Showing posts with label US interventions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US interventions. Show all posts

Sunday, 5 December 2021

Sheikh Daamoush: The US Blockade is One of the Reasons Behind Lebanese Suffering

 4 Dec 2021

Translated by Al-Ahed News

Deputy Chief of Hezbollah Executive Council Sheikh Ali Daamoush said that, “The Lebanese should know that the US is deceiving them no matter how much it tries to appear keen on Lebanon’s interest, because whoever is keen on it does not besiege it, impose sanctions on it, prevent it from aid, incite the Lebanese against each other, and does not pressure Lebanon regarding the demarcation of the maritime borders to make concessions at the expense of its rights to the “Israeli” enemy, and all this is done by the US in Lebanon”.

During his Friday sermon, Sheikh Daamoush asserted saying, “One of the reasons behind the suffering of the Lebanese is the American blockade imposed on Lebanon and the US policies and measures followed in it; our priority is to break this blockade and mitigate its repercussions on the Lebanese, as well as to serve the people and help them with all possible means to get out of this crisis that is pressuring everyone”.

His Eminence considered “The biggest responsibility lies with the government that must assume full responsibility and address all the reasons that prevent it from meeting. It is not true that the Shiite duo is behind disrupting government sessions, but rather the one behind this delay is also the one who is insisting on politicizing judiciary and keeping it hostage to political interventions and uses as well as the internal and external pressures”.

Sheikh Daamoush said: “These are the reasons that have so far prevented the government from meeting once again. Not getting rid of these reasons will make things more complex, so we should address them, find a way out, and react with the appropriate ways out that help solve the problem”.


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Tuesday, 20 July 2021

Fake News London Guardian Kremlin Papers Report


 July 18, 2021

By Stephen Lendman

Source

US/Western dark forces never quit proving that they’re hostile to what just societies hold dear.

Time and again, their press agent media show they long ago abandoned what journalism is supposed to be — banning it on issues mattering most.

On domestic issues, they support privileged interests at the expense of most others — notably by pushing health destroying flu/covid jabs, instead of warning about their hazards.

On all things geopolitical mattering most, they stick to state-approved talking points — notably US/Western rage for control of planet earth, its resources and populations.

Days earlier, a fake news London Guardian report turned truth on its head as follows, saying:

“Vladimir Putin personally authorized (sic) a secret spy agency operation to support a ‘mentally unstable’ Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia’s national security council (sic), according to…leaked Kremlin documents (sic)” — that don’t exist.

No responsible editors would permit publication of the above claim no evidence suggests, made up rubbish alone with no credibility — part of longstanding US/UK Russia bashing.

Yet in true fake news Guardian tradition, it defied reality by claiming a Trump White House “would help secure Moscow’s strategic objectives, among them ‘social turmoil’ in the US (sic) and a weakening of the American president’s negotiating position (sic).”

Not a shred of evidence was presented by the Guardian to support what it falsely called “genuine…documents.”

More bald-faced Big Lies followed, including by saying:

A so-called Kremlin “expert department recommended…’all possible force’ to ensure a Trump victory (sic).”

Time and again, phony claims like the above about Russia and other foreign nations are debunked as Big Lies that won’t die.

Throughout US history from inception to the present day, no credible evidence ever suggested foreign inference in its electoral process — what dark forces in Washington do repeatedly against other nations worldwide. 

Political scientist Dov Levin earlier documented over 80 times that US dark forces interfered in the electoral process of other nations from end of WW II to year-2000.

Since then, the US illegally tried to influence the outcome of elections or overall political process in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico, Russia, Belarus, and elsewhere. 

What could a foreign nation hope to achieve by meddling in so-called US elections?

Farcical when held, both right wings of the one-party state take turns running things — serving privileged interests exclusively at the expense of ordinary people at home and abroad.

US diabolical actions also include attempted color revolutions, old-fashioned coups, political assassinations — most recently against Haiti’s president — and wars by hot and/or other means against nations free from imperial control.

In response to the Guardian’s fake news, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called it “pulp fiction,” adding:

The report “is complete nonsense.”

