Day: July 30, 2020
Real presidents
And this is the parting message from the worthy man to whom they gave tribute.
I can’t say I knew John Lewis, but I did meet him one evening at the Corcoran Museum when my wife was Chief Curator there. I don’t remember our conversation about whatever political issue was then roiling Washington, but I do remember the impression he left. He was precisely as described by these real presidents: modest and genuine, with time to listen, absorb, and appreciate what people were saying to him.
I was also present for his March on Washington speech in 1963. His was a radical voice, but a radical voice in favor of a reasonable goal to be reached with nonviolent means: he wanted the equality promised in America’s founding documents, no more but no less. His was not the voice of separation or threats of violence, but rather of integration and reason.
No, President Trump was not at the funeral. He would not have been welcomed, and he would not have been at ease. His is an America where suburbs resist integration, real estate moguls discriminate against minorities, police are licensed to mistreat citizens, tax cuts are for the rich, pardons are for people the president likes, and the election is over before all the votes are counted.
Real presidents don’t think that way. And John Lewis brought out the best in them.
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Biden will have his hands full
Time for a summer update on President Trump’s diplomatic initiatives, more or less in his priority order:
- Trade with China: importing less than half of what is called for in the “first phase” agreement.
- Re-initiating nuclear talks with Iran: Trump said more than a year ago he would talk with no pre-conditions. Tehran won’t, despite “maximum pressure.” Iran wants sanctions eased first.
- Getting rid of North Korea’s nuclear weapons: Kim Jong-un has in effect said “no.”
- Ending the war in Afghanistan: The withdrawal is proceeding, but progress in intra-Afghan talks is minimal.
- Removal of Venezuelan President Maduro: He has weathered the challenge and remains firmly in power.
- South China Sea: The US has rejected China’s sovereignty claim but is doing nothing about its military outposts.
- Helping Ukraine force the Russians out of Donbas: The Administration has provided lethal weapons to no avail.
- Reducing Saudi oil production to jack up world prices: Saudi production is down, but world prices are still in a trough.
- Initiating a democratic transition in Syria: Congress has beefed up sanctions, but Trump can’t even begin to get Assad out.
- “Deal of the century”: Not going anywhere but into the shredder. Even Israeli annexation of part of the West Bank is blocked.
This skips a lot. For example:
- the President telling Chinese President Xi that it was fine to put (Muslim) Uighurs into concentration camps,
- withdrawing from the Paris Climate accord, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and several favorable arms control agreements with Russia,
- moving US troops out of Germany to the delight of Moscow,
- failing to counter Russian bounties for Taliban who kill US soldiers in Afghanistan,
- saying the right things about Hong Kong and withdrawing its trade preferences, but with not discernible impact,
- not responding to foreign initiatives to undermine the US elections, and
- withdrawing from the World Health Organization in the midst of a pandemic.
American foreign policy has rarely been so ineffectual, never mind whether the priorities are right. The Administration doesn’t think past its own next move. The President is incapable of it and won’t let others do it for him. He behaves as if the adversary has no options. Much of what the Administration does is for show, without considering however how most of the rest of the world sees the situation. The only customers for this foreign policy are the domestic audience of China hawks, Russia doves, oil and coal producers, and evangelical Christians, along with President Putin, Prime Minister Netanyahu and a few other would-be autocrats around the world.
Getting out of the foreign policy hole Trump has dug will be a big challenge. President Biden, if there ever is one, will have his hands full even if he pays attention only to the first three of the items above. Let’s hope he can somehow save us from the consequences of four dreadful years.
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Stevenson’s army, July 30
– LA Times has a summary of Robert Draper’s new book on the Iraq war. [I’m happy to say I just got a copy from my newly reopened library.]
– I have a piece debunking the “wag the dog” theory. Yes, foreign policy decisions including use of force, are often driven by domestic political considerations, but the US just doesn’t start wars in presidential election years.
–DOD now sees protesters and journalists as “adversaries” in mandatory training manuals.
– The Gang of 8 are feuding over what to tell us about foreign interference in the election.
– DOD announced withdrawal of troops from Germany. Fred Kaplan has a good critique.
Reading between the lines, it looks to me as if DOD is slow-rolling the matter, making it easy to reverse course after the election.
Daily Beast reports on all the dark money flooding into our elections this year.
Congratulations to the NYT editor who wrote the line saying the tech execs who testified yesterday all wore “trust me suits” and ties.
Breaking news: the quarry for the Stonehenge stones has been found 15 miles away. Still not know is how they were transported 4500 years ago.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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