It seems too dumb for reality, but the fact of the matter is that the best and brightest of the imperial core got outplayed by the Viet Cong, said “never again,” then got outplayed by the Taliban the same way, and all they can do is blame the Afghan people for not worshiping America enough
So much of this really does boil down to chief executives not really giving a shit about the historically decently-effective CIA playbook. Like, Bush Jr wasn't sending Top Brains into Iraq to oversee his empire. He was sending in Liberty University drop-outs, because their parents were some of his biggest campaign donors. Afghanistan was target practice for a few years and only became a serious concern when Obama ran on fixing it (largely driven by the Neoliberal pivot to war with China). Even then, Obama's best and brightest were... who? Rahm Emanuel? Hillary Clinton? Chuck Hagel? It was patronage all the way down.
The entire US Empire has become guys giving their friends' nephews jobs. And those nephews giving their friends' nephews jobs. Now we're three generations in and its nephews all the way down.
If you can get away with declaring war over fake WMDs, at that point, you’ve deluded yourself into believing you control reality. You control American reality, but the rest of the world will push back; you see this with China already
We're seeing it with Venezuela and Iran and Pakistan and France. China's the biggest fish in the room, but check out Germany green-lighting the Nordstream 2 because fuck Ukraine and fuck this Cold War bullshit with Russia already. Europe is Going Its Own Way. East Asia seems primed to follow. And after that...
The entire US Empire has become guys giving their friends’ nephews jobs. And those nephews giving their friends’ nephews jobs. Now we’re three generations in and its nephews all the way down.
Every single country on Earth has run like this since States began.
What happened in America is that the nephews switched from being Exeter alumni and Ivy Leaguers to the "dumb" reactionary hicks - first southern local gentry under Bush, then loud, crass ethnics like Rudy Giuliani and Scaramucci under Trump. Historically, the type of ghouls you see in the modern GOP would have been staunchly anti-war, unless it was to capture booty or more land for their plantations (adjacent land, not some foreign land). It was the progressives who were determined to spread the light of American values world wide.
Vietnam really did a number on the progressive movements ability to drum up consent for war, but Biden and "Blue MAGA" have been fixing that.
So much of this really does boil down to chief executives not really giving a shit about the historically decently-effective CIA playbook. Like, Bush Jr wasn't sending Top Brains into Iraq to oversee his empire. He was sending in Liberty University drop-outs, because their parents were some of his biggest campaign donors. Afghanistan was target practice for a few years and only became a serious concern when Obama ran on fixing it (largely driven by the Neoliberal pivot to war with China). Even then, Obama's best and brightest were... who? Rahm Emanuel? Hillary Clinton? Chuck Hagel? It was patronage all the way down.
The entire US Empire has become guys giving their friends' nephews jobs. And those nephews giving their friends' nephews jobs. Now we're three generations in and its nephews all the way down.
We're seeing it with Venezuela and Iran and Pakistan and France. China's the biggest fish in the room, but check out Germany green-lighting the Nordstream 2 because fuck Ukraine and fuck this Cold War bullshit with Russia already. Europe is Going Its Own Way. East Asia seems primed to follow. And after that...
Every single country on Earth has run like this since States began.
What happened in America is that the nephews switched from being Exeter alumni and Ivy Leaguers to the "dumb" reactionary hicks - first southern local gentry under Bush, then loud, crass ethnics like Rudy Giuliani and Scaramucci under Trump. Historically, the type of ghouls you see in the modern GOP would have been staunchly anti-war, unless it was to capture booty or more land for their plantations (adjacent land, not some foreign land). It was the progressives who were determined to spread the light of American values world wide.
Vietnam really did a number on the progressive movements ability to drum up consent for war, but Biden and "Blue MAGA" have been fixing that.