The confirmation hearings for the members of incoming President Donald Trump’s national-security team showed that neoconservatism dominates the U.S. government today: neoconservatism didn’t end after George W. Bush’s alleged certainty that “Saddam’s WMD” existed in 2002, turned out to have been merely an excuse — not an authentic reason — to invade Iraq, and so to spread death and mass-misery (as every invasion does). These confirmation hearings, in fact, made clear that virtually all of Congress is neoconservative — at least as much as was the case back in 2002, when Congress authorized the President to invade Iraq before weapons inspectors finished their work (and so Bush was able to order them out, and to invade Iraq).
This fact was shown clearly, as the Senators probed each appointee with questions that challenged him (since all of these nominees are males) as being insufficiently hostile toward Russia, and also (though to a lesser extent) insufficiently hostile toward Iran, and toward other countries (especially Syria and China) that have friendly relations with Russia. This obsessive hatred of Russia is the standard neoconservative position — neoconservatism’s defining reality, regardless of whether neoconservatives admit to being haters at all, of anything.
WITH ITS BUILT-IN PENCHANT FOR CONSTANT WAR THE US CONGRESS IS AN ASSEMBLAGE OF ENEMIES OF HUMANITY, INCLUDING OF COURSE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, WHO HAVE YET TO FIGURE OUT WHO AND WHAT THESE POLITICIANS REPRESENT IN THEIR LIVES. A DISGRACE MADE POSSIBLE BY MASSIVE IGNORANCE, UNRELENTING PROPAGANDA AND RESULTING CONFUSION.
“The Senators probed each appointee with questions that challenged him (since all of these nominees are males) as being insufficiently hostile toward Russia, and also (though to a lesser extent) insufficiently hostile toward Iran, and toward other countries (especially Syria and China) that have friendly relations with Russia. This obsessive hatred of Russia is the standard neoconservative position — neoconservatism’s defining reality, regardless of whether neoconservatives admit to being haters at all, of anything…”
If what U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower in 1961 had referred to as “the military-industrial complex” owns all of Congress today, then the results of these interviews with nominees still couldn’t have been any more neoconservative than they, in fact, were.
America’s Congress is at least 90% neoconservative, not only in the Senate, but also in the House. To judge by these hearings, the Senators were virtually united, that Russia is America’s #1 enemy (a key mark of neoconservatism is the demonization of Russia); and, while most seemed to consider Iran to be enemy #2, some Senators and House members placed China in that category (#2). North Korea was also mentioned by many.
For example, during the hearing on January 12th, in which Trump’s choice to head the U.S. ‘Defense’ Department, James Mattis, was grilled by each member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the retired Marine General Mattis was pressed on whether he supported eliminating the ‘defense’ spending-cap that Congress in late 2012 imposed to begin on 1 January 2013, as the 2013 Budget Control Act, or “sequestration.” General Mattis replied by calling the 2013 Budget Control Act a “self-inflicted wound.” (He had already told this very same Senate Committee, on 27 January 2015, “The Senate Armed Services Committee should lead the effort to repeal the sequestration that is costing military readiness and long term capability while sapping troop morale.” So, they already knew that he’s a hard-liner about lifting the spending-cap on the military — just not on the rest of the budget, because he had also said on 27 January 2015, “If we refuse to reduce our debt or pay down our deficit — … No nation in history has maintained its military power while failing to keep its fiscal house in order.” So, these Senators are clear about removing the limit only on ‘defense’ spending.)
“…although Trump’s appointees might be less neoconservative than the Senators, and less neoconservative than was Trump’s predecessor, Obama — and Trump is far less neoconservative than is Hillary Clinton — Trump still could turn out to be a neoconservative President. This isn’t because the American public are neoconservative (they definitely aren’t), but because the American plutocracy is. The U.S. government represents them — not the American public.
Now we’ll see whether Donald Trump will be the boss, or whether the neoconservatives whom he appointed to the top U.S. national-security posts will be.
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST'S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.
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