As RPI’s Daniel McAdams, pointed out recently, the UN Syria deal displayed how the Russians cleaned the “humanitarian interventionist” clocks of the Obama Administration.
With all beatings that the neocons have taken lately, Jennifer Rubin felt the need to breakaway from the present, and start setting sights on 2016, when Republicans can counter those wily Russians:
The Syria debacle and now the Obama administration tip-toe toward a phony deal with Iran should be instructive on a number of counts for Republicans contemplating a 2016 run.
That’s right, an averted war is a “debacle” in neocon land. And when it comes to Iran, just about every neocon across the board shows no interest in wanting any type of nuclear deal.
But back to the Russians. Their last minute peace brokering really gets under the neocon skin. How will the Republicans get the war machine back on its tracks, Rubin wonders:
The Russians have the wily and effective foreign minister Lavrov, who runs circles around the hapless Americans without breaking a sweat. He and his boss, Vladimir Putin, see the world strategically – advancing their country’s interests, seizing on an errant word by our secretary of state, aiding the vital allies (i.e. dictators), and manipulating Western media. Who is our strategic thinker to be?
Interesting portrayal.
Let’s do a quick comparison of Rubin’s version of Russia to the U.S:
Does the U.S. government see the world “strategically” and “advance the country’s interests”? Sadly, instead of peace, commerce and no foreign entanglements, it does. The U.S. has the largest military empire that the world has ever seen. Russia, on the other hand, does not have a worldwide empire, but does still have a bunch of nuclear weapons, which really irritates the neocons.
Does the U.S. “aid the vital allies (i.e. dictators)”? Unfortunately, over the last 100+ years, the U.S. has propped up more ruthless dictators, and overthrown more democratically elected politicians than can fit on this page.
Ironically, the U.S. even propped up the former Soviet Union! Back in 1983, Congressman Ron Paul asked on the House Floor:
“Why are we engaged in military action against the Communists in which American lives are being lost when we cannot take the simple action of cutting off the flow of money to the Communists? For decades we have pursued this immoral course of action, asking American men to die fighting an enemy the American government has financed.”
Finally, Rubin accuses the Russians of “manipulating Western media”? Does she mean the same Western media that referred to Ron Paul as “Someone Else” when he ran for President?
Rubin wants the next President to set the neocon agenda back on its feet:
The next president and his team will face huge challenges. President Obama’s successor must rebuild U.S. credibility, construct a muscular but clear-eyed approach to the Middle East and develop a sustainable framework for helping free peoples achieve greater liberty.
Actually, it’s time for Americans to say that enough is enough! No more talk about some fictional “credibility,” or “muscular” wars that seek to remake people on the other side of the Earth. No more delusions of grandeur which contain “sustainable frameworks” that hold the world at the point of a gun (or drone).
It’s time to bring the troops home. And if Rubin really wants to help “free peoples achieve greater liberty,” it’s long past time to close the TSA, abolish the Patriot Act, and dismember the surveillance of every American by the NSA.
Americans can use a good dose of freedom right about now.
