Headfake?
Anyone paying attention can see that Trump has served the establishment well. Just as his predecessors have. So “Deep State” attacks on Trump, which lefty media also play up, appear to be nothing but a headfake. In fact, establishment Democratics like Hillary and Pelosi have turned back calls for a Trump impeachment after the Mueller Report.
Kissinger Op-Ed
The US Deep State was shocked by Russia’s defense of their interests in Syria and Ukraine in 2013 and 2014. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Russia was defeated! They needed USA investment! They needed to export to USA’s European poodles!
That shock prompted Kissinger to write an Wall Street Journal Op-Ed in August 2014 that warned of breakdown in the World Order and argued for something much like MAGA to me
et the challenge from Russia and China. 10 months later, Trump entered the race for the Republican nomination and he was the only MAGA candidate and the only populist on the right (out of 19 candidates!) – a combination that would allow him to sweep aside all
challengers.
Last paragraph of Kissinger’s Op-Ed calls for USA to set aside principles (like human rights?) and reclaim its ‘greatness’:
The celebration of universal principles needs to be paired with recognition of the reality of other regions’ histories, cultures and views of their security. Even as the lessons of challenging decades are examined, the affirmation of America’s exceptional nature must be sustained. History offers no respite to countries that set aside their sense of identity in favor of a seemingly less arduous course. But nor does it assure success for the most elevated convictions in the absence of a comprehensive geopolitical strategy.
Kissinger is essentially calling for MAGA. Trump was the MAGA candidate.
McCain and the Clintons are fans of Kissinger. Trump is a Clinton acolyte. VP Pence is a McCain acolyte.
CIA Director Gina Haspel is a Brennan acolyte. Comey is a Mueller acolyte. Atty General William Barr is close with Mueller and Bush Sr. And so on, down the line.
Deep State Goals in 2016 election
It appears
that the Deep State had three goals during the 2016 election:
- elect a Nationalist,
- initiate a new McCarthyism; and
- settle scores with Assange and Mike Flynn
To accomplish these, TRUMP HAD TO BE THE WINNER.
Hillary does not make a good nationalist. She has too much baggage. And a new McCarthyism requires much more than 3-4 months of allegations during a campaign. Trump hate + constant MSM speculation of Trump-Putin connection over 18+ months would do the trick. Wikileaks/Assange was made an issue during the campaign via the suspicious DNC leak (not a “hack”).
Historical Note
This
was my reaction when I first read it in 2014 (a day or two after
it was published):
I was skeptical of Kissinger’s Op-ed of March 5th, saying (on April 28th): “Kissinger penned a “lets be reasonable” Op-ed in an attempt to head off Russian action and maintain the gains made via “facts on the ground”.
Kissinger again feels the need to join the public conversation but I see his contribution very differently than Banger. My reading is that Kissinger is asserting that the US can and should do whatever it takes to keep the US preeminent – even if that means ignoring allies and/or the post-war international structure (UN, UNSC). That exceptional! message comes through loud and clear despite his ‘triage’ formalism. And it is a message that is comforting to the elite who read the WSJ (before a holiday weekend), though it should give Joe Sixpack nightmares if fully understood.
There is a lot more there which would take much longer to unpack. But I’ll point to one more thing: Note how he forms an equivalence between all the troubles that the ‘West’ now face, and ignores US/Western actions that have contributed to these conflicts by conflating them. NC readers understand this via Merschemer’s (in today’s links) work on Ukraine and many links regarding ISIS (like this one).
This comforting message is needed because the Ukraine gambit has failed miserably – as many independent oberservers [sic] predicted– and a deeper conflict with Russia (possibly extending to others) is now in the cards. Like the true neocon that he is, Kissinger has doubled down on Nuland’s obnoxious and misguided “f*ck the EU” with an exceptional! “f*ck the World”.
God help us.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/08/links-83114.html#comment-2299618