Tag Archives: Arrogance

The Washington Blob: Its Blind Arrogance May Lead to War with Russia, by Doug Bandow

Posted on May 23, 2022 | Leave a comment

The funny thing about the Washington Blob’s arrogance is: what do they have to be arrogant about? From Doug Bandow at antiwar.com:

The Washington foreign policy elite, aka the Blob, hates nothing more than dissent from the conventional wisdom that the US must always do more, ever more, in the world. Those who disagree are treated as fools or traitors.

Every Friday the Washington Post engages in its weekly act of journalistic masturbation, when one of its establishment journalists interviews its other establishment journalists. The conversations are always informed, usually interesting, and often drenched in condescension. Last Friday was no different.

The Posties took on congressional passage of the $40 billion aid bill for Ukraine, expressing shock and dismay that 11 Republican senators voted no. Can you imagine – putting the interests of Americans first!? Playing the perfect Tartuffe was Josh Rogin, brimming with pietistic outrage. He singled out Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty, announcing that the former ambassador “knows better.” Rogin huffed: “It seems pretty simple.” It is better to spend the money now than to have World War III if Russia wins, he explained.

Eh? That’s the best the Post can come up with? Rogin’s argument is simple, or more accurately, simplistic. Surely Rogin knows better. However, his attitude is typical of the Blob.

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Posted in Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Government, Imperialism, Media, Politics, Propaganda

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Empire of Lies Eager to Receive Mr. Sarmat’s Business Card, by Pepe Escobar

Posted on April 29, 2022 | Leave a comment

Vladimir Putin does not make empty threats. From Pepe Escobar at strategic-culture.org:

The only antidote to propaganda dementia is served by sparse voices of reason, which happen to be Russian, thus silenced and/or dismissed.

Especially since the onset of GWOT (Global War on Terror) at the start of the millennium, no one ever lost money betting against the toxic combo of hubris, arrogance and ignorance serially deployed by the Empire of Chaos and Lies.

What passes for “analysis” in the vast intellectual no-fly zone known as U.S. Think Tankland includes wishful thinking babble such as Beijing “believing” that Moscow would play a supporting role in the Chinese century just to see Russia, now, in the geopolitical driver’s seat.

This is a fitting example not only of outright Russophobic/Sinophobic paranoia about the emergence of peer competitors in Eurasia – the primeval Anglo-American nightmare – but also crass ignorance about the finer points of the complex Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership.

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White House on Ukraine and Syria: If you don’t trust us, then f–k you, by Jeff Shogol

Posted on February 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

Government in general and the U.S. government in particular have done everything possibly to destroy trust. From Jeff Shogol at taskandpurpose.com:

Well, okay then.

joe biden
WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 26: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about the situation in Afghanistan in the East Room of the White House on August 26, 2021 in Washington, DC. At least 12 American service members were killed on Thursday by suicide bomb attacks near the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images).

If it’s starting to feel like March 2003, that’s because President Joe Biden’s administration is definitely taking an “either you are with us or with the terrorists” vibe.

Top White House and State Department officials tried to shut down reporters’ questions on Thursday about the veracity of Biden administration claims on Russia and Syria.

To wit: U.S. officials claim that Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi killed himself, his wife, and two children when he detonated an explosive device during a special operations forces raid in Syria. The Pentagon is further claiming that all the civilians killed during the raid died as a result of actions taken by Al-Qurayshi and one of his deputies, who fought U.S. troops along with his wife.

Separately, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday that the U.S. government has information that Russia may launch a false flag attack and blame it on the Ukrainian military or intelligence forces.

“As part of this fake attack, we believe that Russia would produce a very graphic propaganda video which would include corpses and actors that would be depicting mourners and images of destroyed locations as well as military equipment at the hands of Ukraine or the West – even to the point where some of this equipment would be made to look like it was Western-supplied into Ukraine equipment,” Kirby said during a Pentagon news briefing.

Yet no one from the Biden administration has presented evidence to back up any of its statements absolving the U.S. military of all blame for the civilian casualties in Syria or its accusation that Russia could create a glorified snuff film as a pretext to invade Ukraine.

