Right Wants to Keep US the World’s Cop

By MARK ANDERSON

It’s well known that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has decided not to seek reelection.

But a much lesser-known event, during the recent congressional break, was his March 27 speech to the Czech Republic’s parliament, where he approvingly revealed that two hawkish neo-conservative organizations are instrumental in US-Czech Republic cooperation to confront Russia’s alleged subversion of the democratic process.

Speaking of this partnership between the US and Czech legislatures, Ryan told the Prague parliament:

“We also partner to support the heroic efforts of organizations, such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the International Republican Institute (IRI). We, as elected legislators, should never forget just how powerful it is to speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.”

Interestingly, the rather obscure IRI is chaired by John McCain (R-Ariz.), the war-prone veteran senator whose legislative partnership with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has been hyper-fixated for several years on toppling Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and confronting Syria’s chief allies, Russia and Iran.

Other IRI board members include: Sen. Tom Cotton, the young Arkansas Republican who shares McCain’s and Graham’s passion for saber rattling toward Russia, Syria and Iran; and former Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.).

According to the NED’s website, the organization is non-partisan in the political-party sense. And it is “funded largely by the US Congress” to send “an important message of solidarity” to the world’s struggling “democracy movements” and give them a voice.

“The Endowment is guided by the belief that freedom is a universal human aspiration that can be realized through the development of democratic institutions, procedures, and values,” NED’s website adds. “Democracy cannot be achieved through a single election and need not be based upon the model of the United States or any other particular country.”

Rather, “it evolves according to the needs and traditions of diverse political cultures.”

However, the NED finds no room for such diversity when it rails against all forms of populism, even though populism—often written off as the mere rantings of the rabble looking for easy scapegoats—most often centers on a popular desire for national self-determination and commonsense reforms in the face of the chaos and decline caused by the unbridled globalization that the NED and IRI worship.

True, some populist movements, in seeking a strong leader, may appeal to an exaggerated sense of tribalism. But if given a chance, populist ideals could mellow and spread out across a wider demographic due to their broad appeal on key issues, such as opposition to over-corporatization and a focus on local economics.

Yet, the NED is clearly partisan geo-politically, meaning that, like virtually all US and European think tanks, it’s strongly biased in favor of trans-nationalist arrangements that are labeled as “democratic” even though they centralize and privatize political and economic power into fewer and fewer hands.

And the NED and IRI spout the same gospel that Rep. Ryan bestowed upon the Czech parliament, to wit: The blameless West, as the bulwark of “democracy,” must embark on an offensive to spread that gospel, via the barrel of a gun whenever necessary, and confront Russia while expanding NATO’s membership ever-eastward.

According to an online promotion for an April 17 speaking event, the NED noted: “Russia appears today as an assertive power ready to weaken international norms and kick over the global chessboard. [T]he Russian authorities seek to undermine the liberal [read: unregulated monopoly capitalism] order but also to affect domestic politics in the world’s leading democracies … The Kremlin’s aggressive mobilization makes Russia the West’s key opponent …”

Singing the same tune, Ryan told parliament: “The Czech people are no strangers to Russian influence … Russia has violated international norms with its aggression against our closest allies in Eastern Europe.”

And Russia “spreads disinformation and engages in cyberattacks. It meddles in democratic elections throughout Europe, as it did in the United States,” Ryan added, neglecting to mention the long list of regimes the US has toppled (or elections in which it has meddled). The CIA’s 1954 Guatemalan coup that overthrew elected President Jacobo Arbenz comes to mind

Ryan’s worldview, like that of the NED and IRI, also overlooks the fact that Russia has no military assets permanently stationed anywhere near the US mainland, unlike NATO’s bases (and troop exercises) always stationed near or at the Russian border, largely underwritten by US taxpayers. Russia by and large focuses on protecting “Russia proper” and its core allies.

Ryan’s remarks can be summed up as a paean to the “wondrous” blessings of continued American exceptionalism (read: imperialism) on the basis of what foreign policy wonks call “soft power.” Appearing benign on the surface, this approach presupposes that the US must be the permanent supervisor of world “freedom.”

Blinded by such hubris, the permanent American mobilization to be the world’s cop will continue to menace humanity under the guise of saving it. For every vague “chemical attack” we hear about, there will be untold Western drone attacks that rarely make the news or cause major indignation.

Mark Anderson is a veteran journalist who divides his time between Texas and Michigan. Email him at truthhound2@yahoo.com.

From The Progressive Populist, May 15, 2018

Populist.com