Donald Trump is certainly no libertarian but it is absolutely fantastic the way he has thrown the neocon movement into sheer panic and desperation.
The neocons, as most everyone knows by now, are known for the death and destruction that they want the U.S. government to continue wreaking on foreigners around the world, especially in the Middle East.
Recall what happened after the U.S. national-security state lost its official Cold War enemy, the Soviet Union, in 1989. There was panic and desperation then too, primarily within the Pentagon and the CIA. People were talking about a “peace dividend,” one that would involve a significant reduction in military spending.
That was not to be. Beginning with George W. Bush’s Persian Gulf intervention, the U.S. national security state embarked on a decades-long campaign of wreaking death and destruction in the Middle East with its Cold War military machine.
And the neocons loved it and cheered it on. The more death, the more destruction, the more they frothed at the mouth for more.
And when the victims of all this massive death and destruction finally decided to retaliate with terrorist attacks, the neocons went ballistic. That’s when we got the infamous “war on terrorism,” a perpetual campaign of ever-growing budgets for the national-security establishment, massive secret surveillance schemes on the American people and others, a formalized assassination program, invasions, occupations, torture, and all the rest.
And all to keep us “safe” from the enemies that they brought into existence with their never-ending death and destruction.
All in the name of “patriotism” and keeping us “safe.”
Through it all, the neocons and U.S. officials played the innocent. “We’ve done nothing to cause these terrorist attacks against America,” they cried. “We were just minding our own business, just like FDR was doing before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The terrorists, like the Japanese, just hate us for our freedom and values. God bless America.”
And so they called for more death and destruction, more assaults on civil liberties and privacy, more spending on the military, the CIA, and the NSA. It is the greatest racket in history, especially because it is perpetual.
Consider ISIS. the newest enemy du jour. It’s a direct consequence of their invasion and occupation of Iraq. So, today, they say they have to keep us safe from ISIS because otherwise ISIS would come and get us and force us to study the Koran. But before ISIS, it was Saddam Hussein who was coming to get us. And there was al-Qaeda and, today, Assad. Or Putin. Or North Korea. Or China. Or whoever else they are provoking. For people who nation is based on a national-security state, the list of official enemies is endless, just like the never-ending crises that accompany all this.
Along comes Trump and starts to question this racket. Now, I’m not suggesting that Trump is a libertarian when it comes to foreign policy. He most definitely falls within the interventionist camp in which both Republicans and Democrats sit — along with the neocons. But the fact is that he has been questioning the need for more U.S. death and destruction in the Middle East.
That’s heresy to the neocons and the national-security establishment. They need those official enemies more than ever.
Even worse, Trump has been saying that he’d establish good relations with Russia and Putin. That is super heresy to the neocons and the national security state.
Neocons are clearly sensing the threat to their racket, especially as they see people gravitating to Trump for that very reason. It’s quite possible that many Americans are finally sick and tired of the invasions and occupations. They’re tired of the assassinations. They’re tired of the partnerships with brutal dictatorships, like the one in Egypt. They’re tired of hypocrisy. They’re tired of U.S. soldiers killing and dying for nothing. They’re tired of the massive death and destruction.
As the campaign proceeds, keep a watch on the level of rising rage among the neocons if Trump continues to question the U.S. death and destruction machine and a renewed Cold War with Russia.
Then, think back to 1963, because as high as the level of rage is today against Trump, it was 100 times greater against President Kennedy among the right-wing, the Pentagon, and the CIA.
By the time he was assassinated, Kennedy had come to question and distrust the entire national-security establishment. He had vowed to tear the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter them to the winds. He had scoffed and ignored repeated suggestions by the Pentagon to invade Cuba and attack the Soviet Union.
By the time, JFK did his famous peace speech at American University in June 1963, he didn’t even consult with the CIA or the Joint Chiefs of Staff has to what he was going to say. He didn’t tell them in advance that he was announcing his intent to end the Cold War. He pursued and secured a nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviets, over the objections of the national-security establishment. Worst of all, he entered into secret negotiations with the Soviets and Cubans to end the Cold War and establish normal relations—without advising either the Pentagon or the CIA.
The right-wing and the national-security establishment went into a frenzy, much bigger even than the neocon frenzy against Trump. Kennedy was threatening the existence of one of the biggest rackets in history, one that would end up generating trillions of dollars in military and intelligence largess for military and intelligence people and defense contractors.
(See: JFK’s War with the National Security Establishment: Why Kennedy Was Assassinated by Douglas Horne, The Kennedy Autopsy by Jacob Hornberger, and Regime Change: The Kennedy Assassination by Jacob Hornberger.)
Once Kennedy was removed from the scene, Lyndon Johnson ensured that everything returned to normal — permanent official enemies (e.g., Cuba, the Soviet Union, China, communism, Vietnam, North Korea, etc.). And ever since, every no president has dared to question this crooked and corrupt paradigm.
Until Trump. Trump is causing people to question it. And he’s drawing people to him because of it. In fact, the media is reporting that many Democrats are crossing over to support Trump, undoubtedly because Sanders and Clinton still do not dare to question the empire, the national-security state, and the death-and-destruction machine.
Where will all this end up? Who knows? But at the very least, the Trump campaign is causing people to look in a libertarian direction when it comes to foreign policy — a direction that involves bringing all the troops home from everywhere and discharging them, that involves ending foreign interventionism, and that involves a dismantling of the Cold War-era national-security state — a direction that involves restoring a limited-government, constitutional republic to our land, one that will bring peace, prosperity, harmony, morality, and freedom to America.
