Re: [Salon] Republicans Pressure Biden to Send More Advanced Weapons to Ukraine

[Todd Pierce <todd.e.pierce@icloud.com>]

As explanation of why I have been so critical of "New Right" lies that Republicans/Conservatives have alway been for "peace,” and are pushing war continuously, this is further evidence of that, with the following note as context for that. 

I have not seen the Netflix movie on Bernie Madoff and have no need to, to understand how a con artist so easily commits fraud upon gullible people. I’ve seen Ex. A for that amongst those whom refer to themselves as “non-interventionist Conservatives.” Who are either one of these: "the perpetrator of the confidence trick is called the "con artist" or simply "artist", and the intended victim is the "mark”. The “con” of course began as Trump’s micro-targeting of that tiny “antiwar" segment of Republicans/Conservatives/libertarains influenced by Ron Paul who wanted to “end the endless wars.” Which per Arthur Finkelstein’s Six-Party Theory,” required them to be micro-targeted with a fallacious meme that “Trump would end the endless wars.” 

Simultaneous to that was Trump’s message to “mainstream” Republicans/Conservatives that he would restore torture as US policy, and "make a massive budget request for one of the "greatest military buildups in American history:” https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/donald-trump-vows-greatest-military-build-up-in-american-history-1663302

One could be forgiven for gullibility and/or stupidity leading to a brief lapse of judgment, especially when the political opponent was the mirror image of the other “fascist,” in the realm of the “Martial Spirit” emblematic of fascism. But in the way that humans who invest in something unwisely sometimes do, and the true way that a successful con can be measured; they, “non-interventionist Conservatives,” and their equally stupid libertarian “non-interventionists,” then became even more susceptible, and doubled-down, in a “faith-based” belief in the original con, and furthered it, in hooking up with the ideological manufacturers of Trumpism, the Straussians at the Claremont Institute and Hillsdale College (and now, The American Conservative magazine). And joining that to the equally ideological con of Yoram Hazony’s “National Conservatism.” An ideology and con similar to how National Review and their favorite politician, Barry Goldwater, named their extreme right-wing, militaristic ideology, “Conservative.” Though it was only “conservative” in the sense of European conservatives like the Prussian Heinrich von Treitschke. Who is on my mind only because of something I read yesterday in an old copy of Modern Age in one of Goldwater’s files: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Heinrich-von-Treitschke.

And “non-fascist” oriented Conservatives don’t even have a clue of what happened all around them as one must turn to the “Left,” to see evidence of anyone understanding that, as here: https://jacobin.com/2021/12/gop-republicans-far-right-economic-populism.

Which I share for what it has to say about “National Conservative,” and “non-interventionist,” Josh Hawley, one of, if not the most, fanatical anti-China “Warriors” in US politics! Along with Matt Gaetz who too is put forward by the “cons” as opposing “endless war,” when in fact, their ultimate objective is to turn the US fully into a “Total War Society,” in the Republican “Tradition,” while "New Right” con-artists try to present that history as something different! But Josh Hawley, in promoting America’s first actual fascist ideologist, did a pretty good job in displaying Teddy Roosevelts innate “fascist thought,” as an advocate of it, than any mere biographer could have done. It’s not an accident that Paul Gottfreid’s and Richard Spencer’s H.L. Mencken alt-right program of years back celebrated Carl Schmitt, and Teddy Roosevelt. As can be seen in even a casual reading of Hawley’s panegyric to T. Roosevelt’s “Martial Spirit.” 

So as the Republicans/Conservatives work to displace any “non-defense” domestic spending, for only “defense spending,” as can be seen here, if one has any capability for “thinking,” in Hannah Arendt’s sense of it: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/08/biden-wisconsin-speech-state-of-the-union-hecklers/,

So you Conservatives must give a “hat tip” to Michelle Bachmann, who articulated Conservative/libertarian economic ideology best, with her call many years ago that “we must cut government spending . . . we must increase 'defense spending,'” laying out perfectly “Conservative/libertarian economic ideology,” as we saw with the cheers “libertarians” gave to Trump’s massive tax cut for the Oligarchs, even though he also massively increased massive military spending in the classic Republican tradition of the “War-Preparedness Doctrine”of T. Roosevelt and the Republicans pre-WW I, before they started to castigate Wilson for his obstructionism to getting the US into WW I right away. But Hawley, as a proponent of Teddy’s hyper militarism, actually explains that pretty well in the attached files, and emulates him to the maximum in a NatCon speech he gave here:  senator-hawley-delivers-national-conservatism-keynote-lefts-attack-men-america, bearing in mind his, and the NatCon’s criticism of “unmanliness” is entirely in pursuit of the “Manly Militarist,” like Teddy Roosevelt, and those “Manly” Israeli Settlers, manning the “bulwarks" of the Israeli, now openly, Fascist State.

Attachment: The Code of a Warrior.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

   

Attachment: Apostle of Expansion.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

 

Attachment: Epilogue.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

On Feb 8, 2023, at 2:37 PM, Chas Freeman via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:

https://news.antiwar.com/2023/02/06/republicans-pressure-biden-to-send-more-advanced-weapons-to-ukraine/

Republicans Pressure Biden to Send More Advanced Weapons to Ukraine

Republican hawks want Biden to send Gray Eagle drones, F-16s, and ATACMs by Dave DeCamp Posted on February 6, 2023Categories NewsTags Ukraine

Key Republican members of Congress are launching a two-front campaign to pressure the Biden administration to send Ukraine more advanced weapons, Defense One reported Saturday, citing people familiar with the plan.

One aspect of the campaign is to pressure Biden administration officials through closed-door briefings. The other is to apply public pressure, something Republican leadership has been doing throughout the war.

The main demand from the hawkish Republicans is for the US to provide MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones, F-16 fighter jets, and Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), which have a range of up to 190 miles. Providing Ukraine with either weapon would significantly escalate US military aid and bring the US and Russia closer to a direct clash.

The latest weapons package the Biden administration announced included Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB) for the first time. The GLSDB can hit targets up to 94 miles away, nearly twice the range of the munitions Ukraine has been using with the US-provided HIMARS rocket systems. But nearly doubling Ukraine’s strike range did not satisfy the hawkish Republicans.

“I have repeatedly called for more, better, and faster aid to Ukraine, but today’s announcement from the President is more of the same unnecessary slow-walking that has gotten us to this point,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) said Friday after the new weapons package was announced.

“We should begin training on the F-16s and ATACMS they have asked for immediately and seek to transfer these weapons systems as soon as possible. Training for Abrams and the Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb should have started months ago,” Wicker added.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has previously called for Biden to send Ukraine ATACMs so they could strike Crimea, which would risk a major escalation of the war. For their part, Ukrainian officials appear to be focusing their effort on securing F-16s or other advanced Western fighter jets.

While Republican leadership is pushing for more military aid to Ukraine, there are signs they are thinking about how the war will end. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), the head of the House Armed Services Committee, who favors sending ATACMs, has said the US must give Ukraine everything it needs now so the conflict ends by this summer. But a lot could happen between now and the summer, and each escalation risk provoking Moscow.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave. View all posts by Dave DeCamp

--
Salon mailing list
Salon@listserve.com
https://mlm2.listserve.net/mailman/listinfo/salon

Attachment: smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME cryptographic signature