“This is the way. Macron’s embrace of strategic ambiguity.” (Claire Berlinski)
If strategic ambiguity is “the way,” Claire should be singing the praises of Donald Trump. There’s not a single practitioner of strategic ambiguity who more successfully confounds American adversaries (and allies) than the emeritus President of the United States.
Arguably, Russia never invaded Ukraine, Iran never came as close to acquiring nuclear weapons as they have now and Hamas never attacked Israel as brazenly as they did in October because they didn’t have a clue how Trump would react.
Another great example of Trump’s use of strategic ambiguity is his effort to cajole America’s NATO allies to spend more on defense. They’re left wondering, will he really pull out of NATO if they don’t spend more or won’t he. The ambiguity about what Trump will do provides a major incentive for them to do the right thing. One thing we know for sure; nothing else has inspired the NATO deadbeats to meet their obligations or keep their promises.
As for Macron, his mantra is speak loudly but carry a small stick. Russia has basically expelled France from its African satrapies and France’s military capabilities are highly suspect. Bismarck once famously said that if the France military ever acted up, he would send in the German police force to arrest it. Putin could say the same thing. If worst ever came to worst, Putin could count on the French farmers and militant youth to serve as a fifth column. It’s a bit unclear who hates the French government the most, the farmers, the unemployable Muslim youth or the newly re-elected Russian President.
As for Biden (and Obama before him), strategic ambiguity is a concept they’ve never thought of. The operative theory for their foreign policy is setting red line after red line that adversaries can leap over in a single bound with no consequences. Biden’s foreign policy is where overheated rhetoric meets bogus activism.
If you like strategic ambiguity, Claire, Donald Trump should be your hero.
“Serbia and Russia want to refight Kosovo, this time with disinformation” (Claire Berlinski)
Why shouldn’t Serbia want to refight Kosovo? Using similar tactics to those used by Russia in Ukraine, NATO unilaterally, and without UN sanction, changed the map of Europe by force. Russia attempted to take over Ukraine because its President wanted to. The NATO leaders at the time, especially Bill Clinton, ripped Kosovo from Serbia simply because those leaders wanted to.
To accomplish its goals, Russia attacked Ukraine’s electric grid. To accomplish its goals, NATO attacked Serbia’s electric grid. Putin bombed Ukrainian bridges and other civilian infrastructure; that’s precisely what Bill Clinton did in Serbia.
As far as I know, Putin hasn’t bombed any foreign embassies in Ukraine. Clinton bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. He said it was a mistake and mistakes do happen. Whether the Chinese embassy was bombed intentionally or in error, we will never know for sure.
To this day, only about half the nations in the world recognize Kosovo as a legitimate country. Kosovo has never been admitted as a full member of the UN and there are even nations that are NATO members that refuse to recognize Kosovo (eg Spain).
While the scale was obviously different, (NATO never abuducted Serbian children and shipped them to Kosovo or put them in reeducation camps like the Russians have) the similarities in behavior between NATO in Serbia and Russia in Ukraine are too obvious to ignore.
NATO’s behavior in the Serbian dispute with Kosovo proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that all of its claims of reverence for international law and its insistence that national borders not be changed by force are simply lies.
Then there’s the interesting death of the Serbian leader, Milosevic who died of a heart attack in prison in The Hague. There’s no question that Milosevic was a vile person in much the same way that Putin is a vile person. That reality should be irrelevant to those who supposedly respect due process.
While Milosevic wasn’t murdered; he might as well have been. Dutch authorities confirmed that he died of a heart attack; what they never explained is why he failed to receive adequate medical care during his lengthy imprisonment.
Milosevic got what he deserved; presumably he’s rotting in whatever circle of hell Minos assigned him to. But his treatment and the treatment of his country in the dispute with Kosovo proves that NATO’s respect for international law is little more than a sham.
I am starting to lose patience with the blame Bibi chorus regarding Israel-US relations. Israeli policy has not changed one iota since the start of the war except to appease the Biden administration. It is Biden-Blinken who have changed their policy radically.
Netanyahu is not playing the politics card and is not overplaying the US conflict. It serves him no purpose no matter what the Times and other know-nothings say about Israel's "extreme right". What, one wonders, should he or the rest of the government do when the Senate majority leaders calls for new elections or when the VP says the most inane things about him and Israel? What is supposed to be the reaction when the State Department accuses Israeli soldiers of raping Gazan woman - even though they know it is 100% false?
The Biden-Blinken team has turned against Israel. That is pretty clear. Is it coming from the elections in November? I think not. I think there is a visceral hatred in the Obama formed Democratic party against Israel.
They want to accuse Bibi and Israel of blundering into a wider war when it is this administrations policy of bullying allies and appeasing enemies that will do it.
Margarita Symonyan is possibly the new Rona Daniels . . . .oh wait, Rona is no longer with NBC (insert tiny violin here).
That was quite the word salad from Trump.
Thanks as always - Global Eyes is one of the main reasons I subscribe to CG and it is just a hi-speed, condensed yet super informative education from start to finish!
