The challenges facing the incoming president may demand more than a return to normalcy

January 18, 2021
By Andrew Bacevich
Spectator

Regarding America’s role in the world, Joe Biden’s ascent to the presidency offers this bit of prospective good news: the random flailing about of the Trump era will end. No more diplomacy conducted via Twitter. A modicum of consistency and predictability might once more become emblems of American statecraft. Some version of normalcy will be restored.

While all this will be welcome, it prompts a fundamental question: will a return to pre-Trump normalcy suffice as a response to the challenges that Biden is about to inherit? After all, the post-Cold War version of normalcy — the policies as pursued by presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — created the conditions that gave rise to Donald Trump in the first place.

By any measure, the normalcy of the post-Cold War era flopped. It underwrote delusions, the United States infamously anointing itself as history’s ‘indispensable nation’. It defined American global leadership primarily in military terms. Normalcy found expression in rampant military activism that left US forces mired in multiple unwinnable wars. All of this came with a price tag: something in the order of $6 trillion (thus far) plus tens of thousands of US troops dead or wounded, many grievously. Journalists are making much of the fact that Joe Biden is the oldest person ever to assume the office of the presidency. Arguably more relevant than age, however, is Biden’s exposure to and participation in a specific chronicle of events. As a politician, our next president has been a fixture on the national political scene going back as far as the Cold War — he was first elected to the US Senate in 1972 when the Vietnam War was still underway.

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Dear CCI Friends,

Navalny’s latest efforts to get attention by demonizing Putin have put him in the spotlight again. It is still not known how or where the poisoning occurred or what the poison was. The report from Germany said that it was Novichok, however, when Russian scientists requested samples, the Germans refused to send them. Strange! Latest evidence I saw showed a lot of different substances found in Navalny’s chemistry but no Novichok. Still the whole story made for lots of publicity on both sides of the ocean.

Many in the U.S. are eager to condemn Putin and Russia. Navalny seems to be in search of ways to denigrate Putin. So these two factors are destined to make news periodically.

Russia is not a perfect country, the United States is not a perfect country. Will we ever better ourselves by condemning each other? I think not. Better we spend our time trying to get to know each others’ cultures rather than antagonizing each other.

I  contacted a few Russians about Navalny’s poisoning, his trip to Germany, and the protests in his defense. The following are a few of our friends’ varied responses. It is winter, Covid is still active in Russia. They too have been on lockdown in recent weeks. This may account for some of their current dissatisfactions, the same as many here in the U.S.

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Dear CCI Friends,

A Swedish man, Jan Oberg, whom I consider to be my counterpart across the ocean, has put up this amazingly simple message. It demonstrates where we are…and the questions we need to be asking ourselves. There is still time, but it is imperative that we change course this year in 2021.

It makes no difference who we voted for, we need to become educators on saving our earth. The consequences for ourselves, our children and grandchildren will be horrendous otherwise.

Join us in asking the hard questions about why we in America are a “warring nation.” Why do we spend so much money on our military and ever more destructive weapons? Why do we need to be #1 in the world?

Let us give up “Unipolar” status and work toward a “Multipolar” world where the larger nations of China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States can begin to work jointly to curb wars and strive for a world that works for larger and smaller nations and peoples.

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Dear  CCI Friends,

It’s worth breaking my month of silence to send you this assessment by Bill Totten, who as can be seen, is no one’s fool. Totten is Chairman and Representative Director of K.K. Ashisuto, Japan’s leading independent distributor of packaged computer software for large organizations. He was born, raised and educated in Southern California.

Totten analyses the situation with the U.S. and the world accurately… without anger, projection, resistance––just plain facts we all can observe, Democrats and Republicans alike.

Warm wishes to all of you during this challenging year ahead!

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