When it comes to presidential authoritarianism, Americans now grade on a curve. On his worst day, Joe Biden isn’t in the same league as Donald Trump. Nonetheless, Biden’s statement last week that the US would go to war over Taiwan if China invades constituted an assault on America’s constitutional order. The fact that so many pundits reacted with a shrug shows how decayed that order already is.
If this is your position Peter: then you are basically dooming the President to being completely unable to respond to any crisis whatsoever. By the time Congress got its act together (I was quite tempted to use an earthier phrase given their inept character) and authorized Biden to do anything: Taiwan would have been conquered.
So what you're REALLY arguing is: Taiwan isn't worth fighting over, and the US should just capitulate to China. Which is fine, that's an opinion. It would be a WRONG opinion, because regardless of whether the US lost a war with China, or if we chose not to fight one, over Taiwan: American hegemony is over. So you're actually not arguing that the US shouldn't fight: you're arguing that China already has it over the US.
I think you're incredibly wrong on all accounts. But I've long since accepted that you've gone over to the isolationist wing of American FP.
"America is in deep trouble. Its economy is visibly sinking while standards of living are dropping and will decline further as military spending grows while both the increasingly “woke” educational system and industrial base are no longer competitive. We have a plausibly psychopathic government that is bringing us to the brink of war with several nuclear powers. What we Americans need is not another war, but rather an end to war, particular those wars that can somehow kill most or even all of us. Instead, help build pressure to wind down the Ukraine war through negotiations, stop feeding Zelensky with weapons and money. Leave China alone and stop being Israel’s patsy against Iran and inside Syria. Try to get along with competitors. It would indeed be a Brave New World, wouldn’t it? A country at peace with itself and working to benefit the American people – something that we have rarely seen since 1945." Caitlin Johnstone
In setting-up this Friday's interview you imply there are 2 contradictory positions to resolve the I-P situation:
"liberal Zionists who support a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and those further to their left who see Israel, in its entirety, as an apartheid state"
In fact, I believe the two positions are compatible. If there were division into two-states, the "apartheid everywhere" would no longer exist, even though the Jewish state will likely discriminate against Palestinians and visa-versa.
So I accept the designation of Israel as apartheid at the same time that I envision some level of separation as essential for peace.
The fantasy of good guys and bad guys is itself one of the weapons of war. War is politics, force and fraud. America is indeed slouching toward a nuclear exchange.
If this is your position Peter: then you are basically dooming the President to being completely unable to respond to any crisis whatsoever. By the time Congress got its act together (I was quite tempted to use an earthier phrase given their inept character) and authorized Biden to do anything: Taiwan would have been conquered.
So what you're REALLY arguing is: Taiwan isn't worth fighting over, and the US should just capitulate to China. Which is fine, that's an opinion. It would be a WRONG opinion, because regardless of whether the US lost a war with China, or if we chose not to fight one, over Taiwan: American hegemony is over. So you're actually not arguing that the US shouldn't fight: you're arguing that China already has it over the US.
I think you're incredibly wrong on all accounts. But I've long since accepted that you've gone over to the isolationist wing of American FP.
"America is in deep trouble. Its economy is visibly sinking while standards of living are dropping and will decline further as military spending grows while both the increasingly “woke” educational system and industrial base are no longer competitive. We have a plausibly psychopathic government that is bringing us to the brink of war with several nuclear powers. What we Americans need is not another war, but rather an end to war, particular those wars that can somehow kill most or even all of us. Instead, help build pressure to wind down the Ukraine war through negotiations, stop feeding Zelensky with weapons and money. Leave China alone and stop being Israel’s patsy against Iran and inside Syria. Try to get along with competitors. It would indeed be a Brave New World, wouldn’t it? A country at peace with itself and working to benefit the American people – something that we have rarely seen since 1945." Caitlin Johnstone
In setting-up this Friday's interview you imply there are 2 contradictory positions to resolve the I-P situation:
"liberal Zionists who support a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and those further to their left who see Israel, in its entirety, as an apartheid state"
In fact, I believe the two positions are compatible. If there were division into two-states, the "apartheid everywhere" would no longer exist, even though the Jewish state will likely discriminate against Palestinians and visa-versa.
So I accept the designation of Israel as apartheid at the same time that I envision some level of separation as essential for peace.
I look forward to your speech on 10th June in Berlin. Thanks for making it available to us.
Miriam
Where is the recording for last week's Brett Stevens discussion?
The fantasy of good guys and bad guys is itself one of the weapons of war. War is politics, force and fraud. America is indeed slouching toward a nuclear exchange.