It’s “the hallmark of an absolutely low-quality publication.” 

“Either (it’s) trying to increase its popularity or is sticking to a rabidly Russophobic line.”

Ill-conceived trash best describes what no evidence supports because none exists — just baseless accusations with nothing supporting them.

Time and again, Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea and other nations free from US imperial control are falsely accused of all sorts of things they had nothing to do with.

Indisputable evidence reveals US high crimes of war, against humanity, and other dirty tricks against one nation after another, targeting ones named above and many others.

In his books and Anti-Empire reports, the late William Blum documented US high crimes.

Calling them “worse than you imagine,” he once explained the following:

“If you flip over the rock of American foreign policy (throughout) the past century, this is what crawls out: invasions, bombings, (subversion), overthrowing governments, suppressing (popular) movements for social change, assassinating political leaders, perverting elections, manipulating labor unions, manufacturing ‘news,’ death squads, torture, (chemical), biological (and nuclear) warfare, (radiological contamination), drug trafficking, mercenaries,” police state repression, and endless wars on humanity.”

That’s what the scourge of US hegemonic rage is all about.

Stressing it’s not a pretty picture, Blum said it’s “enough to give imperialism a bad name.” 

Millions of corpses attest to US ruthlessness, a rogue state exceeding history’s worst over a longer duration, operating globally, willing to risk destroying planet earth to own it, the human cost of its wars and other barbarism of no consequence.

Blum called democracy “America’s deadliest export,” the way it should be is abhorrent to the US and its imperial partners.

Directly and through its press agent media like the Guardian, Russia and other sovereign independent countries are bashed for not bending to higher powers in Washington, London and other Western capitals.

As for dubious Guardian claims about covert Russian support for Trump over Hillary in 2016, they’re not worth the (toilet) paper they’re written on.

A Final Comment

The Russiagate hoax throughout Trump’s tenure was all about delegitimizing his triumph over media darling Hillary — a Big Lie still refusing to die despite no evidence supporting it.

It remains one of the most shameful political chapters in US history, exceeding the worst of McCarthyism.

Ignored was House testimony by former US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (2010 – 2017), saying:

“I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting (or) conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election,” adding:

“I do not recall any instance when I had direct evidence of” alleged Trump team-Russia collusion.

Congressional and Mueller probes were exercises in mass deception.

They found no evidence suggesting Russian meddling in the US political process because there was none.

The Mueller probe notably laid an egg, ending with a whimper, not a bang.

His 19-lawyer team, 40 FBI special agents, intelligence analysts, forensic accountants, and other professional staff spent around $25 million.

They issued 2,800 subpoenas, 500 search warrants, almost 50 orders authorizing use of pen registers, 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence, over 230 orders for communication records, interviewed about 500 individuals, and made 34 politicized indictments on dubious charges unconnected to his mandate.

Despite all of the above from May 2017 – March 2019, it struck out, finding no evidence of Russian US election interference — because there was nothing to find.

Yet phony claims otherwise remain like a bad aftertaste — the fake news Guardian report the latest example of yellow journalism instead of the real thing.


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The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Sunday, 18 July 2021

Were Hezbollah Really Ruling Lebanon, Woes Would Never Plague It: Sayyed Safieddine

  July 16, 2021

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Head of Hezbollah’s executive council Sayyed Hashem Safieddine stressed that the US policies are ruining Lebanon, adding that Washington intervenes in all the Lebanese domestic affairs.

Addressing Quranic ceremony, Sayyed Safieddine rejected all the claims that Hezbollah dominates over the Lebanese politics, saying: “Were Hezbollah really ruling Lebanon, woes Would never plague it”.

Sayyed Safieddine noted that the US tyranny targets Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan, adding that the Umma has started following the path of victory since “Al-Quds Sword” battle.

