The only silver lining with Trump is he’s a moron that can’t do war
Don't buy this. He chickened out with Iran, sure, but we tried to overthrow Venezuela's government just a few months later. He was just looking for a softer target.
What do you expect from the last gasps of the American Empire? The military-industrial complex isn't going to fall apart quietly. It certainly doesn't make sense to bet on Trump taking a principled stand against it.
I don't think we will see any functional difference. Neither Trump nor Biden have the mental capacity to deal with the intricacies of this sort of thing first-hand, and while the attempted coup in Venezuela was a farce, the coup in Bolivia was extremely effective. The only thing that will make a difference is the second/third/fourth level political appointees and staffers that get dragged in with the administration, and both parties have a deep well of genuine monsters to draw from.
Chalking up the success or failure of foreign intervention to a single person is a mistake. US foreign policy is a vast machine with thousands of pieces working autonomously. These things don't live or die by the initiative of the President. Economic imperatives drive imperialism in spite of what any individual has to say about it. The CIA, industrialists, and financiers don't take no for an answer. They will go full Iran-Contra before they let a senile old man impact their revenue streams.
The President is just a figurehead for the machine. They have no more influence than Zaphod Beeblebrox.
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Don't buy this. He chickened out with Iran, sure, but we tried to overthrow Venezuela's government just a few months later. He was just looking for a softer target.
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What do you expect from the last gasps of the American Empire? The military-industrial complex isn't going to fall apart quietly. It certainly doesn't make sense to bet on Trump taking a principled stand against it.
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Always were.
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I don't think we will see any functional difference. Neither Trump nor Biden have the mental capacity to deal with the intricacies of this sort of thing first-hand, and while the attempted coup in Venezuela was a farce, the coup in Bolivia was extremely effective. The only thing that will make a difference is the second/third/fourth level political appointees and staffers that get dragged in with the administration, and both parties have a deep well of genuine monsters to draw from.
Chalking up the success or failure of foreign intervention to a single person is a mistake. US foreign policy is a vast machine with thousands of pieces working autonomously. These things don't live or die by the initiative of the President. Economic imperatives drive imperialism in spite of what any individual has to say about it. The CIA, industrialists, and financiers don't take no for an answer. They will go full Iran-Contra before they let a senile old man impact their revenue streams.
The President is just a figurehead for the machine. They have no more influence than Zaphod Beeblebrox.
There's doing war 'normally,' then there's doing war. I'd expect Trump to be encouraged to bomb something by any number of people.
The great thing about war, is you can use it to justify repressions against your own population...