Americans are the new Germans

Spike Milligan, I just discovered, said in his book 'Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall' that the Americans are the new Germans.

I have come over the last few months to see that he was right.

From Doug Bandow in American Conservative today:

'Biden also treated sanctimony as justification for the hyper-proxy war with Russia. “History has taught us,” said the new-found friend of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who offered to turn American military personnel into royal bodyguards, that “when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction.”

'One may be reminded of when Washington backed Riyadh’s bloody aggression against Yemen and Iraqi Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iran. Of course, America has also launched its own unprovoked and unjustified wars, most recently against Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya. Tragically, over the last two decades, the U.S. has caused far “more chaos and death and more destruction” than Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea combined.

'Biden contended that “if we don’t stop Putin’s appetite for power and control in Ukraine, he won’t limit himself just to Ukraine.” Perhaps Putin secretly daydreams about playing Napoleon, Hitler, and Stalin combined in conquering Europe. Yet, despite being in power for nearly a quarter century, he has done virtually nothing to put such a plan into operation. Even if he secretly harbored such ambitions today, who believes that he could succeed? His government botched the initial invasion of Ukraine and remains on the defensive 21 months later. If victory comes, whatever territory Moscow acquires likely will be modest and Russia will desperately need to recover economically. Imagining that a revived Red Army would accomplish for Vladimir Putin what no other dictator was able to achieve in centuries past is the triumph of fear over experience.'

This is by the baleful Victoria Nuland in Foreign Affairs of July/August 2020. It explains why American empire building to neo-cons like her seems idealism. 

'Today, Russia bombs hospitals and schools in Idlib Province to regain territory for Assad and uses the threat of new refugee waves to deter Turkey, European countries, and the United States from pushing back. Russian troops regularly test the few U.S. forces left in Syria to try to gain access to the country’s oil fields and smuggling routes. If these U.S. troops left, nothing would prevent Moscow and Tehran from financing their operations with Syrian oil or smuggled drugs and weapons. The U.S. footprint in Syria need not be large, but it cannot be zero, unless Washington wants to ensure that Putin emerges as the Middle East’s definitive power broker. Russia’s recent inroads in Libya, where it is supporting the forces of General Khalifa Haftar with weapons and advice, demonstrate that its appetite in the region is not sated—and why would it be, if relatively cheap investments buy it territorial control, influence, and the ability to violate international humanitarian law with impunity?'

Note how she sees it as important to prevent Russia from being a major power broker in the Middle East, as if this had anything to do with US interests. I suspect she thinks Israel's interests identical with America's, which is strange, and that Iran is a threat to Israel, when it is the other way around. But Iran is not Russia,  so it is pure empire building.

A friend of mine who was her colleague at the State Department said she got very angry when reminded that Assad's regime was the legal government of Syria and Syria had invited in the Russians.