Source: Al-Manar Eglish Website

Related Video


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Saturday, 1 May 2021

Moscow: Casting Doubts on Legitimacy of Presidential Elections in Syria Is a New Attempt to Interfere in Its Affairs”

Russian_Foreign_Ministry
Russian Foreign Ministry

Russian Foreign Ministry affirmed that statements of some countries about illegitimacy of upcoming presidential elections in Syria are a new attempt to interfere in its affairs, stressing that holding these elections fully complies with its constitution and resolutions of international legitimacy.

The ministry said in a statement on Friday that Moscow is closely following up preparations for upcoming Syrian presidential elections due to be held on May 26th.

It added that organization of these elections is a domestic affair of Syria and fully complies with the requirements of the Constitution which was adopted in 2012 and the local laws. These measures don’t contradict with UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and other international resolutions based on respecting Syria’s sovereignty.

The statement noted that in this regard, we evaluate the recent statements by capitals of several foreign countries, which claim the illegitimacy of upcoming elections as part of a campaign of blatant political pressure on the Syrian state and a new attempt to interfere in its domestic affairs.

“No one has the right to dictate on the Syrian people timing and conditions that must be prepared for selecting a president for their state,” the statement stressed.

Holding elections comes in the light of the continued illegal foreign occupation to parts of the Syrian territory, the statement said, adding that in response to the demands of Syrian side, Moscow is ready to send Russian observers for these elections.

Source: SANA

Related Pictures 2014 Elections

This is what the Syrian election looks like in Lebanon

This is what the Syrian election looks like in Lebanon - The Washington Post
Thousands of Syrain nationals living in Lebanon arrive outside the Syrian Embassy in Yarze east of Beirut on May 28 before voting in the upcoming presidential elections in Syria. (Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)
Syrian nationals living in Lebanon gesture as they arrive outside the Syrian Embassy in Yarze east of Beirut on May 28 before voting in the upcoming presidential elections. (Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)
A fireman sprays water on Syrian expatriates living in Lebanon to keep them cool, as they arrive to cast their ballots in their country’s presidential elections, outside the Syrian Embassy in Yarze east of Beirut on May 28. (Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)
A fireman sprays water on Syrian expatriates living in Lebanon to keep them cool as they arrive to cast their ballots outside the Syrian Embassy in Yarzeh.(Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)
Lebanese Red Cross workers help Syrians who fainted while on their way to the Syrian Embassy to vote in the presidential election in Yarze, east of Beirut, Lebanon, on May 28. (Bilal Hussein/AP)
Syrian men cast their ballots in the Syrian presidential elections at a polling station set up in the Syrian embassy in the town of Yarzeh, east Beirut, Lebanon. (Nabil Mounzer/EPA)
Syrians who live in Lebanon chant slogans and carry portraits of President Bashar Assad and their national flags as they drive towards to the Syrian Embassy to vote in the presidential election in Yarze, east of Beirut. (Bilal Hussein/AP)
A Syrian man shows the photo of Syrian President al-Bashar Assad on the ballot paper as he prepares to vote in the Syrian presidential elections at a polling station set up in the Syrian Embassy in   Yarzeh. (Nabil  Mounzer/EPA)
Syrians waving flags drive to the Syrian Embassy in Yarzeh to cast their vote. (Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)

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Thursday, 25 March 2021

US Interfered in 81 Foreign Elections

 

No Neocon bastard or pinhead is running around with pitchfork saying that the United States needs to be attacked for interfering in at least 81 countries.

By Jonas E. Alexis -March 23, 2021

…introduction by Jonas E. Alexis, VT Editor

Whenever you hear a Neocon or some political whore start talking about bombing or attacking another country because that country supposedly “hacked” the United States, then it is an infallible sign that you are in the presence of an ethnic cleansing, an ideologue, a political gangster, or liar who wants to drink the blood of other people.

Why? Well, it has been pointed out that the United States has interfered in at least 81 foreign elections. No Neocon bastard or pinhead is running around with pitchfork saying that the United States needs to be attacked for doing so. The eminent journalist and writer Stephen Kinzer has documented that the United States has been overthrowing one government after another for the last one hundred years.[1] Who’s going to tell them enough is enough?

