After the Biden administration decided to pull out of a proposed plan to supply Polish MiG fighter jets to Ukraine, Chickenhawk Mitt Romney and 39 other Senate Republicans started banging the war drums, demanding that Biden reconsider the decision and send those fighter jets to Ukraine “immediately.”
In fact, Mitt is banging the war drums so hard, he’s like the Gene Krupa of the Never-Served-in-the-Military Marching Band.
Last Thursday during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Mitt blasted the White House for scrapping the transfer of the MiGs and demanded to know the logic behind the decision saying it made no sense.
It might not makes sense to people like Mitt Romey who has fantasized about a US/Russia battle royale for years. But for those of us who aren’t treating the conflict like a sporting event between our “team” and our arch-rival, it makes perfect sense. It also makes sense to those of us who aren’t banging the war drums eagerly hoping to drag the United States into a direct military conflict with a nuclear superpower.
The reason Biden scrapped the plan was because the Pentagon and the intelligence community argued that the transfer of MiGs could escalate the conflict even further and increase the risk of a direct confrontation with Russia.
Now, you can agree or disagree with that assessment, but you can’t say it “makes no sense.”
The fact, is, between the crippling economic sanctions we’ve placed on Russia and the military assistance we’ve given to Ukraine, I’m guessing Vladimir Putin is already feeling pretty escalatey right about now.
Plus, it’s important to remember that none of the actions the United States takes in this conflict are happening in a vacuum.
We push Russia; Russia will push back.
It’s Newton’s Third Law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
That’s what makes this brinksmanship so incredibly dangerous.
Every action we take on foreign policy is going to prompt a reaction somewhere else. And some of those reactions are going to have unintended consequences that could ultimately turn around and bite US national interests right on the ass.
Let me give you the latest example of this.
Today we learned that Saudi Arabia is considering allowing China to pay for oil in the Yuan instead of US dollars.
Here’s how ZeroHedge sums it up:
One of the core staples of the past 40 years, and an anchor propping up the dollar’s reserve status, was a global financial system based on the petrodollar – this was a world in which oil producers would sell their product to the US (and the rest of the world) for dollars, which they would then recycle the proceeds in dollar-denominated assets and while investing in dollar-denominated markets, explicitly prop up the USD as the world reserve currency, and in the process backstop the standing of the US as the world’s undisputed financial superpower.
Those days are coming to an end.
And why has this happened? What is this an equal and opposite reaction to?
Well, ZeroHedge’s report includes this quote from today’s Wall Street Journal:
The Saudis are angry over the U.S.’s lack of support for their intervention in the Yemen civil war, and over the Biden administration’s attempt to strike a deal with Iran over its nuclear program. Saudi officials have said they were shocked by the precipitous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last year.
This, my friends, is a grim example of an unintended consequence of US foreign policy bungles that is biting US national interest in the ass.
What kind of unintended consequences do we have in store from Washington’s reaction to the invasion of Ukraine?
When it comes to our actions over Russia’s invasion, my biggest fear is we’ve already crossed the Rubicon.
[Yes, I used “Rubicon” on the Ides of March. Aren’t I clever?]
The Biden administration is boasting that the sanctions imposed on Russia have “crushed” its economy.
Sure, boast away.
But remember, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. And we may not like how Russia responds to our crushing its economy.
Now might not be a good time to have Mitt Romney out there banging the war drums.
But that is exactly what he’s doing.
During Thursday’s hearing, Mitt said, and I quote:
“I believe there’s a sentiment that we’re fearful about what Putin might do. And what he might consider as an escalation. It’s time for him to be fearful of what we might do.”
Sweet, merciful Zeus.
And Mitt called Donald Trump reckless.
But he certainly did drop the veil, didn’t he? Mitt Romney wants the US to provoke Putin.
Yeah. The guy who, like a thirteen-year-old girl, created a Twitter alter ego named Pierre Delecto so he could troll anti-Romney tweeters while retweeting Romney fans wants the United States to provoke a nuclear superpower equal and opposite reaction be damned.
Mitt also said:
“This is war. People are dying. We need to get this aircraft immediately to the people of Ukraine. That’s what they are asking for.”
Hey, Gene Krupa! Ukraine is also asking NATO and the US to establish a no-fly zone of their country. Should we give them a no-fly zone too just because they asked for it?
I shouldn’t ask because I suspect Romney’s answer would be yes.
It stuns me how cavalierly so many Americans have become about the prospect of starting a war with a nuclear superpower. Now, a lot of this war-drum banging is happening among the people who are too dim to realize that cheering for war isn’t the same as cheering for your favorite contestant on “Dancing with the Stars.”
But it’s coming not just from the audience of “The View.” It’s coming from sitting members of what used to be called “The World’s Most Deliberative Body.”
Frankly, it’s scaring the shit out of me. I’m scared that the same whipped up moral panic that sent this country into economic devastation over a virus with a 99% survival rate is going to send this country to war while our economy collapses once again.
And warmongering assholes like Mitt Romney want it to happen.
Let me close with this 2020 tweet from Jesse Kelly:
