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.

In his February 2021 speech to the annual Munich Security Conference, Joe Biden stated: “I speak today as President of the United States at the very start of my administration, and I’m sending a clear message to the world: America is back.” The unmistakable implication was that under President Donald Trump, the United States had neglected, if not forfeited, its role as global leader. In his remarks following the June G7 summit, Biden stressed that “we’re unique as a country.”

The arrogance and narcissism has not been confined to inflated rhetoric on the part of U.S. leaders. It frequently has governed the substance of U.S. policy. One example was how Bill Clinton’s administration addressed the issue of North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program in 1994. In his memoirs, Clinton stated that, “I was determined to prevent North Korea from developing a nuclear arsenal, even at the risk of war.” Secretary of Defense William Perry later conceded that the administration seriously considered conducting “surgical strikes” against North Korea’s embryonic nuclear installations. Fortunately, former President Jimmy Carter convinced Clinton to let him approach Pyongyang and conduct talks to resolve the crisis peacefully. But it was a close call, and at no time did Clinton or his advisers even hint that South Korea’s wishes would have a major influence on Washington’s decision about launching air strikes. Seoul certainly would not have had a veto over U.S. policy. The same was true of Japan and Washington’s other East Asian allies, despite the fallout (figurative and perhaps literal) they might experience from U.S. airstrikes on nuclear facilities.

Such indifference to the wishes of allies regarding high-stakes issues has typified Washington’s behavior over the decades. One example is how U.S. officials have worked to torpedo any allied security initiatives that did not leave the United States clearly in charge. Washington’s smothering stance was on full display during an episode in the late 1990s. France and a few other European countries sought to create the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP), which would have purely European military capabilities and operate outside the NATO framework, likely through the European Union (E.U.). Indeed, the maverick allies proposed creating a Rapid Reaction Force (RRF) under European control to implement the ESDP.

U.S. leaders reacted like scalded cats. Some strident objections bordered on hysteria. Speaking to the NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels in December 2000, Secretary of Defense William Cohen warned that if the E.U. created a defense capability outside of NATO, the Alliance would become “a relic of the past.” Officials in the subsequent George W. Bush administration exhibited a similar attitude. In October 2003, Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, sharply criticized the E.U.’s plan to develop an independent military capacity. Burns branded that effort as “one of the greatest dangers to the transatlantic community.”  

John Bolton, who would become a senior policy official in Bush’s administration, and later, national security advisor in the Trump administration, especially excoriated the RRF as “a dagger pointed at NATO’s heart.”  (It is a phrase he used again earlier this year regarding any independent European defense initiatives). Under Bolton’s influence, the Trump administration displayed intense hostility when French President Emmanuel Macron revived the idea of creating an E.U. army. 

Although U.S. administrations, both Republican and Democratic, routinely have complained that the European countries underinvest in their defense and fail to accept sufficient “burden-sharing,” they have been just as adamant in opposing independent security initiatives by those allies. U.S. officials want greater burden-sharing, but only within NATO where the United States calls most of the shots. In other words, they seek greater European efforts to help execute U.S. foreign policy objectives.

Sometimes, the attitudes of U.S. officials do not just betray arrogant indifference to the wishes of America’s supposed security partners, they convey disdain. Such contempt came through clearly when the European allies sought to manage the turmoil unleashed by Yugoslavia’s unraveling in the early 1990s. One anonymous but high-level official in George H. W. Bush’s administration reportedly dismissed such ambitions with the sneering observation that the Europeans “could not organize a three-car motorcade if their lives depended on it.” Two decades later, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, when told that some members of the European Union might object to aspects of Washington’s campaign to undermine Ukraine’s elected, pro-Russia government, responded in a more pithy fashion: “F*** the E.U.!”

Alice Roosevelt Longworth, the daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, once reportedly contended that her father was such an egotist that he “always wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening.” The hubristic officials in charge of U.S. foreign policy seek a similar status for the United States. They always want Washington to be in charge, even when that policy increases both the financial burdens on and the military risks to the American people. A far more modest foreign policy is long overdue.

Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow in defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute and contributing editor at The American Conservative, is the author of 12 books and more than 900 articles on international issues.

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https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/arrogant-narcissism-the-essence-of-u-s-foreign-policy/

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On June 16 in Geneva the US-Russia Summit was defined by President Biden "good, positive" and by President Putin "quite constructive". Should we, therefore, feel a little reassured in a situation where Europe is at the forefront of what NATO called "the lowest point in our relationship with Russia since the end of the Cold War"? The facts tell us otherwise. At the same time when the US-Russia Summit was underway in Switzerland, the Baltops 50 was underway in the Baltic, one of the 20 major US-NATO military exercises in Europe in 2021. The Baltops 50 was organized and directed by the US-African naval forces commander with headquarters in Naples-Capodichino, Admiral Robert Burke, who at the same time is head of the NATO Command in Lago Patria (JFC-Naples). From June 6 to 18, over 4,000 soldiers with 40 ships and 60 aircraft - belonging to 18 NATO member and partner countries, including Italy - practiced the air-naval war in the Baltic and surrounding regions", close to the Russian territory. Warships and bombers with nuclear capability took also part in the maneuver, and for the first time, the new NATO Space Center was integrated into the exercise.