Government’s Own Data Shows US Interfered In 81 Foreign Elections

—by Claire Bernish

On Monday, FBI Director James Comey confirmed for the first time publicly that the bureau is officially investigating hotly contentious allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. election — but, even if proven true, such geopolitical escapades better characterize the routine behavior of accuser than of accused.

“The F.B.I., as part of our counterintelligence effort, is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 president election,” the director announced, adding the bureau would conduct a probe to discern whether Trump’s associates had contact with Russian officials.

Despite that the U.S. has hypocritically exerted influence over foreign elections in all corners of the globe — in fact, it has arrogantly done so a whopping 81 times between 1946 and 2000, alone — with just one-third of those operations undertaken overtly.

For months, mainstream media parroted murky accusations hurled by politicians — keen to point a finger of blame for the apparently stultifying victory of a former reality television host on someone — that The Russians had somehow surreptitiously undermined the election-centric foundation of American Democracy.

While that has yet to prove true, this new Red Scare constitutes a duplicitous attempt by the pot to call the kettle … an election meddler.

Researcher Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University’s Institute for Politics and Strategy — an expert on the topic at hand — discussed the lengthy but incomplete list of times the U.S. government has interfered in other nations’ elections with NPR’s Ari Shapiro.

Listen to the NPR segment below:

Asked for examples where this tampering tangibly altered results, Levin stated,

One example of that was our intervention in Serbia, Yugoslavia in the 2000 election there. Slobodan Milosevic was running for re-election, and we didn’t want him to stay in power there due to his tendency, you know, to disrupt the Balkans and his human rights violations.

So we intervened in various ways for the opposition candidate, Vojislav Kostunica. And we gave funding to the opposition, and we gave them training and campaigning aide. And according to my estimate, that assistance was crucial in enabling the opposition to win.

Levin reiterated the more blatant methods with which the U.S. asserts dominance — through the overt coups or all-out regime changes branding the nation a notorious interventionist — are not among the list of the 80-plus attempts to manipulate the electoral outcome.

As for the issue of pot versus kettle, Levin explained that — although Russia and other powerful nations indisputably employ similar tactics — the United States has been quite prodigious in its effort.

Well, for my dataset, the United States is the most common user of this technique. Russia or the Soviet Union since 1945 has used it half as much. My estimate has been 36 cases between 1946 to 2000. We know also that the Chinese have used this technique and the Venezuelans when the late Hugo Chavez was still in power in Venezuela and other countries.

As sanctimoniously as U.S. politicians cry foul about The Russians, it would behoove the new McCarthyites to reflect on the nation’s sticky imperialist fingerprints around the globe — like that time in 1996, when the United States undertook an extensive, secret operation to ensure the presidency of Boris Yeltsin.

That is, of course, former President Boris Yeltsin — of the Russian Federation.

[1] Stephen Kinzer, Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq (New York: Times Books, 2006).

BIOGRAPHYJonas E. Alexis

Jonas E. Alexis has degrees in mathematics and philosophy. He studied education at the graduate level. His main interests include U.S. foreign policy, history of Israel/Palestine conflict, and the history of ideas. He is the author of the new book Zionism vs. the West: How Talmudic Ideology is Undermining Western Culture. He is currently working on a book tentatively titled, Kevin MacDonald’s Abject Failure: A Philosophical and Moral Critique of Evolutionary Psychology, Sociobiology, and White Identity. He teaches mathematics in South Korea.

Logoswars1@gmail.com


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Tuesday, 19 January 2021

The idea of ‘exceptionalism’ is deeply ingrained in our national DNA: American author

 By Mohammad Mazhari

January 18, 2021 – 11:34

 TEHRAN – An American author says toppling governments around the world is one of Washington’s “specialties”. 

“Overthrowing governments is one of our specialties,” Stephen Kinzer tells the Tehran Times.   

Kinzer also criticizes U.S. exceptionalism. 

“The idea of ‘exceptionalism’ is deeply ingrained in our national DNA,” Kinzer tells the Tehran Times. 

“Last week gave us a glimpse, on a greatly reduced scale, of the havoc we have wreaked elsewhere.”

