Hystérie russo-trumpophobe à Washington

J'ai longuement hésité sur le titre de ce billet. En effet, l'expression « hystérie russo-trumpophobe » est psychologisante et je n'aime pas mélanger politique et psychologie. Mélanger politique et psychologie, c'est un truc médiatique pour nous bourrer le mou, je préfère donc éviter.

Alors, entendons nous bien.

« Hystérie russo-trumpophobe », c'est la forme. En effet, quand on voit comment se comporte la caste washingtonienne vis-à-vis de Trump, on ne peut que se dire qu'elle est très sérieusement grillée du ciboulot, que le tableau de fusibles entier a pété et que ça sent le cramé dans leur cervelle. Mac Cain est d'ailleurs atteint d'un cancer au cerveau (oui, je sais, c'est vache de ma part).

Mais, sur le fond, c'est une banale lutte de pouvoirs comme il y en a eu des milliers depuis la jeunesse du monde.

Le complexe militaro-industriel qui règne de manière incontestée  aux Etats-Unis depuis Eisenhower (et contre lequel il avait averti dans son discours d'adieu) se sent menacé par Trump, qui veut retourner à la tradition isolationniste (et donc non-interventionniste et donc non-dépensière en armements - c'est la tendance de fond même si, ponctuellement, pour brouiller les pistes Trump augmente ces dépenses).

Il y a 600 milliards de dollars en jeu (le budget militaire US) alors, évidemment, ça prend des allures titanesques et des accents shakespeariens.

Bon, je vous laisse avec Bill citant Pat :

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The Reason the Foreign Policy Establishment has Gone Mad

Pat Buchanan :

Not since Robert Welch of the John Birch Society called Dwight Eisenhower a “conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy” have such charges been hurled at a president. But while the Birchers were a bit outside the mainstream, today it is the establishment itself bawling “Treason!”

What explains the hysteria?

[. . .]

Using Occam’s razor, the real explanation for this behavior is the simplest one: America’s elites have been driven over the edge by Trump’s successes and their failures to block him.

Trump is deregulating the economy, cutting taxes, appointing record numbers of federal judges, reshaping the Supreme Court, and using tariffs to cut trade deficits and the bully pulpit to castigate freeloading allies.

Worst of all, Trump clearly intends to carry out his campaign pledge to improve relations with Russia and get along with Vladimir Putin.

“Over our dead bodies!” the Beltway elite seems to be shouting.

Hence the rhetorical WMDs hurled at Trump: liar, dictator, authoritarian, Putin’s poodle, fascist, demagogue, traitor, Nazi.

Such language approaches incitement to violence. One wonders whether the haters are considering the impact of the words they so casually use. Some of us yet recall how Dallas was charged with complicity in the death of JFK for slurs far less toxic than this.

The post-Helsinki hysteria reveals not merely the mindset of the president’s enemies, but the depth of their determination to destroy him.

They intend to break Trump and bring him down, to see him impeached, removed, indicted, and prosecuted, and the agenda on which he ran and was nominated and elected dumped onto the ash heap of history.

Thursday, Trump indicated that he knows exactly what is afoot, and threw down the gauntlet of defiance: “The Fake News Media wants so badly to see a major confrontation with Russia, even a confrontation that could lead to war,” he tweeted. “They are pushing so recklessly hard and hate the fact that I’ll probably have a good relationship with Putin.”

Spot on. Trump is saying: I am going to call off this Cold War II before it breaks out into the hot war that nine U.S. presidents avoided, despite Soviet provocations far graver than Putin’s pilfering of DNC emails showing how Debbie Wasserman Schultz stuck it to Bernie Sanders.

Then the White House suggested Vlad may be coming to dinner this fall.

Trump is edging toward the defining battle of his presidency: a reshaping of U.S. foreign policy to avoid clashes and conflicts with Russia and the shedding of Cold War commitments no longer rooted in the national interests of this country.

Yet should he attempt to carry out his agenda—to get out of Syria, pull troops from Germany, and take a second look at NATO’s Article 5 commitment to go to war for 29 nations, some of which, like Montenegro, most Americans have never heard of—he is headed for the most brutal battle of his presidency.

This Helsinki hysteria is but a taste.

By cheering Brexit, dissing the EU, suggesting NATO is obsolete, departing Syria, trying to get on with Putin, Trump is threatening the entire U.S. foreign policy establishment with what it fears most: irrelevance.

For if there is no war on, no war imminent, and no war wanted, what does a War Party do?

Pitchfork Pat has it exactly right. He hereby earns the highest of the MavPhil accolades, the coveted Plenary Prize for Political Penetration.

Posted by Bill Vallicella on Friday, July 20, 2018 at 04:58 AM in Foreign Policy | Permalink ************