The Digger

Excerpt: " But, third, something larger than even anti-Trumpism plays a major role in condemnations of the president’s withdrawal decisions: imperial thinking about America’s rightful role in the world. Euphemisms abound, but, if not an entreaty to American empire, what else could the  New York Times ’ David  Sanger  mean when he writes of a  “world order that the United States has led for the 73 years since World War II,”  and complains that Trump is reducing  “the global footprint needed to keep that order together” ? Or when President Obama’s national-security adviser Susan Rice  bemoans  Trump’s failures in  “preserving American global leadership,”  which a  Times  lead editorial insists is an  “ imperative ” ? Or when General James Mattis in his  letter  of resignation   echoes President Bill Clinton’s secretary of state Madeline Albright—and Obama himself—in asserting that  “t...

Excerpts: " Russiagate—allegations that President Trump is strongly influenced by or even under the sway of the Kremlin, for which there remains no actual evidence—continued to escalate as a dangerous and unprecedented factor in the new Cold War. What began as suggestions that the Kremlin had  “meddled”  in the 2016 US presidential election grew into mainstream insinuations, even assertions, that the Kremlin put Trump in the White House. The result has been to all but shackle Trump as a crisis-negotiator with Russian President Putin. Thus, for attending a July summit meeting with Putin in Helsinki—during which Trump defended the legitimacy of his own presidency—he was widely denounced by mainstream US media and politicians as having committed  “treason.”  And twice subsequently Trump was compelled to cancel scheduled meetings with Putin. Americans may reasonably ask whether the politicians, journalists, and organizations that assail Trump for the same kind of summi...

" The new Cold War is not a mere replica of its 40-year predecessor, which the world survived. In vital ways, it is more dangerous, more fraught with actual war, as illustrated by events in 2018" Excerpt: "In large part due to such media malpractice, and despite the escalating dangers in US-Russian relations, in 2018 there continued to be no significant anti–Cold War opposition anywhere in mainstream American political life—not in Congress, the major political parties, think tanks, or on college campuses, only a very few individual dissenters. Accordingly, the policy of détente with Russia, or what Trump has repeatedly called  “cooperation with Russia,”  still found no significant supporters in mainstream politics, even though it was the policy of other Republican presidents, notably Eisenhower, Nixon, and Reagan. Trump has tried, but he has been thwarted, repeatedly again in 2018. Meanwhile, the charge that Russia  “attacked American democracy”  and con...