Paul Craig Roberts: Trump’s National Security Speech

Written by Paul Craig Roberts; Originally appeared on paulcraigroberts.org

What do we make of Trump’s national security speech? First of all, it is the military/security complex’s speech, and it is inconsistent with Trump’s intention of normalizing relations with Russia.

The military/security complex, using Trump’s position as President, has defined Russia and China as “revisionist powers,” Washington’s rivals who seek to put their own national interests ahead of Washington’s unilateralism. Russia and China are “revisionist powers” because their assertion of their national interests limits Washington’s hegemony.

Paul Craig Roberts: Trump’s National Security Speech

In other words, Washington does not accept the validity of other countries’ interests if those interests are contrary to Washington’s interests. So, how does Trump expect to work with Russia and China when he reads a speech that Russia and China seek to “shape a world antithetical to our interests and values.”

“Our values” means, of course, Washington’s dominance.

Trump begins by honoring the military, police, Homeland Security, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In other words, “America first” means domination by Washington over the citizenry as well as over foreign countries.

Trump then cloaks himself in the American people who “voted to make America great again.”

Then Trump’s speech picks up the Israel Lobby’s line about a bad deal with Iran and asserts that previous administrations tolerated ISIS, when in fact they created it and set in upon Libya and Syria.

Then he attacks environmental protection and complains of illegal aliens, while ignoring the refugees Washington’s wars imposed on Europe.

In an era of neoconservative celebration of US world hegemony, Trump accuses his predecessors of losing confidence in America. This is extraordinary. When a country’s entire foreign policy is based on the assumption that it is the “exceptional and indispensable country,” how is this a loss of confidence? It is massive arrogance and hubris. The problem is not a loss of confidence by the rulers but an overbearing hubris.

Then Trump claims that through him, Americans again rule their nation.

He says that now Washington is serving the citizens. Looking at the tax bill, he must mean that citizens consist of the One Percent.

He next associates making America first with more money for the military.

Then he blames Iran for terrorism, something that Iran lives in fear of, but he does not mention Saudi Arabia’s support for terrorism or that of the US military/security complex’s which encourages terrorism as a weapon against Iran and Russia and as an excuse for its massive budget and power.

Trump then claims credit for the Russian/Syrian defeat of ISIS. It has been proved that ISIS is supported and financed by Washington. Trump’s claim is even more ridiculous than the previous claims of the Obama regime that the US defeated National Socialist Germany. Russia, which did defeat Germany, was not invited to the anniversary celebration.

Trump next demands that the countries we defend pay for it. Who are these countries and who do we defend them from? He can only mean Europe, Canada, Australia, Israel, and Japan. Is Washington defending them from Russia, China, North Korea and Iran or from the terrorists Washington creates, arms, and supplies to overthrow Libya, Syria and whatever countries Washington is successful siccing terrorists on. Apparently, some of these CIA-created terrorist organizations break loose from their creator and conduct operations on their own. So, Washington is a government that creates its own enemies.

Trump next brags on the sanctions he has imposed on “the North Korean regime.” He doesn’t mention, and I would bet he does not know, that Washington has withheld a peace treaty since the 1950s from North Korea. Washington has kept the war status open for 64 years. Having seen the fate of Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, etc., little wonder North Korea wants nuclear weapons.

Trump, standing there threatening the world, says that Washington will take all necessary steps to prevent North Korea from threatening the world.

Trump then delivers the establishment’s propaganda that unemployment is at an all time low and the stock market at an all time high. So, what is Trump rescuing Middle America from if unemployment is at an all time low? What happened to Trump’s case against jobs offshoring?

This is nothing but feel-good talk. Trump is repeating the lies because the lies make him look good. What Trump should be doing is pointing out the meaninglessness of the unemployment rate, because it doesn’t count the unemployed, only those few who looked for a job in the last 4 weeks. He should be pointing out that the stock market is not a sign of a growing economy but a sign of massive money creation by the central banks of the US, EU, UK, and Japan. The massive printing of money has flooded into paper assets, driving up their price and further enriching the One Percent.