Kinzer, a former New York Times journalist, says no nation like the U.S. intervenes in others’ domestic issues. 

The following is the text of the interview: 

 Q: How do you assess the recent mob attack on the Capitol building by pro-Trump protesters? What is the message of this incident for the U.S and the world?

“In the U.S. as in most countries, politics often is more powerful than the law.”A: Over the last century, no nation has intervened as often as the United States in so many countries so far away from its own borders.  Overthrowing governments is one of our specialties.  Last week (January 7th) gave us a glimpse, on a greatly reduced scale, of the havoc we have wreaked elsewhere.

Q: U.S. administrations and institutes mostly back protests against governments all around the world but when it comes to the U.S., they rally around national integrity. Isn’t it a kind of double-standard?

A: The idea of “exceptionalism” is deeply ingrained in our national DNA.  Americans grow up presuming that, as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright famously asserted, “We are the indispensable nation, we stand taller and we see further than other countries.”  Our leaders believe they know what is good for the world better than the world itself knows.  This has led the United States to incite rebellion and subversive violence in dozens of countries.  To replace the governments we overthrow, we often promote corrupt demagogues.  Now we face the same combination at home: insurrection and demagoguery.

Q: Why did you publish a tweet saying: “My friends abroad keep reassuring me:  There can never be a coup in the United States because there is no American embassy there?”

“Now the U.S. faces the same combination of ‘insurrection and demagoguery’ at home.” A: The joke is that coups in most countries happen not for domestic reasons, but because of intervention by covert agents who work from the U.S. embassy.  This is not completely true, but true enough so that everyone gets the joke.

Q: Is there any mechanism in the American constitution to prosecute a president who violates the law?

 A: We do have an impeachment procedure but it is political in nature, not legal.  In the U.S. as in most countries, politics often is more powerful than the law.

Q: The Democratic Party of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden succeeded to take control of the Senate. Do you expect the victory would lead to a change in U.S policies, especially in foreign policy areas?

A: Biden will make substantial changes to government policies relating to education, transportation, labor, energy, immigration, and other domestic issues.  There will be no major change in foreign policy.  The U.S. will continue seeing Russia and China as enemies and working more often to confront them than to compromise.  There will, however, be some change in policy toward Iran.  How substantial the change will remain unclear?  It is the subject of intense debate behind the scenes in Washington and the incoming Biden administration.

Q: How do you assess American police’s behavior after pro-Trump fans stormed the Capitol Hill in comparison with its reaction to the summer protests? Was the Insurrection Act applicable?

A: President Biden himself said it: “No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they wouldn’t have been treated very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol.  We all know that’s true. And it is unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. The American people saw it in plain view.”

 

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Wednesday, 30 December 2020

Democracies Don’t Start Wars. But Democrats Do

By Philip Giraldi, Ph.D.
Source: Strategic Culture

It may have been President Bill Clinton who once justified his wrecking of the Balkans by observing that liberal interventionism to bring about regime change is a good thing because “Democracies don’t start wars with other democracies.” Or it might have been George W. Bush talking about Iraq or even Barack Obama justifying his destruction of Libya or his interventions relating to Syria and Ukraine. The principle is the same when the world’s only superpower decides to throw its weight around.

The idea that pluralistic democracies are somehow less inclined to go to war has in fact been around for a couple of hundred years and was first elaborated by Immanuel Kant in an essay entitled “Perpetual Peace” that was published in 1795. Kant may have been engaging in some tongue in cheek as the French relatively liberal republic, the “Directory,” was at that time preparing to invade Italy to spread the revolution. The presumption that “democracies” are somehow more pacific than other forms of government is based on the principle that it is in theory more difficult to convince an entire nation of the desirability of initiating armed conflict compared to what happens in a monarchy where only one man or woman has to be persuaded.

