Perhaps–The Blob–is a better description of America’s permanent national security bureaucracy than–Deep State.
Former President Obama certainly thought so. The moniker comes from Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes who nicknamed the US foreign policy establishment as “The Blob” in a New York Times Magazine profile. Obama also talked about breaking with “the Washington Playbook” when he decided not to declare a no-fly zone in Syria in response to the disputed use of chemical weapons.
Of course, Obama did initiate Timber Sycamore, a covert CIA program to train and utilize al Qaeda terrorists to overthrow the Syrian government of Bashar Assad. So in reality, Obama didn’t actually break with the Washington Playbook, he just followed the Democratic method of utilizing terrorist proxies and drone strikes rather than the Republican style of violent invasions to affect regime change. It was a matter of style, really.
Otherwise those $400,000 speaking payments wouldn’t be on offer, now would they? Or all the millions of dollars that corporate supporters plowed into his Chicago presidential museum?
This state of affairs is starting to become problematic for a so-called democratic republic. Despite all the power that has flowed to the modern executive branch, apparently every president is still beholden to The Blob and by extension, the Washington Playbook.
It’s always been obvious that Russia-gate was about making this relationship clear to Trump, the interloper.
It’s an open secret that the so-called foreign policy establishment did not think Donald Trump was qualified to become US president. While it is not too surprising that Democratic foreign policy experts would oppose a Trump presidency, there was enormous push back from the Republican side of the foreign policy establishment.
Indeed, the most obvious obstacle between any noninterventionist candidate and mainstream success is D.C.’s foreign-policy Establishment. The establishment is made up of politicians and foreign policy intellectuals and media personalities and intelligence professionals and defense-company contractors who determine the bounds of acceptable thinking on war and peace. This foreign policy establishment will acknowledge that past American wars of regime change, for which it enthusiastically advocated, have been disastrous, but it somehow maintains faith in the power of America hegemony, which in practice means overthrowing governments that The Blob doesn’t care for, like Cuba or Venezuala or Iran, or Russia, or China.
If you’ll recall, The Blob went into a hysterical hissy fit when Trump lambasted the invasion of Iraq and the regime-change-happy foreign polices of recent years, while promising a reset with Russia.
The Blob then responded to Trump’s 2016 election win with a fantastic story of Trump being a Russian agent under the express control of Vladimir Putin, rather than examining the disastrous neoliberal/neoconservative policies of the last 40 years. In doing so they deployed every aspect of the liberal corporate media to disseminate and relentlessly promote this story on a daily basis for nearly three years, and appointing a special prosecutor to conduct an official investigation in order to lend it the appearance of legitimacy. Every component of the ruling establishment (i.e., the government, the media, the intelligence agencies, that make up The Blob colluded in a soft coup to neuter or remove an American president from office on the basis of an invented conspiracy.
While not driving Trump from office it appears that Russia-gate has managed to block Trump from efforts at detente with Russia, to initiate Cold War 2.0, and to turn liberals into bloodthirsty war mongers.
Like a recent president, who we’ll not mention, declared–Mission Accomplished.
Still, things are not all hunky dory inside The Blob. What truly worries the foreign policy establishment is that America’s unipolar moment is coming to an end, thanks in large part to the sheer incompetence of the elites that make up the very same foreign policy establishment. The problem is compounded by the emergence of a multipolar world led by the alliance between Russia and China, a strategic partnership, that’s thrown these elites into a hysterical overreaction.
If we’re honest, that’s what’s driving US foreign and domestic policies. From Russia-gate to the trade war with China to the threatened attack on Iran to the use of al Qaeda terrorists in Syria, it’s apparent that The Blob will stop at nothing to maintain their empire.
Update: Jesus! It’s worse than I could have imagined.
“For all the outrage that liberals display whenever a high-profile Republican utters the phrase “deep state”, it sure is interesting that the Commander-in-Chief has found himself in a situation where he is at the whim of a collective of warmongers who are advancing pre-existing agendas against a nation they perceive as a geostrategic threat to US hegemony. It begs the question, who is really in charge?”
camelotkidd