“This is the way. Macron’s embrace of strategic ambiguity.” (Claire Berlinski)
If strategic ambiguity is “the way,” Claire should be singing the praises of Donald Trump. There’s not a single practitioner of strategic ambiguity who more successfully confounds American adversaries (and allies) than the emeritus President of the United States.
Arguably, Russia never invaded Ukraine, Iran never came as close to acquiring nuclear weapons as they have now and Hamas never attacked Israel as brazenly as they did in October because they didn’t have a clue how Trump would react.
Another great example of Trump’s use of strategic ambiguity is his effort to cajole America’s NATO allies to spend more on defense. They’re left wondering, will he really pull out of NATO if they don’t spend more or won’t he. The ambiguity about what Trump will do provides a major incentive for them to do the right thing. One thing we know for sure; nothing else has inspired the NATO deadbeats to meet their obligations or keep their promises.
As for Macron, his mantra is speak loudly but carry a small stick. Russia has basically expelled France from its African satrapies and France’s military capabilities are highly suspect. Bismarck once famously said that if the France military ever acted up, he would send in the German police force to arrest it. Putin could say the same thing. If worst ever came to worst, Putin could count on the French farmers and militant youth to serve as a fifth column. It’s a bit unclear who hates the French government the most, the farmers, the unemployable Muslim youth or the newly re-elected Russian President.
As for Biden (and Obama before him), strategic ambiguity is a concept they’ve never thought of. The operative theory for their foreign policy is setting red line after red line that adversaries can leap over in a single bound with no consequences. Biden’s foreign policy is where overheated rhetoric meets bogus activism.
If you like strategic ambiguity, Claire, Donald Trump should be your hero.
“Serbia and Russia want to refight Kosovo, this time with disinformation” (Claire Berlinski)
Why shouldn’t Serbia want to refight Kosovo? Using similar tactics to those used by Russia in Ukraine, NATO unilaterally, and without UN sanction, changed the map of Europe by force. Russia attempted to take over Ukraine because its President wanted to. The NATO leaders at the time, especially Bill Clinton, ripped Kosovo from Serbia simply because those leaders wanted to.
To accomplish its goals, Russia attacked Ukraine’s electric grid. To accomplish its goals, NATO attacked Serbia’s electric grid. Putin bombed Ukrainian bridges and other civilian infrastructure; that’s precisely what Bill Clinton did in Serbia.
As far as I know, Putin hasn’t bombed any foreign embassies in Ukraine. Clinton bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. He said it was a mistake and mistakes do happen. Whether the Chinese embassy was bombed intentionally or in error, we will never know for sure.
To this day, only about half the nations in the world recognize Kosovo as a legitimate country. Kosovo has never been admitted as a full member of the UN and there are even nations that are NATO members that refuse to recognize Kosovo (eg Spain).
While the scale was obviously different, (NATO never abuducted Serbian children and shipped them to Kosovo or put them in reeducation camps like the Russians have) the similarities in behavior between NATO in Serbia and Russia in Ukraine are too obvious to ignore.
NATO’s behavior in the Serbian dispute with Kosovo proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that all of its claims of reverence for international law and its insistence that national borders not be changed by force are simply lies.
Then there’s the interesting death of the Serbian leader, Milosevic who died of a heart attack in prison in The Hague. There’s no question that Milosevic was a vile person in much the same way that Putin is a vile person. That reality should be irrelevant to those who supposedly respect due process.
While Milosevic wasn’t murdered; he might as well have been. Dutch authorities confirmed that he died of a heart attack; what they never explained is why he failed to receive adequate medical care during his lengthy imprisonment.
Milosevic got what he deserved; presumably he’s rotting in whatever circle of hell Minos assigned him to. But his treatment and the treatment of his country in the dispute with Kosovo proves that NATO’s respect for international law is little more than a sham.
I am starting to lose patience with the blame Bibi chorus regarding Israel-US relations. Israeli policy has not changed one iota since the start of the war except to appease the Biden administration. It is Biden-Blinken who have changed their policy radically.
Netanyahu is not playing the politics card and is not overplaying the US conflict. It serves him no purpose no matter what the Times and other know-nothings say about Israel's "extreme right". What, one wonders, should he or the rest of the government do when the Senate majority leaders calls for new elections or when the VP says the most inane things about him and Israel? What is supposed to be the reaction when the State Department accuses Israeli soldiers of raping Gazan woman - even though they know it is 100% false?
The Biden-Blinken team has turned against Israel. That is pretty clear. Is it coming from the elections in November? I think not. I think there is a visceral hatred in the Obama formed Democratic party against Israel.
They want to accuse Bibi and Israel of blundering into a wider war when it is this administrations policy of bullying allies and appeasing enemies that will do it.
Margarita Symonyan is possibly the new Rona Daniels . . . .oh wait, Rona is no longer with NBC (insert tiny violin here).
That was quite the word salad from Trump.
Thanks as always - Global Eyes is one of the main reasons I subscribe to CG and it is just a hi-speed, condensed yet super informative education from start to finish!