Antiwar.com Week in Review August, 5 2021

Your source for foreign policy news.

August 5th, 2021

What Is a Winning Foreign Policy? Being the Planet's Imperial Guardian, Apparently

With an increasingly enfeebled Joe Biden as president, Republicans are on the attack. The GOP has abandoned virtually every moral principle that it once defended, but the desire to regain power at all costs holds it together.

On foreign policy congressional Republicans have no policy other than endless war, irrespective of cost, but they sell their bloody vision of global domination as a continuation of what early Americans called "manifest destiny." The latter believed that the U.S. had been anointed by providence to rule over North America and much more. To paraphrase the biblical account of creation in Genesis, Uncle Sam "saw all that he had made, and it was very good."

Except that the world today is not very good. Consider the recent foreign policy catastrophes of Republican rule: extending the Vietnam War, blundering into Lebanons terrible civil war, invading Iraq, attempting to nation build in Afghanistan, applying sanctions to half the known word, and abandoning the nuclear accord with Iran while launching an economic war that triggered violent Iranian retaliation. The GOP's role in destabilizing today's world is abysmal and embarrassing.

By Doug Bandow

Senate Panel Approves Bill to Repeal Iraq War Authorizations

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would repeal the authorization of the use of military force (AUMF) that was passed in 2002 for the invasion of Iraq and the 1991 AUMF used for the Gulf War.

The measure was introduced by Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Todd Young (R-IN) and passed in a vote of 14 to 8, with most Republicans on the panel voting against it. The three Republicans who voted in favor of the bill were Young, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Rob Portman of Ohio.

Other Republicans said repealing the Iraq AUMFs would contain the US in its ability to attack Iran or its "proxies." The Trump administration cited the 2002 AUMF to justify the January 2020 assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad.

By Dave DeCamp

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For What Will We Go to War With China?

In his final state of the nation speech Monday, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte defended his refusal to confront China over Beijings seizure and fortification of his countrys islets in the South China Sea.

"It will be a massacre if I go and fight a war now," said Duterte. "We are not yet a competent and able enemy of the other side."

Duterte is a realist. He will not challenge China to retrieve his lost territories, as his country would be crushed. But Duterte has a hole card: a U.S. guarantee to fight China, should he stumble into war with China.

By Patrick J. Buchanan

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National Guard Still Fighting in Middle East Despite Domestic Deployments

Since early 2020, the National Guard has been subject to frequent domestic deployments between the coronavirus pandemic, nationwide protests, and the military occupation of Washington DC in the wake of the January 6th incident at the Capitol building. Despite how busy the reserve force is in the homeland, the National Guard is still being deployed to fight wars in the Middle East.

The Associated Press spoke with members of the Louisiana National Guard who were sent to Syria after being on domestic deployments. The US keeps a small occupation force of about 900 troops in northeast Syria.

By Dave DeCamp

Israel's Gantz Calls for International Military Action Against Iran

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Wednesday urged representatives of UN Security Council members that the international community should take military action against Iran over last weeks drone attack on an Israeli-linked ship.

"Now is the time for deeds - words are not enough. It is time for diplomatic, economic, and even military deeds - otherwise the attacks will continue," Gantz said during the meeting, which was held in Jerusalem.

By Dave DeCamp

Washington's Bizarre and Dangerous Ukraine Obsession

A strange and potentially catastrophic development in U.S. foreign policy has been the elevation of Ukraine to the status of a vital American interest. Ukraine was not even an independent country until the end of 1991; before then, it was merely a component of the Czarist Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. America got along just fine ignoring Ukraine and its affairs. There has been no formal treaty, or even a meaningful congressional and public debate, to make Ukraine a crucial US ally, yet that is how Washington now views that country.

By Ted Galen Carpenter

Biden Imposes Sanctions on Cuba, Says 'There Will Be More'

Kevin Gosztola and John Kiriakou on the Sentencing of Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale

A Cruel and Unjust Peace for Afghanistan

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