Trump says that one leg of the strategy is to “preserve peace through strength.” What peace is he talking about? In the past two decades Washington has destroyed in whole or part eight countries and overthrown democratic governments in others. Is Trump equating peace with Washington’s wars? No other country has initiated wars and invasions and bombings and aggressive military actions on other countries’ borders. Trump says that America is threatened by enemies and to protect us the military will be enlarged. He said he was overturning the “defense sequester,” something that clearly does not exist.

My conclusion is that Trump has surrendered to the real rulers of America—the powerful interest groups such as the military/security complex, the Israel Lobby, the environmental polluters, Wall Street and the banks “too big to fail.”

America is a country in which despite the hopes flyover America had in Trump, an oligarchy rules. The American people, regardless of who they elect, have no voice, no input, no representation.

The governments of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush were the last governments that were subject to any accountability. With the Clinton regime the United States entered into the age of tyranny.

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John Mason

What can you expect from a person like Trump who has been declared bankrupt 7 times, money laundering with the Russian mafia and getting bailed out by some of the Russian oligarchs and crime bosses? US can expect Trump to completely bankrupt them but this time no oligarch or crime boss will help Trump to bail the US out.

FlorianGeyer

” getting bailed out by some of the ( JEWISH sic ) Russian oligarchs and crime bosses? “

TiredOfBsToo

It boggles my mind to think that anyone can consider a US president to be in control of foreign policy. A president isn’t even in control of most of domestic policy. The Bankers & Corporations control it all. The last president who attempted to actually be the head of government was JFK. The bankers & corporations weren’t pleased and their enforcement arm (CIA) took care of it.

RichardD

Trump has never been bankrupt. Some companies he owned went bankrupt while he remained solvent. Yes he’s into dirty Jew money, as are many others. Congress has run up the debt for 40 years. They bear most of the blame for spending more than the economy can afford. You can’t place blame on a President for a legislature that refuses to budget within it’s means.

FlorianGeyer

It is rather depressing that the American people in general are very jingoistic about their ‘invincible heroes in the military ‘ , yet the american people are I suggest, the most fearful nation in the world and are paranoid about the backward nation of North Korea that has achieved a tiny and outdated nuclear deterrent :)

Surely such missiles are no real threat to the USA as they have the best missile defences in the world. Or so Trump says when when he sells billions of dollars worth of the systems anyway :)

TiredOfBsToo

US government…. Policy ———-> bankers, corporations, neocons
Enforcement -> CIA, Pentagon

Everything else is theatrics and for show. 1863, National Banking Act, Lincoln wants to take it down, is assassinated. Early 1900s, policy makers seek to scrub American history education to put it in line with their desires by educating the educators properly. 1953, the worst psychopath to ever gain power in the US, Allen Dulles (rabid anything Russian); begins undermining not only other countries through assassinations and coups, but targets anyone believing in America for Americans… New Dealers.

The only thing that will eliminate the Deep State is the demise of the dollar as the reserve currency; already in process. The danger to the planet, the Enforcement arm flailing about with nukes. The only President to attempt to gain control of the government after WW2 was JFK. The reason he was assassinated and the reason why the CIA will never ever release the full investigations of the event; Americans would then realize the CIA’s involvement.

The American people… easily programmed by their masters, the bankers and corporations, who tell them what and how to think while at the same time keeping them indebted in low wage dead end jobs. Today, ‘liberals’ love McCain. I would consider being called a liberal an insult, synonymous with being called ignorant or even stupid.

FlorianGeyer

Very true but can the US empire of chaos and greed end peacefully ?

TiredOfBsToo

That…. is the million dollar question…

RichardD

Maybe, if enough Americans educate themselves on the internet at sites like this and others as to the true nature of “their” government and the severity of our nation’s Jew infestation and all of the problems that it is causing. It all starts with realizing that generations of Americans have been force fed Zionist propaganda from cradle to grave by the lying Jew media, the evil Jew’s puppet government in DC, and the Jew’s and their collaborator’s excessive and subversive involvement in finance and academia.

