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05-02-2022, 01:50 PM
Marwan Bishara
Published On 3 Feb 2022
As US President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda “build back better” faces major challenges in Congress, he seems to have taken his schema to the international scene in an attempt to build back US global alliances better.
......
What better way to rebuild transatlantic alliances than whipping the European allies into a frenzy by warning them about Russia’s “sabre-rattling” in Eurasia and its imminent invasion of Ukraine and preparing to deploy US troops in Eastern Europe?
And what better way to rebuild transpacific alliances than whipping Asian allies into a frenzy by raising the stakes with China and warning of a potential Chinese intervention in Taiwan?
As part of this strategy, Biden seems to be hyping up the war scenario domestically and internationally, despite the fact that the Kremlin is downplaying it. That is not deterrence, not by any stretch of the imagination.
It is almost as if Biden is daring Russia to go ahead and do it, invade!
Such an approach may have been a clever strategy against say, Iran or Venezuela, but it may prove reckless against nuclear powers like Russia and China.
......
pushing Russia and China into a corner at the same time leaves little room for serious diplomacy. Such attempts at “dual containment” have been tried and have failed against the far weaker non-nuclear powers, Iraq and Iran, in the 1990s. In the following decade, this mutated into the “axis of evil” strategy, which also proved a foolish disaster.
......
The US has fought two wars against Iraq and held Iran under sanctions for decades at a terrible cost for all three nations, sowing further instability, insecurity and prompting Iran to pursue nuclear power status.
Needless to say, Russia is no Iraq or Iran. Nor is the US today the same global power it was in 1991 – not after the fiasco of its second war against Iraq in 2003 or its humiliation in Afghanistan.
......
Meanwhile, no Western leader has shown more enthusiasm for Biden’s manoeuvres than British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is trying to deflect attention from the “Partygate” scandal and is fighting to keep his job after deceiving the British public, yet again.
Johnson’s irresponsible enthusiasm for escalation in Ukraine has alarmed his European counterparts in Paris and Berlin, who prefer quiet diplomacy to public bombast and warmongering.
......
For these European powers, Biden’s enthusiasm for an assertive NATO feels no less, or perhaps more worrisome than his predecessor Donald Trump’s indifference to the alliance. Indeed, his tight embrace feels like strangling.
......
Even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is rattled by all the American talk of war and, to Biden’s displeasure, is calling for calm.
......
sanctions do not work when major nations defend their national interest.
......
Sanctions have largely failed against Iran and may well fail against Russia, too, where the support for Putin’s defiance is high.
In fact, none of the last three US presidents, Bush, Obama and Trump, were able to deter Russia from acting offensively in its immediate surroundings and beyond, notably in Georgia, Ukraine and Syria, especially when the Kremlin claimed to act defensively or responsibly against Western adventurism.
......
it was the Soviet Union, not “the allies” that actually defeated Nazi Germany, which “drowned in Russian blood”.
Russians have a long torturous history with the West and remain bitter about Western attempts to break up their country and sell it on the cheap after the Cold War. They feel betrayed by the US, which promised not to expand NATO beyond unified Germany, but ended up pushing for it all the way to Russia’s western borders.
......
Russia does have historic and legitimate reasons to ask NATO to stop its expansion, just as Ukraine has legitimate security concerns of its own and every right to be independent and free.
To end the Cuban Missile Crisis and avert the chances of a devastating war, 60 years ago, Moscow backed off its missile deployment to the Caribbean island and in return for Washington recognised the sovereignty of Cuba. They can do it again.
If they are serious about averting another major crisis, Biden should put a stop to NATO’s expansion eastward and Putin should recognise Ukrainian sovereignty.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/...is-a-risky
Published On 3 Feb 2022
As US President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda “build back better” faces major challenges in Congress, he seems to have taken his schema to the international scene in an attempt to build back US global alliances better.
......
What better way to rebuild transatlantic alliances than whipping the European allies into a frenzy by warning them about Russia’s “sabre-rattling” in Eurasia and its imminent invasion of Ukraine and preparing to deploy US troops in Eastern Europe?
And what better way to rebuild transpacific alliances than whipping Asian allies into a frenzy by raising the stakes with China and warning of a potential Chinese intervention in Taiwan?
As part of this strategy, Biden seems to be hyping up the war scenario domestically and internationally, despite the fact that the Kremlin is downplaying it. That is not deterrence, not by any stretch of the imagination.
It is almost as if Biden is daring Russia to go ahead and do it, invade!
Such an approach may have been a clever strategy against say, Iran or Venezuela, but it may prove reckless against nuclear powers like Russia and China.
......
pushing Russia and China into a corner at the same time leaves little room for serious diplomacy. Such attempts at “dual containment” have been tried and have failed against the far weaker non-nuclear powers, Iraq and Iran, in the 1990s. In the following decade, this mutated into the “axis of evil” strategy, which also proved a foolish disaster.
......
The US has fought two wars against Iraq and held Iran under sanctions for decades at a terrible cost for all three nations, sowing further instability, insecurity and prompting Iran to pursue nuclear power status.
Needless to say, Russia is no Iraq or Iran. Nor is the US today the same global power it was in 1991 – not after the fiasco of its second war against Iraq in 2003 or its humiliation in Afghanistan.
......
Meanwhile, no Western leader has shown more enthusiasm for Biden’s manoeuvres than British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is trying to deflect attention from the “Partygate” scandal and is fighting to keep his job after deceiving the British public, yet again.
Johnson’s irresponsible enthusiasm for escalation in Ukraine has alarmed his European counterparts in Paris and Berlin, who prefer quiet diplomacy to public bombast and warmongering.
......
For these European powers, Biden’s enthusiasm for an assertive NATO feels no less, or perhaps more worrisome than his predecessor Donald Trump’s indifference to the alliance. Indeed, his tight embrace feels like strangling.
......
Even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is rattled by all the American talk of war and, to Biden’s displeasure, is calling for calm.
......
sanctions do not work when major nations defend their national interest.
......
Sanctions have largely failed against Iran and may well fail against Russia, too, where the support for Putin’s defiance is high.
In fact, none of the last three US presidents, Bush, Obama and Trump, were able to deter Russia from acting offensively in its immediate surroundings and beyond, notably in Georgia, Ukraine and Syria, especially when the Kremlin claimed to act defensively or responsibly against Western adventurism.
......
it was the Soviet Union, not “the allies” that actually defeated Nazi Germany, which “drowned in Russian blood”.
Russians have a long torturous history with the West and remain bitter about Western attempts to break up their country and sell it on the cheap after the Cold War. They feel betrayed by the US, which promised not to expand NATO beyond unified Germany, but ended up pushing for it all the way to Russia’s western borders.
......
Russia does have historic and legitimate reasons to ask NATO to stop its expansion, just as Ukraine has legitimate security concerns of its own and every right to be independent and free.
To end the Cuban Missile Crisis and avert the chances of a devastating war, 60 years ago, Moscow backed off its missile deployment to the Caribbean island and in return for Washington recognised the sovereignty of Cuba. They can do it again.
If they are serious about averting another major crisis, Biden should put a stop to NATO’s expansion eastward and Putin should recognise Ukrainian sovereignty.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/...is-a-risky