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These people hate you and think you are beneath them, by Marty Bent

Posted on January 25, 2022 | Leave a comment

The rulers always despise the peasants. From Marty Bent at tftc.io:

This is the epitome of what is wrong in the world right now

 
 

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Posted in Academia, Business, Crime, Cronyism, Economics, Economy, Governments, Horseshit, Medicine, Politics, Propaganda

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Washington’s Arrogance Survives Afghanistan Disaster, by Doug Bandow

Posted on August 23, 2021 | 1 comment

The warmongers are indomitable; defeat after defeat doesn’t stop them from marching someone else’s kids off to the next war. From Doug Bandow at antiwar.com:

Despite the Afghanistan disaster dominating global headlines, American policymakers don’t seem to realize that they just lost a war. After Washington devoted two decades to, endured tens of thousands of casualties for, and spent trillions of dollars on its Afghan creation, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan melted away in less than two weeks.

The rapid and complete collapse destroyed any illusions of U.S. competence in and commitment to social engineering around the world. The belief that Washington can reorder other societies with barely a nod to differing cultures, histories, ethnicities, religions, geographies, traditions, and more now looks delusional. Yet the same people who concocted and promoted the Afghan misadventure now fill Washington, D.C. with advice on what needs to be done next.

The immediate problem is saving those who want to leave. No doubt, Washington blundered badly putting evacuation of Americans and Afghan friends last, after the military exited. The Trump administration should have repaired a broken visa process while negotiating the war’s end with the Taliban, but that president and his officials appeared to hate immigrants, even those who viewed the US as a beacon of liberty. Some Trump supporters now oppose accepting people who supported America’s military mission for years.

At least Donald Trump’s irresponsibility was predictable. The Biden administration should have recognized the urgency of streamlining the visa process, which could have been accelerated while deciding on policy. People then could have begun flying out on commercial flights before Biden removed US troops.

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Posted in Government, Military, Morality, Politics, Propaganda, Psychology, War

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Kabul’s Collapse and DC’s Incurable Arrogance, by James Bovard

Posted on August 19, 2021 | Leave a comment

A story that perfectly illustrates the mindset and pretension of our rulers, from James Bovard at mises.org:

After the Taliban captured Kabul far faster than anyone in Washington forecast, secretary of state Tony Blinken went on Sunday morning talk shows and announced that the US mission in Afghanistan had been “successful.” Unfortunately, there will be plenty of robotic civil servants and political appointees who recite that deranged verdict in the coming years.

There is no reason to expect the twenty-year US debacle in Afghanistan to humble Washington policymakers. Korean War fiascos were swept under the rug, paving the way for fresh delusions that led to the Vietnam War. The debacles of the Vietnam War were buried long ago, spurring similar follies in the Afghan and Iraq wars in this century. John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), reported finding “a USAID lessons-learned report from 1980s on Afghan reconstruction but nobody at AID had read it!” Foreign policy makers will likely remain arrogant and myopic regardless of how many more nations they despoil.

On a winter hike almost a decade ago, I witnessed firsthand both the haughtiness of officialdom and its human cost. I arrived at Great Falls National Park in Maryland early for that Sunday morning jaunt and found a wooden rail fence to lean against as I awaited the arrival of other hikers.

A few minutes later, a handicapped van pulled to the side of the nearby road. A twenty-something woman bounded out of the shotgun seat and zipped around to the side of the van. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a single ponytail topped by a St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap. That bright red hat perfectly complemented a bit of rouge—or maybe she was naturally red cheeked.

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Posted in Collapse, Cronyism, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Government, History, Imperialism, Politics, Propaganda

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Arrogant Narcissism: The Essence of U.S. Foreign Policy, by Ted Galen Carpenter

Posted on June 25, 2021 | Leave a comment

Power’s corruption works insidiously on the ego. From Ted Galen Carpenter at theamericanconservative.com:

America’s micromanaging of its allies continues to cause friction.

(Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Shutterstock)

U.S. leaders routinely intone that the United States stands for a “rules-based international order,” and that Washington has always tried to play its role as benevolent global leader. The reality is decidedly less savory and far more self-centered. Washington’s actual attitude since World War II is one of arrogant national narcissism, and the problem persists in our own era.

Perhaps the most succinct expression of that perspective was Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright’s comment during a February 1998 interview on NBC’s “Today” show. She stated that “we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future.” But that sentiment existed before Albright, and it has continued long after her departure from office.

One detects the same tone in President George H.W. Bush’s 1991 State of the Union Address.