The American Revolution, which preceded Kant, was clearly not fought on the principle that kings are prone to start wars while republics are not, and, indeed, the “republican” United States has nearly always been engaged in what most observers would consider to be wars throughout its history. And a review of the history of the European wars of the past two hundred years suggests that it is also overly simple to suggest that democracies eschew fighting each other. There are, after all, many different kinds of governments, most with constitutions, many of which are quite politically liberal even if they are headed by a monarch or oligarchy. They have found themselves on different sides in the conflicts that have troubled Europe since the time of Napoleon.

And wars are often popular, witness the lines of enthusiastic young men lining up to enlist when the Triple Entente took on the Germans and Austrians to begin the First World War. So, war might be less likely among established democracies, but it should be conceded that the same national interests that drive a dictatorship can equally impact on a more pluralistic form of government, particularly if the media “the territory of lies” is in on the game. One recalls how the Hearst newspaper chain created the false narrative that resulted in the U.S.’s first great overseas imperial venture, the Spanish-American War. More recently, the mainstream media in the United States has supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq, the destabilization of Syria, and the regime change in Ukraine, Afghanistan and Libya.

So now we Americans have the ultimate liberal democratic regime about to resume power, possibly with a majority in both houses of Congress to back up the presidency. But something is missing in that the campaigning Democrats never talked about a peace dividend, and now that they are returning the airwaves are notable for Senators like Mark Warner asking if the alleged Russian hacking of U.S. computers is an “act of war?” Senator Dick Durbin has no doubts on the issue, having declared it “virtually a declaration of war.” And Joe Biden appears to be on board, considering punishment for Moscow. Are we about to experience Russiagate all over? In fact, belligerency is not unique to Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo.  War is in the air, and large majority of the Democratic Party recently voted for the pork-bloated National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), endorsing a policy of U.S. global military dominance for the foreseeable future. If you are an American who would like to see national health insurance, a large majority among Democrats, forget about it!

But more to the point, the Democrats have a worse track record than do the Republicans when it comes to starting unnecessary wars. Donald Trump made the point of denouncing “stupid wars” when he was running for office and has returned to that theme also in the past several weeks, though he did little enough to practice what he preached until it was too late and too little. Clinton notoriously intervened in the Balkans and bombed a pharmaceuticals factory in Sudan and a cluster of tents in Afghanistan to draw attention away from his affair with Monica Lewinsky. His secretary of State Madeleine Albright thought the death of 500,000 Iraqi children due to U.S. sanctions was “worth it.” Barack Obama tried to destroy Syria, interfered in Ukraine and succeeded in turning Libya into an ungovernable mess while compiling a “kill list” and assassinating U.S. citizens overseas using drones.

If you want to go back farther, Woodrow Wilson involved the U.S. in World War One while Franklin D. Roosevelt connived at America’s entry into the Second World War. FDR’s successor Harry Truman dropped two atomic bombs on civilian targets in Japan, killing as many as 200,000. Japan was preparing to surrender, which was known to the White House and Pentagon, making the first use of nuclear weapons completely unnecessary and one might call it a “war crime.” Truman also got involved in Korea and John F. Kennedy started the intervention in Vietnam, though there are indications that he was planning to withdraw from it when he was killed. The only Democratic president who failed to start one or more wars was the much-denigrated Jimmy Carter.

So, it is Joe Biden’s turn at the wheel. One has to question the philosophy of government that he brings with him as he has never found a war that he didn’t support and several of his cabinet choices are undeniably hardliners on what they refer to as national security. The lobbies are also putting pressure on Biden to do the “right thing,” which for them is to continue an interventionist foreign policy. The Israeli connected Foundation for the Defense Democracies (FDD) has not surprisingly issued a collection of essays that carries the title “Defending Forward: Securing America by Projecting Military Power Abroad.” If one had to bet at this point “defending forward” will be what the Biden Administration is all about. And oh, by the way, as democracies don’t go to war with democracies, it will only be the designated bad guys who will be on the receiving end of America’s military might.Or at least that is how the tale will be told.