While this big war exercise was clearly directed against Russia, President Putin declared in the press conference after the Summit: "We conduct military exercises within our territory, we do not bring our equipment and personnel close to the borders of the United States of America, as the USA and its partners are now doing near our borders”.

The geographic location of the military forces, especially nuclear ones, is of primary importance: a tactical missile deployed 10,000 km away cannot hit the target but, if deployed at 1,000 km. has the same destructive effect as an ICBM. The two presidents’ declaration on "strategic stability", including the extension of the New Start Treaty for the control of nuclear weapons, will be nullified if the US installs new "tactical" nuclear weapons in Europe as it has planned.

This and other key issues have been ignored by the media who according to Washington’s direction used the Summit as a kind of trial with Putin in the dock. The President of the United States is a public minister who did not just answer the questions like Putin, after refusing to hold the traditional joint press conference, but presented his own report on the Summit. According to Biden, he told Putin how he reacts anytime he sees violations of human rights in Russia and elsewhere: «How could I be the President of the United States of America and not speak out against human rights violations? Defending fundamental freedoms is part of the DNA of our country».

This is solemnly declared by the current President of the United States, the Democrat Joseph Biden who in 2001 supported the war of Republican President Bush in Afghanistan and, in 2002 promoted a bipartisan resolution that authorized President Bush to invade Iraq on charges (later proved false [Gus note: WE KNEW IT WAS A CROCK BEFORE THE WAR]) that it possessed weapons of mass destruction.

This was solemnly declared by Joseph Biden who was one of the architects of the US-NATO wars against Libya and Syria as vice president of the Obama Administration, he supported Islamic fundamentalist groups to undermine these countries from within, he favored the use of neo-Nazis in Ukraine for the putsch that opened the new confrontation with Russia. He was one of the architects of the "kill list", including people from all over the world who were secretly killed because they were judged harmful for the United States [1]. These wars and covert operations have caused directly and indirectly millions of deaths and the worst human rights violations.

However, good feelings are not lacking: in a long official obituary on Twitter (reported in full by Ansa), President Biden announced: "Our hearts are heavy today as we let you know that our beloved German shepherd Champ died peacefully at home”.

Manlio Dinucci

Source

Il Manifesto (Italy)

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https://www.voltairenet.org/article213465.html

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Earlier, after meeting with US State Secretary Antony Blinken, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas underscored Berlin’s determination to ensure that the 745-mile-long pipeline, set to bring Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, is not used to undermine the interests of Ukraine.

The US and Germany are exploring ways to shore up support for Ukraine to alleviate the feared fallout from Moscow’s perceived geopolitical gains after the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is finished, Bloomberg reports.

It is purported that the US State Department and Germany’s foreign ministry have been considering a deal envisaging a number of options, with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s foreign and security adviser, Jan Hecker, involved.

The sides hope to have hammered out some sort of agreement by the time Merkel visits Washington on 15 July to meet with US President Joe Biden, writes the outlet, citing several unnamed sources familiar with the negotiations. Shortly after that trip, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been invited to visit Washington.

Some sources cited by the publication suggested a draft proposal was already in place, with one person claiming the talks were not that far advanced.

One of the options suggested was for countries to commit to supporting Ukrainian infrastructure with investments to help it build its own power plants. Plans have been suggested to boost the sale of synthetic, or green, gas from Ukraine.

The US and Germany are also said to be considering compensating the country for transit fees it purportedly stands to lose once the pipeline, designed to transport natural gas across the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, bypasses it.

Russia has reiterated on numerous occasions that the project between Russia's Gazprom and European energy giants is purely an economic endeavour and has reaffirmed that it will not affect the gas transit through Ukraine as per existing contracts.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/world/202106261083246095-us-germany-reportedly-devising-option-riddled-plan-to-offset-fallout-from-nord-stream-2-pipeline/

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On 14 July, France celebrates one of its biggest and most anticipated national holidays, the day of French National Unity commemorating the 18th century's French Revolution. It is the anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille that took place on 14 July 1789.

US State Secretary Antony Blinken is delivering remarks following a meeting with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. 

Blinken's speech comes after a ceremony honoring World War II veterans at a celebration of the 14 July French holiday at the French ambassador's residence in Washington DC.

The holiday also marks the anniversary of the 1789 Storming of the Bastille, one of the major events in the French revolution. On this day, festivities are held throughout France to celebrate the world-shaking event.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/world/202107141083386180-us-state-sec-blinken-delivers-remarks-after-meeting-french-counterpart-le-drian/

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