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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 6/5/14

Obama's Europe doctrine: Too much stupid, not enough serious

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Cross-posted from RT


What to make of the "new" Obama foreign policy doctrine?

In a previous RT article I called it the "Take it to the Morgue -- Quietly" doctrine -- as it ostensibly privileges shadow wars instead of "Shock and Awe."

Then, in another article, I showed how much the still exceptionalist doctrine borrows from prime neo-con (and conceptualizer of the war on Iraq) Robert Kagan -- husband of the notorious Victoria, Queen of Nulandistan.

But that was definitely too conceptual. In fact, as peddled off the record by the White House, the "doctrine" is nothing but a prosaic "Don't Do Stupid S**t," a denomination fully adopted by The New York Times.

Stupid s**t though, doesn't even begin to describe Obama's first act after announcing the doctrine last week at West Point. For those who don't get the message, one picture is enough to tell the whole story; Obama and the Polish president in front of an F-16 exhibition at a military airport near Warsaw.

Stupid s**t also irretrievably takes a backseat to serious s**t during Obama's current European tour. We just need to examine what's in store at the selected pit stops.

First is Warsaw -- whose nervous poodle, US vassal government is absolutely hysterical over an imminent Russian "threat." Then it's the G7 in Brussels -- the "ex-G8," from which Russia was expelled by the self-proclaimed "great powers." One of the items in the agenda is the possibility of slapping even more sanctions over Moscow's "threat" to the Ukraine.

And then there are the ceremonies over the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings. It was the Soviet Union that essentially defeated Nazi Germany; the "West" only finished the job. Stalin's generals should have easily entered Berlin; they didn't because Stalin was afraid of ruffling Allied feathers at Yalta (and then the whole post-war scenario would have been a completely different story).

Check it out: the whole, fascinating process becomes quite visible by mixing Vojtech Mastny's "Russia's Road to the Cold War. Diplomacy, Warfare and the Politics of Communism, 1941-1945," with Vladislav Zubok's and Constantine Pleshakov's "Inside the Kremlin's Cold War."

Now a serious World War II event like the Normandy landings has been marred by -- what else -- stupid s**t.

Because Barack the First simply cannot be in the same room with Vladimir Putin -- as he would have no teleprompter to guide him -- French President Francois Hollande must host two dinners in a row on Thursday. This was essentially leaked to American media by one of Obama's foreign policy advisers, the astounding mediocrity Ben Rhodes.

And the most startling absurdity is that all this is taking place with the background of a Kiev-conducted, Washington-enabled "anti-terrorist operation" -- for instance in Lugansk -- where civilian "collateral damage" is being framed as the culprit. Neo-Nazis are positively gloating -- in their graves or in their contemporary balaclavas.

Just follow the gun-crazy money

Obama's waltz at Warsaw came with the promise of a $1 billion hammer -- as The Saker aptly summarized it. This is being sold -- with the US Congress virtually certain to approve it -- as a "security plan" for Eastern Europe, code for more deployment of US troops, fighter jets and battleships.

The White House, in yet another classic of Orwellian newspeak, explained this "European Reassurance Initiative" as a response to the (non-existent) Russian "threat" at the Ukrainian border. So the answer must be more US Navy action in NATO patrols across the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, and more, hazy "aid" to non-NATO members Ukraine and Georgia.

Once again, terminology is key; not only we're talking about a pleasant "reassurance" in view of those "new security challenges," but most of all a very religious promise, pronounced by Obama himself, that Eastern European security is "sacrosanct."

The White House was also careful to stress that all this "sacrosanct" warmongering effort in Europe will not detract from the much ballyhooed "pivoting" to Asia.

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Pepe Escobar is an independent geopolitical analyst. He writes for RT, Sputnik and TomDispatch, and is a frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the former roving correspondent for Asia (more...)
 

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