thank you for bringing to the forefront these critically important messages, chilling as they are. The angel of the bottomless pit indeed. As a reader in the UK I am conscious that similar ideologies underpinned the cruel and rapacious Empire that Britain headed up. Never satisfied.
Right now Britain is seemingly content to be in the Big Bully's gang, taunters in chief, keen for crumbs off the plate. Our society is being weakened, our public services dismantled, institutions hollowed out, traditions scorned and orthodoxy mocked.
Mark, you ask <<What is a rival? How do we define and identify rivalry and/or hostility?>>. By whatever arrogant criteria will serve the purpose.
Dissent, sullen or open, is not tolerated. Debate is stifled. The Flu D'Etat propaganda onslaught and successive waves of the Cathedral of Woke's wanton shamelessness rub our noses in it. Internal dissidents are exposed and attempts are made to crush them, us. What has been accepted as 'natural' for centuries is now dissent… hostility… rivalry. Hell is empty because the devils are all here.
Well, this post certainly helps explain the current mess, but it’s forcing me to totally re-examine what I thought I knew about my country. I don’t ever remember any of my college professors covering this as a driving force of American foreign policy. Certainly brings another whole dimension to Eisenhower’s warnings about the MIC, it appears that he read the fine print. Don’t know about anyone else, but kinda feel like I’ve been played. Very disturbing and more than a little disheartening.
Mr. Wauck, in light of what you’ve written, what do you make of 9/11? The most common explanations I hear are a) foreigners, b) U.S. government, or c) foreigners as proxy for the U.S. government. In my mind, 9/11 gave cover for incursions where we were not wanted. If you have a moment, I would welcome your thoughts.
Whatever claim America could have to world leadership, it depended on the U.S. being a force for good, morally benevolent. If the past decade has taught us anything it’s that our leaders are not even a force for good even within America let alone the world.
The Founders wanted separation of powers to check factions within gov’t. Surely they would hate American hegemony for the same reason.
America is so exceptional, so necessary, so (self) important, that she acts like every other empire has since the dawn of history. With one minor exception, America does not admit to being an empire!
Isolationism really means: first, mind your own business. Other great powers have their own spheres of influence, and national interests, the same as America. A good neighbor minds his own business, assist others who are in need, only when asked.
America the meddlesome interloper is not going to be tolerated for very much longer. One day in the not so distant future, NATO will implode, USAID and the like will be no more, the UN will be inconsequential, and the US military and intel agencies will shrink dramatically, if I'm around then, I'll be pleased.
DH comment below spurred a thought. Was Trump, through a business mindset, approaching things in such a way that would build a ‘Commercial Republic’ upon the ashes of the fantasy of empire? Is Chi building a Commercial Communist Dictatorship? Has he already?
Mark, thanks for the great column, which I believe is one of your most important. Lately, I posted a comment regarding Neocons and how many people understand the implications of what they are doing even though many may not understand why ideologically. This column is the "why" and I greatly appreciate you posting it.
My grandfather (born in 1889) was a staunch foe of FDR because of not only his economic policies but more importantly because he ran for President in 1940 on keeping us out of the war (which turned out to be a blatantly lie):
"Roosevelt, acutely aware of strong isolationist and non-interventionist sentiment, promised there would be no involvement in foreign wars if he were re-elected."
From Wilson on down, the idea that the U.S. should have hegemony over the world (or responsibility for it) has been a poison that our Founding Fathers would have recoiled at and never have engaged in.
I post this comment just to show that the "Old Right" was a thing back in the '30s and was personified in my grandfather. It may help people to understand the appeal of a Pat Buchanan and to some extent a Donald Trump. I think a lot of us posters here are the progeny of that movement.
Charles Krauthammer first wrote about the US unipolar moment back around 1990. He warned that it was limited in time - it could disappear in a decade or endure for a generation. We got a generation.
It was never going to last forever and sound strategic planning should never have assumed it would. We should have prepared for what comes next. We didn’t.
I see, said the blind man. As a baby boomer, each day it's coming more & more into focus that most of my impressions of a democratic Amerca have been impacted and guided by a deep state, operating mostly invisibly, that arose from the ashes of WWII to what is now so obvious it can't be missed. The key original neocons and deep state architects were The Brothers-Allen (CIA) and John Foster (State) Dulles. (See great book on them for backup detail) The deep state neocon foreign policy is collapsing and leaving our great land weakened and threatened on the world stage, both economically and militarily.
Eisenhower saw it and tried to warn us & JFK paid dearly for trying to stop it. How interesting that JFK fired Allen Dulles for Bay of Pigs and he ended up as key member & de facto director of the Warren Commission. Watergate took out Nixon after he won 49 states & over 500 electoral votes. There have been endless military adventures with untold blood & treasure lost from Vietnam, to Iraq 1&2, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Syria and now Ukraine. Look what happened to Trump when he sniffed around the Ukraine money tree. The folks in Langley combined with the Bureau have proven more powerful than presidents and have the legislative branch totally under their control and operating as a puppy like Uniparty. There's a handful willing to stand up.
But we're awake, a combination of Trump's "bull in a china shop" first term and a propped up Biden fulfilling Obama's warning (Never underestimate Joe's ability to "eff" things up.) The signs of pushback are coming (Elon buying Twitter, "What Is A Woman with over 100 million views in two days, court challenges to Biden exec orders like student loans). The battle is being shaped, and it will be long, filled with defeats and challenges, with great courage & persistence needed for victory.