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Sunday, 13 December 2020

2021 is the year of politics par excellence 2021 عام السياسة بامتياز

2021 is the year of politics par excellence 2021

Nasser Qandil

There is no longer any doubt that U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will take office on January 20, and that the questions that accompanied the election phase and some of them are still present, will not find an opportunity for President Donald Trump to remain in the White House and refuse to recognize the results of the election to refrain from handing over power, and there is no doubt that President  Biden borrows the slogan that President Barack Obama and then President Donald Trump began as president, namely America First,  meaning To get out of the role of the global policeman and get involved in international and regional conflicts, which proved unresolved as proven to affect the decline of American prestige and damage to American interests, and retreat towards attention within the borders where the devastation is widening and the decline is magnified, and the need for restoration and maintenance politically, socially and economically, but they left it during practice to calculate the involvement in conflicts under the pressure of the interests of economic blocs, political blocs,  allies and financiers..

America was sinking more into ruin and getting more involved in failure, the more america’s slogan (America First) was left to become a valid slogan for a rival election campaign, on which Obama would win against Joe McCain, the legacy of George Bush  Jr.,and Trump’s victory against  Biden, carrying the legacy of Obama, and Biden’s victory over  Trump, carrying his own legacy, and america has reached a place where it has not been betrayed. As Biden’s article published in Foreign Affairs last spring, which decisively calls for the reconsideration of diplomacy, from the revitalisation of the United Nations, to the restoration of international conventions, to the revival of partnerships with Europe and with adversaries in Russia, China, Iran and elsewhere, suggests that it is free to rebuild America and re-establish a new position capable of competing for world leadership, after the attempt to rule the world by force failed.

Observers inside and outside America agree that the Iranian nuclear file is the key to the transition from the policies of involvement to america’s first policies, a file that formed an agreement on it, was the first qualitative translation of the Obama era to the concept of returning to the American interior and withdrawing from involvement in the policy of interventions, and acknowledging the realities of the new balances that govern the world, by returning to the understanding on the nuclear file with Iran is restored America’s unity with Europe, which was shattered by the U.S. withdrawal from the agreement before any other reasons, and through return opens the door to the revival of NATO rift between The United States, European and Turkish wings, and through the return to understanding the level of tension with Russia and China, and most importantly, through this return Washington eases the burden of escalation in the Middle East, which is the biggest source of moral and material depletion of status and potential for Washington.

The positions of the Biden administration, particularly what he personally said and reaffirmed by his national security adviser, seem to be toward the priority of a return to nuclear understanding, under one condition is Iran’s commitment to its terms,and Iran seems clear in its declaration of readiness to abide by the terms of the agreement on one condition is the return of the Biden  administration to the understanding, which means that the first months of 2021 will be a date for the return. This means opening the wide door to a series of repercussions on the region’s files, from Syria to Yemen to Iraq and Lebanon except the conflict on Palestine, as well as opening the door to the return of international understandings from which Trump came out and  Biden will return to it, and open the door to negotiate from the site of the search for solutions to the outstanding problems with both Russia and China..

– 2021 is a year of politics with distinction

2021 عام السياسة بامتياز

ناصر قنديل

لم يعُد ثمّة شك بأن الرئيس الأميركي المنتخب جو بايدن سيتسلّم مقاليد الحكم في 20 كانون الثاني المقبل، وأن التساؤلات التي رافقت المرحلة الانتخابية ولا تزال ذيول بعضها حاضرة، لن تجد طريقها لخلق فرصة لتشبث الرئيس دونالد ترامب بالبقاء في البيت الأبيض ورفض الاعتراف بنتائج الانتخابات وصولاً للامتناع عن تسليم السلطة، كذلك لم يعُد هناك شك بأن الرئيس بايدن يستعير الشعار الذي بدأ به الرئيس باراك أوباما ومن بعده الرئيس دونالد ترامب رئاستيهما، وهو أميركا أولاً، يمعنى الخروج من دور الشرطي العالمي والتورط في النزاعات الدولية والإقليمية، التي ثبت العجز عن حسمها كما ثبت تأثيرها على تراجع الهيبة الأميركيّة وتضرّر المصالح الأميركيّة، والانكفاء نحو الاهتمام بداخل الحدود حيث الخراب يتّسع والتراجع يتضخّم، والحاجة للترميم والصيانة سياسياً واجتماعياً واقتصادياً تتحوّل الى أولوية، لكنهما لم يلبثا خلال الممارسة أن تركاه لحساب التورط في الصراعات تحت ضغط مصالح تكتلات اقتصادية ولوبيات سياسيّة وحلفاء ومموّلين.

