Other old, retired folks look forward to visiting places they have never been. My interest is in books I feel like I should already have read. I try to catch up, to no apparent purpose. The latest one that I drifted into by chance, because I was sick of Philip Roth, is Perry Anderson’s
My supposition is that the "secret army ... of well-paid specialists in counter-insurgency and violence" would have to be taken on by a foreign power. Namely, it seems, China, possibly collaborating with Russia.
Meanwhile, those specialists are undoubtedly operating on behalf of the US in Ukraine. Which tends to make me increasingly vulnerable to the "if the US is doing it, it must be wrong" type arguments about the war there.
Just as it’s wrong to conflate Trump (fascist) with Biden (neoliberal but recently responsive to left-liberals), it’s wrong to ignore FP differences between neoconservatives and “realists,” whatever that means. Obama was a huge improvement over the folks behind Bush, even if people like Blinken and Sullivan still believe in “ lAmerican exceptionalism,” however people define that weird term. Obama made huge mistakes (see: Libya) but he and Biden did a lot to wind down Iraq and Afghanistan, avoid military challenges to Russia (missiles, NATO expansion), make a deal with Iran etc.
I have been reading various histories of the CIA and folks like Allen Dulles. Keenan comes up and not in a good light. Sort of surprised me.
My supposition is that the "secret army ... of well-paid specialists in counter-insurgency and violence" would have to be taken on by a foreign power. Namely, it seems, China, possibly collaborating with Russia.
Meanwhile, those specialists are undoubtedly operating on behalf of the US in Ukraine. Which tends to make me increasingly vulnerable to the "if the US is doing it, it must be wrong" type arguments about the war there.
Just as it’s wrong to conflate Trump (fascist) with Biden (neoliberal but recently responsive to left-liberals), it’s wrong to ignore FP differences between neoconservatives and “realists,” whatever that means. Obama was a huge improvement over the folks behind Bush, even if people like Blinken and Sullivan still believe in “ lAmerican exceptionalism,” however people define that weird term. Obama made huge mistakes (see: Libya) but he and Biden did a lot to wind down Iraq and Afghanistan, avoid military challenges to Russia (missiles, NATO expansion), make a deal with Iran etc.
All well-taken, but I go both ways on this.