FlorianGeyer

Indeed and in the pseudo academia of many ‘universities’ in the UK , students with low IQ’s are placed on worthless courses but end up with a large student debt that in most cases will never be paid due to the students lack of ‘earning ‘ ability.

The tax payer pays the debt + interest eventually, whilst the banks and university’s bank the profits.

Southern

I strongly doubt it – just look how desperate the Neocons really are and how they’ve proven willing to sacrifice all those innocent lives just to get their way.

In the end, they’re not going away voluntarily – but in handcuffs and escorted all the way to the ICC.

That is, if they’re served their due process – something which they’ve deliberately been denying their victims.

RichardD

The US isn’t a party to the ICC and isn’t going to become one.

Southern

True, that would spell the end of the Neocons.

I’m well aware of the contradiction that constitutes US foreign policy – international laws are only ever applicable if they happen to suit the occasion.

The US is exceptional – something which other nations should not be tolerating – specially Western nations yet these have been neutered by becoming Washington’s vassal states.

RichardD

We need to get rid of the Jews. The US is the most Jew infested nation on the planet. They and their collaborators are the primary source of the problems. As they have been many times throughout history. Their evil pedophile rape cult should be outlawed to create a Jew free planet.

Southern

Lets be clear about this – I’m not advocating the extinction of anyone – what I am opposed to is the political philosophy which is Zionism.

There’s a difference.

RichardD

Why do you support an evil Jew Talmud rabbinical pedophile cult that rapes 1,000 Jew cult babies every week during vile oral blood sucking “Jewish circumcision” rituals, infects them with venereal disease, brain damages and murders them?

Southern

I don’t – your reply is a strawman.

RichardD

“Lets be clear about this – I’m not advocating the extinction of anyone -”

If you don’t want Judaism to be prosecuted for it’s crimes. Then you support allowing it to continue committing them.

Southern

There’s a difference between Judaism and Zionism.

Overall religion should never be used to form the policies of a government.

RichardD

That’s a dodge, you didn’t answer the question:

“If you don’t want Judaism to be prosecuted for it’s crimes. Then you support allowing it to continue committing them. What is your position on outlawing Judaism to create a Jew free planet:”?

Southern

Spare me your logical fallacies.

The real dodge is refusing to acknowledge the difference between Judaisms and Zionism.

RichardD

Truth isn’t “logical fallacies”. You can’t disprove anything that I’ve written, because it’s all true. So you don’t even try, and instead lie and evade it.

Your lies, hatred, evasion of truth and refusal to address the issues involved is your problem not mine. And shows your support for the evil Jew pedophile rape cult. Judaism is the problem. The approximately 95% of Jews who are Zionists are an illustration of that:

– JEWS STRONGLY SUPPORT ISRAEL –

http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/US-Jews-strongly-support-Israel-new-poll-shows

FlorianGeyer

I fear you are correct. Only death will cure these Khazar vampires and their helpers of their greed.

Alexander Hardy

Paul Craig Roberts is one of the few American writers who tells it just like it is. It is a joy to read his lucidly rational arguments, tearing apart the lies and obfuscations of fakestream journalism. Anyone with sense can see which country is the major aggressor in the world, having killed more civilians and invaded more countries than all other countries put together while, with characteristic hypocrisy, claiming to bring, as the one exceptional and indispensable country in the world, freedom and democracy.

grok

‘Apparently, some of these CIA-created terrorist organizations break loose from their creator and conduct operations on their own. So, Washington is a government that creates its own enemies.’

And for that matter, Karl Marx famously noted that ‘Capitalism produces its own gravediggers’: i.e., the Internationalist proletariat; which (as bears repeating, these days) is the _only_ class which has a future…

Barba_Papa

Considering that under Ronald Reagan neo-liberalism was let loose rampant on the world, we were introduced to the insanity called trickle down economics, and the divide between the 1% and the rest started to increase I’d doubt that that administration was subject to any accountability. Tyranny of the rich oligarchy started long before the Clintons. They were just more brazen about it.

Southern

Another white house resident proves to have sold out to the interests of the US deep state.

The only thing that Trump is able to do is tweet nonsense – whom then, is writing his speeches?