Antiwar.com Weekly Newsletter for May, 27 2021

Your source for foreign policy news.

May 27th, 2021

Biden's Top Asia Official Says US Engagement With China Is Over

The White House's top official for Asia said on Wednesday that the era of US engagement with China is over, and now, the two countries' relationship will be defined by competition.

"The period that was broadly described as engagement has come to an end," said Kurt Campbell, the head of Indo-Pacific affairs on the National Security Council. Speaking at an event hosted by Stanford University, Campbell said US policy towards China will now follow a "new set of strategic parameters" and that "the dominant paradigm is going to be competition."

Campbell blamed the shift in policy on Chinese President Xi Jinping and said Beijing is shifting its policies to "harsh power, or hard power." Campbell said the best way to confront China is "to work with allies, partners, and friends."

By Dave DeCamp

Not Even Past: Dan Ellsberg vs. New Madmen's Theories of Cold War & Press Suppression

Once upon a time, the United States of America the world's self-styled "beacon of democracy" - nearly nuked Chinas then 600 millions worth of innocents. This, before Beijing even had any A-Bombs of its own. Well, that much we've known, in broad strokes - though, I fear, without the requisite resultant soul-searching - since historian Gordon Chang's 1988 journal article (which I was assigned in graduate school en-route to West Point's faculty): "JFK, China, and the Bomb."

Chang's peer-reviewed scholarly submission made waves - at least in academia - by disclosing the rather profound fact that the Kennedy administration apparently seriously considered colluding with even the Soviets to, per a later erudite authorial follow-up, "Strangle the Baby in the Cradle." In other words, to coerce China into abandoning its nascent nuclear program - and if necessary destroy it (even with hydrogen bombs) - before Beijing could produce a viable weapon.

By Maj. Danny Sjursen, USA (ret.)

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Blinken Disputes Claims That a Deal With Iran Will Be Reached Soon

As the fifth round of indirect negotiations between the US and Iran kicked off in Vienna this week, Iranian officials have had positive things to say, while the Biden administration is downplaying the progress of the negotiations.

Last week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the US and Iran had agreed on most major issues, and a deal is expected to be reached soon. Secretary of State Antony Blinken disputed Rouhani's claim in an interview with Israel's Channel 12 that aired on Wednesday.

"That would be news to us," Blinken said when asked about Rouhani's comments. He went on to blame Iran for the slow progress of the talks. "I think weve clarified increasingly what each side would need to do to come back into compliance with the JCPOA, but it remains an unanswered question whether Iran is actually prepared to do what it needs to do to come back into compliance. The jury is still out on that," Blinken said.

By Dave DeCamp

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Paranoid Superpower: Threat Inflation Is the American Way

In recent years, U.S. executive branch officials and members of Congress from both political parties have routinely portrayed Russia or China (and frequently both countries) as existential threats to the United States. It also is becoming increasingly common to find news articles or opinion pieces that adopt the same theme. Moreover, a significant number of politicians and analysts put smaller powers, especially Iran and North Korea, and even non-state actors, such as Al Qaeda and ISIS, in that category. The concerted campaign on the part of opinion-shaping elites to hype the danger from such sources is leaving an indelible mark on public attitudes. Many Americans now believe that their country faces multiple, horrifying threats.

By Ted Galen Carpenter

Is the Biden-Putin Summit Doomed?

President Joe Biden's advisers had best warn him that a shifting "world correlation of forces" (to borrow an old Soviet term) will form an influential backdrop to the U.S.- Russia summit planned for June 16 in Geneva. While China, of course, will not be taking part in the discussions, it will be very much there.

As the planned summit was announced Tuesday, who happened to be paying a high-profile visit to Moscow but China's top diplomat, Politburo member Yang Jiechi, who is spending a few days there to conduct "strategic consultations" with Nikolai Patrushev, Russia's National Security adviser. Yes, the same Yang Jiechi who warned Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security adviser Jake Sullivan not to try to speak to China "in a condescending way" or from a claimed "position of strength" at their acerbic meeting on March 18 in Anchorage.

By Ray McGovern

America Dominant Again (in Arms Sales)

Think about this: on Saturday, May 12th, with barely an hour's notice, Israel took out the al-Jalaa Tower, a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed the Associated Press, al-Jazeera, and other media outlets. That act of destruction, among so many others, caused shock globally and protests not just by those media groups but by previously Israeli-supporting Democrats in Congress. As it happens, the weapon that destroyed that tower was a GBU-31, a Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM (aka a "smart bomb") that was manufactured in the United States. Not only that, but in the midst of the ongoing carnage in impoverished, increasingly devastated Gaza (as well as in Israel), the Biden administration has been pushing through a new $735-million package of just such weaponry for Israel, ensuring more of the same to the horizon.

By William D. Hartung and Tom Engelhardt

Iraq Militias End Truce With US Over Failure to Withdraw Troops

Scott Horton on Tim Pool Show

Israeli Minister Threatens 'Preemptive' Strikes Against Hamas in Gaza

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