Good Riddance Antony Blinken
Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently gave
Ukraine leaders an indirect but stern talking-to. They needed, he said, to
start conscripting younger Ukrainians to kill and die for the American Empire’s
proxy war against Russia.
Right now, Ukraine does not force 18 – 25 years olds
into its military, but Blinken wants that changed.
“Getting younger people into the fight, we think, many
of us think, is necessary,” said Blinken. (1)
The first thing to wonder is who, exactly are those
“many of us” who think the way Blinken does.? They probably include some of the
same millionaire war profiteers who joined Blinken and Biden in spearheading
support for George W. Bush’s nut-job invasion of Iraq in 2003. (2) You know,
the one that turned out to be – oh,snap -- based on some “faulty intelligence.”
Several hundred
thousand Iraqis died as a result of that little mistake, and their once very
functional nation is still in chaos more than two decades later. You might have
thought Blinken’s career as a high-level cheerleader for the U.S. war machine would
have ended right there. But, as Medea Benjamin has observed, “In the U.S., there is no accountability
for supporting the worst foreign policy disaster in modern history. Only
rewards.” (3)
In any case, unfazed and
unaccountable, Blinken soldiered on, so to speak. As Stephen Zune writes,
He [became]a strong
supporter of U.S.
intervention in Libya’s 2011 civil war, [another complete disaster] even as
Biden himself opposed it. Blinken also supported a far larger
U.S. military intervention in
Syria’s civil war [an even bigger human catastrophe]and has opposed
a withdrawal of U.S.
troops from that country. (2)
Then, in 2017, Blinken went
on to do what any Washington player would do in his position. He started a
consulting firm. He named it West Exec Advisors, and it had, Zunes notes “a
secret client list believed to include aerospace and defense contractors, as
well as a prominent Israeli artificial intelligence firm with close ties to
that country’s military.” (2)
(No wonder, then, that
Blinken has recently dismissed as “meritless” the decision by the International
Criminal Court, Amnesty International, and others that Israel is conducting
genocide in Gaza.) (5)
Returning to Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine, there are very convincing arguments that the U.S./Nato did
everything it could to provoke it. (for just one good example, go here: Opinion
| The War in Ukraine Was Provoked—and Why That Matters to Achieve Peace |
Common Dreams ).
Now, after more than two years of carnage, The Russia-Ukraine violence is finally being
seen for what it’s always been: a proxy war in which the US “will fight Russia
to the last Ukrainian.”(4) Mitch McConnel, in a speech late last year, admitted
that “… the most basic reasons for continuing to help
Ukraine degrade and defeat the Russian invaders are cold, hard, practical
American interests.”(6)
And last month, England’s former prime
minister Boris Johnson stopped clowning long enough to tell an interviewer, “Man,
let’s face it. We’re waging a proxy war.” (7)
Incidentally, for the first time since the
Russian invasion, more than half of Ukrainians (52 percent) now favor peace
negotiations with Russia over continuing the war (38 percent). (8)
As for our war-happy
state secretary, his term has nearly expired. He’ll be okay though. As Caitlin
Johnstone notes:
‘You won’t see anyone in
Tony Blinken’s family headed to the frontlines in Ukraine.” (9) Nor will Blinken go hungry, as hundreds
of thousands of Gazans are doing, thanks in no small part to Blinken’s hard
work. He can easily return to brokering bribes for the likes of Raytheon and
Northrop Grumman.
Blinken’s new replacement, Marco Rubio, will also
be excellent for the war industry. He
likes to cite not just Russia but also China, Iran, and North Korea as reasons
we must ratchet up defense and spy spending even more than ever. All those countries,
he said recently, “want to weaken America,
weaken our alliances, weaken our standing and our capability and our will.” (10)
Those are words that sound like the
ringing of a cash register if you are in the right business.
Sources:
(1)
Blinken Says Ukraine Must Send
Younger People Into War - News From Antiwar.com
(2)
Biden’s Pick for Secretary of State
Has a Record of Militarism | Truthout
(4)
Washington
Will Fight Russia to the Last Ukrainian - The American Conservative
(5)
Blinken
calls genocide case against Israel ‘meritless’
(7)
Boris
Johnson: 'We're Waging a Proxy War' in Ukraine - News From Antiwar.com
(8)
Ukrainians Are Changing Their Minds
on the War - Newsweek
(9)
Blinken
Is Pushing For Ukrainian Teens To Die For US Hegemony – Caitlin Johnstone
(10)
What to know about Marco Rubio,
Trump's pick for secretary of state | AP News
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