For generations, America has led the struggle to preserve and extend the blessings of liberty. And today, in a rapidly changing world, American leadership is indispensable. Americans know that leadership brings burdens and sacrifices. But we also know why the hopes of humanity turn to us. We are Americans; we have a unique responsibility to do the hard work of freedom. And when we do, freedom works.

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Biden Day One: Nothing Changed, Nothing Ever Will, by Martin Sieff

Posted on January 31, 2021 | Leave a comment

The Biden administration is going to pretend like the 2016 election and subsequent four years never happened, and things are going to go back to what they were before. From Martin Sieff at strategic-culture.org:

The Liberal Sleepwalkers are not dealing with the passive, stupid thuggish, unthinking herd that they believe half the American people to be.

The Doom of the Biden Administration and within the next eight years of the entire supposedly great and mighty Democratic Party has been written in deeds on the very first full day of Joe Biden’s presidency.

There were absolutely no surprises whatsoever in it. Biden did what he said he was going to do. He nominated exactly the people he said he was going to nominate. The US Liberal Mainstream Media with their usual Courage and Character slavishly applauded with unanimous mindless reverence.

We are back in 2016. Donald Trump Never Happened. The populist national awakening across the American Heartland never happened. All the material gains that the white, black and Hispanic long-suffering working classes genuinely made in the first three years of Trump’s presidency are going to be erased. They Never Happened Either. Just Shut Your Eyes and It Will All Go Away.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Crime, Cronyism, Government, Horseshit, Media, Politics

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Kansas Should Go F— Itself, by Matt Taibbi

Posted on August 3, 2020 | Leave a comment

There has always been a strong populist strain in American politics that all the right people wish would just go away. From Matt Taibbi at substack.com:

Author Thomas Frank predicted the modern culture war, and he was right about Donald Trump, but don’t expect political leaders to pay attention to his new book about populism

The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism

Thomas Frank is one of America’s more skillful writers, an expert practitioner of a genre one might call historical journalism – ironic, because no recent media figure has been more negatively affected by historical change. Frank became a star during a time of intense curiosity about the reasons behind our worsening culture war, and now publishes a terrific book, The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism, at a time when people are mostly done thinking about what divides us, gearing up to fight instead.

Frank published What’s the Matter with Kansas? in 2004, at the height of the George W. Bush presidency. The Iraq War was already looking like a disaster, but the Democratic Party was helpless to take advantage, a fact the opinion-shaping class on the coasts found puzzling. Blue-staters felt sure they’d conquered the electoral failure problem in the nineties, when a combination of Bill Clinton’s Arkansas twang, policy pandering (a middle-class tax cut!) and a heavy dose of unsubtle race politics (e.g. ending welfare “as we know it”) appeared to cut the heart out of the Republican “Southern strategy.”

Yet Clinton’s chosen successor Al Gore flopped, the party’s latest Kennedy wannabe, John Kerry, did worse, and by the mid-2000s, Bushian conservatism was culturally ascendant, despite obvious failures. Every gathering of self-described liberals back then devolved into the same sad-faced anthropological speculation about Republicans: “Why do they vote against their own interests?”

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Posted in Culture, Government, Politics, Propaganda, Society

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Woodrow Wilson Goes to Europe: One Hundred Years of Delusional American Madness, by Martin Sieff

Posted on December 25, 2018 | 1 comment

Martin Sieff discusses “that extraordinary American combination of innocence, arrogance and ignorance.” From Sieff at strategic-culture.org:

We are now in the dubious position of “celebrating” – if that is the word – the 100th anniversary of US President Woodrow Wilson’s departure on December 4, 1918 on the liner SS George Washington for the Versailles Peace Conference where he was confident he would dictate his brilliant solutions that would end war in the world for all time.

Historians and psychiatrists – including Dr. Sigmund Freud himself who co-authored a book on Wilson – have endlessly debated whether Wilson was sane and just deluded or raving mad. Freud clearly inclined to the latter view. And he had ample evidence to support him. What is most alarming is that, as Henry Kissinger – significantly not born an American at all – points out, all US presidents either share Wilson’s ridiculous messianic fantasies or feel they must pretend to.

During the supposed dark age of the Cold War from 1945 to 1989, the recognition that the Soviet Union was at least as militarily powerful as the United States imposed the disciplines of realism and restraint on US policymakers. But since the Berlin Wall came down, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved and the Soviet Union peacefully disassembled, that restraint has vanished.

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