Trib's perfect pitch for perpetual war

Trib's perfect pitch for perpetual war

The Trib's Monday op ed 'US disengagement would be costly' is a masterful pitch for perpetual war by two of America's leading neocons, Robert Kagan and Ivo Daalder. It's masterful because it never specifically comes out in favor of perpetual war. Instead, it laments that "Americans no longer seem to value the liberal international order that the United States created after World War II and sustained throughout the Cold War and beyond." It agonizes that the outsider candidacies of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have criticized perpetual war stating "politicians in both parties dangle before the public the vision of an America freed from the burdens of leadership." It ponders whether Americans, in turning away from perpetual war "have lost sight of the essential role the United States plays in supporting the international environment from which they benefit greatly. The unprecedented prosperity made possible by free and open markets and thriving international trade; the spread of democracy; and the avoidance of major conflict among great powers: All these remarkable accomplishments have depended on sustained U.S. engagement around the world."

Who are these brilliant perpetual war propagandists the Trib used to promote their never ending obsession with regime change and rampaging American exceptionalism abroad? If there were a Mount Rushmore for neocon warmongers, Robert Kagan would be up there. Co-founder of the Project for a New American Century in 1997, Kagan has been a top promoter of regime change for three decades now, being among the most ferocious proponents of the criminal Iraq war. Ivo Daalder, though much less known, is an equally dedicated regime changer. As US Permanent Representative to NATO in 2011, Daalder was instrumental in getting NATO to lead the utterly failed regime change in Libya that has turned it into a failed state and a new playground for terrorist organizations. As thousands died and millions continue to suffer under the Daalder's ruinous leadership, his 2012 words in Foreign Affairs, "NATO's operation in Libya has rightly been hailed as a model intervention" will haunt him to eternity.

Thirteen years ago the Trib was so enamored with President George W. Bush's criminal Iraq war, they boosted his 2004 re-election bid by touting his foreign policy chops. If the Trib Editorial Board was really interested in peace and stability around the world, they would shun endless war promoters of perpetual war like Kagan and Daalder. Alas they still don't get the admonition of the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal that "To initiate a war of aggression is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” But the Trib knows there are no consequences in 21st century America in for being a staunch member of the war party. As oft said: 'Membership has its privileges.'