To cut to the chase: the US is losing its hegemony. Explains all their actions
Thank you for bringing to the forefront these critically important messages, chilling as they are. The angel of the bottomless pit indeed. As a reader in the UK I am conscious that similar ideologies underpinned the cruel and rapacious Empire that Britain headed up. Never satisfied.
Right now Britain is seemingly content to be in the Big Bully's gang, taunters in chief, keen for crumbs off the plate. Our society is being weakened, our public services dismantled, institutions hollowed out, traditions scorned and orthodoxy mocked.
Mark, you ask <<What is a rival? How do we define and identify rivalry and/or hostility?>>. By whatever arrogant criteria will serve the purpose.
Dissent, sullen or open, is not tolerated. Debate is stifled. The Flu D'Etat propaganda onslaught and successive waves of the Cathedral of Woke's wanton shamelessness rub our noses in it. Internal dissidents are exposed and attempts are made to crush them, us. What has been accepted as 'natural' for centuries is now dissent… hostility… rivalry. Hell is empty because the devils are all here.
Well, this post certainly helps explain the current mess, but it’s forcing me to totally re-examine what I thought I knew about my country. I don’t ever remember any of my college professors covering this as a driving force of American foreign policy. Certainly brings another whole dimension to Eisenhower’s warnings about the MIC, it appears that he read the fine print. Don’t know about anyone else, but kinda feel like I’ve been played. Very disturbing and more than a little disheartening.
Mr. Wauck, in light of what you’ve written, what do you make of 9/11? The most common explanations I hear are a) foreigners, b) U.S. government, or c) foreigners as proxy for the U.S. government. In my mind, 9/11 gave cover for incursions where we were not wanted. If you have a moment, I would welcome your thoughts.
Whatever claim America could have to world leadership, it depended on the U.S. being a force for good, morally benevolent. If the past decade has taught us anything it’s that our leaders are not even a force for good even within America let alone the world.
The Founders wanted separation of powers to check factions within gov’t. Surely they would hate American hegemony for the same reason.
America The Exceptional
America is so exceptional, so necessary, so (self) important, that she acts like every other empire has since the dawn of history. With one minor exception, America does not admit to being an empire!
Isolationism really means: first, mind your own business. Other great powers have their own spheres of influence, and national interests, the same as America. A good neighbor minds his own business, assist others who are in need, only when asked.
America the meddlesome interloper is not going to be tolerated for very much longer. One day in the not so distant future, NATO will implode, USAID and the like will be no more, the UN will be inconsequential, and the US military and intel agencies will shrink dramatically, if I'm around then, I'll be pleased.
DH comment below spurred a thought. Was Trump, through a business mindset, approaching things in such a way that would build a ‘Commercial Republic’ upon the ashes of the fantasy of empire? Is Chi building a Commercial Communist Dictatorship? Has he already?
Mark, thanks for the great column, which I believe is one of your most important. Lately, I posted a comment regarding Neocons and how many people understand the implications of what they are doing even though many may not understand why ideologically. This column is the "why" and I greatly appreciate you posting it.
My grandfather (born in 1889) was a staunch foe of FDR because of not only his economic policies but more importantly because he ran for President in 1940 on keeping us out of the war (which turned out to be a blatantly lie):
"Roosevelt, acutely aware of strong isolationist and non-interventionist sentiment, promised there would be no involvement in foreign wars if he were re-elected."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940_United_States_presidential_election)
From Wilson on down, the idea that the U.S. should have hegemony over the world (or responsibility for it) has been a poison that our Founding Fathers would have recoiled at and never have engaged in.
I post this comment just to show that the "Old Right" was a thing back in the '30s and was personified in my grandfather. It may help people to understand the appeal of a Pat Buchanan and to some extent a Donald Trump. I think a lot of us posters here are the progeny of that movement.
Charles Krauthammer first wrote about the US unipolar moment back around 1990. He warned that it was limited in time - it could disappear in a decade or endure for a generation. We got a generation.
It was never going to last forever and sound strategic planning should never have assumed it would. We should have prepared for what comes next. We didn’t.
I see, said the blind man. As a baby boomer, each day it's coming more & more into focus that most of my impressions of a democratic Amerca have been impacted and guided by a deep state, operating mostly invisibly, that arose from the ashes of WWII to what is now so obvious it can't be missed. The key original neocons and deep state architects were The Brothers-Allen (CIA) and John Foster (State) Dulles. (See great book on them for backup detail) The deep state neocon foreign policy is collapsing and leaving our great land weakened and threatened on the world stage, both economically and militarily.
Eisenhower saw it and tried to warn us & JFK paid dearly for trying to stop it. How interesting that JFK fired Allen Dulles for Bay of Pigs and he ended up as key member & de facto director of the Warren Commission. Watergate took out Nixon after he won 49 states & over 500 electoral votes. There have been endless military adventures with untold blood & treasure lost from Vietnam, to Iraq 1&2, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Syria and now Ukraine. Look what happened to Trump when he sniffed around the Ukraine money tree. The folks in Langley combined with the Bureau have proven more powerful than presidents and have the legislative branch totally under their control and operating as a puppy like Uniparty. There's a handful willing to stand up.
But we're awake, a combination of Trump's "bull in a china shop" first term and a propped up Biden fulfilling Obama's warning (Never underestimate Joe's ability to "eff" things up.) The signs of pushback are coming (Elon buying Twitter, "What Is A Woman with over 100 million views in two days, court challenges to Biden exec orders like student loans). The battle is being shaped, and it will be long, filled with defeats and challenges, with great courage & persistence needed for victory.
Let's plant some trees. https://youtu.be/eDZpaA63g30