كانت أميركا تغرق أكثر في الخراب وتتورّط أكثر في الفشل، كلما تمّت مغادرة شعار أميركا أولاً لدرجة يعود ليصير شعاراً صالحاً لحملة انتخابية منافسة، فيفوز على أساسه أوباما بمواجهة جو ماكين حامل تركة جورج بوش الإبن، ويفوز على أساسه ترامب في مواجهة بايدن حاملاً تركة أوباما، ويفوز على أساسه مجدداً بايدن على ترامب حاملاً تركة نفسه، وقد بلغت أميركا مع الإمعان في خيانة هذا الشعار الى مكان لم يعُد يحتمل التلاعب به مجدداً، كما تقول مقالة بايدن المنشورة في مجلة الفورين أفيرز في الربيع الماضي، والتي تدعو بحسم لإعادة الاعتبار للدبلوماسية، من تنشيط الأمم المتحدة، الى العودة للاتفاقيات الدوليّة، إلى إحياء الشراكات مع أوروبا ومع الخصوم في روسيا والصين وإيران وسواها، للتفرغ لإعادة بناء أميركا وإعادة إنتاج موقع جديد لها قادر على المنافسة على زعامة العالم، بعدما فشلت محاولة حكم العالم بالقوة.

يُجمع المراقبون والمتابعون داخل أميركا وخارجها على أن الملف النوويّ الإيرانيّ يشكل مفتاح الانتقال من سياسات التورّط الى سياسات أميركا أولاً، وهو الملف الذي شكّل التوصّل الى اتفاق حوله، كان أول ترجمة نوعيّة في عهد أوباما لمفهوم العودة الى الداخل الأميركي والانسحاب من التورط في سياسة التدخلات، والإقرار بحقائق الموازين الجديدة التي تحكم العالم، فعبر العودة للتفاهم حول الملف النووي مع إيران تُستعاد وحدة أميركا مع أوروبا التي تصدّعت بفعل الانسحاب الأميركي من الاتفاق قبل اي أسباب أخرى، وعبر العودة يُفتح باب إحياء حلف الناتو المتصدّع بين أجنحة أميركية وأوروبية وتركية، وعبر العودة للتفاهم ينخفض سقف التوتر مع روسيا والصين، والأهم أنه عبر هذه العودة تتخفف واشنطن من أعباء التصعيد في الشرق الأوسط الذي يشكل أكبر مصدر للاستنزاف المعنوي والمادي للمكانة والإمكانات بالنسبة لواشنطن.

تبدو المواقف الصادرة عن إدارة بايدن، خصوصاً ما قاله هو شخصياً وأعاد تأكيده مستشاره للأمن القومي، باتجاه اولوية العودة للتفاهم النووي، ضمن شرط واحد هو التزام إيران بموجباتها، وتبدو إيران واضحة في إعلانها عن الاستعداد للالتزام بموجبات الإتفاق بشرط واحد هو عودة إدارة بايدن للتفاهم، ما يعني ان الشهور الأولى من العام 2021 ستكون موعداً للعودة للتفاهم، وهذا يعني فتح الباب الواسع لسلسلة من التداعيات على ملفات المنطقة، من سورية إلى اليمن إلى العراق ولبنان وصولاً لربط النزاع حول المواقف المتعارضة حول فلسطين، كما يعني فتح الباب واسعاً لعودة تفاهمات دولية خرج منها ترامب وسيعود إليها بايدن، وفتح الباب لتفاوض من موقع البحث عن حلول حول المشاكل العالقة مع كل من روسيا والصين.

عام 2021 هو عام للسياسة بامتياز


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