Former stronghold of British and Dutch forces to protect the Afghan civilian population in
Uruzgan
It's official. The #Taliban flag is raised on the central square in #TarinKowt, #Uruzgan has fallen... | 13 August 2021 |
Tea Leaves
Reading the Tea Leaves In The White House | 12 Feb 2021 |
Joe Biden was a fervent backer of the Russian reset button - Cold War 2.0 - leading foreign policy during the Obama administration. With many advisors in key position, Putin and Lavrov will raise the castle bridge to weather the coming assault.
President Biden @UNGA: 'We are not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided' | BBC News - 21 Sept 2021 |
In his first speech as president to the UN General Assembly, Joe Biden said the US is ready to lead the world on important issues, such as terrorism, climate change and human rights.
Biden promises 'relentless diplomacy,' not Cold War
The United States will compete vigorously, both economically and to push democratic systems and rule of law.
"We'll stand up for our allies and our friends and oppose attempts by stronger countries to dominate weaker ones, whether through changes to territory by force, economic coercion, technical exploitation or disinformation. But we're not seeking - I'll say it again - we are not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocs," Biden said.
Amid recent criticism from the UN Secretary General about perceived tensions between the US and China, Mr Biden also emphasised the US did not want "a new Cold War".
Joe's grades after 4 years Biden-Blinken-Austin "leadership"
- terrorism: FAIL
- climate change: FAIL
- human rights: FAIL
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Why Biden's off-script remarks about Putin are so dangerous | BBC News - 27 March 2022 |
Over the past week, US President Joe Biden has made a series of unscripted remarks that have upped the temperature of US-Russia relations to near boiling point.
However, his ad-libbed line at the end of what was billed as a "major speech" in Poland on Saturday - seemingly calling for President Vladimir Putin to be removed from power - may have landed the hardest.
In his speech to a crowd of assembled Polish government officials and dignitaries at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, the US president once again warned that the world was in the midst of an era-defining conflict between democracies and autocracies.
He pledged that Nato would defend "every inch" of its member states' soil. He also promised continued support to Ukraine, although he noted that the US military would not engage with Russian forces there.
NATO Operation Barbarossa In Slow Motion | 3 Mar 2024 |
Building the Permanent Steel Curtain
Former Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski deletes his tweet "thanking" the US for the Nord Stream pipelines incident
Europe's new normal: High energy bills, fading industry and one chance to fix it | Politico |
German manufacturers are being strangled. The EU is feeling the pinch. Mario Draghi warned the EU may be staring at 'slow agony.'
'We Are the World Power.' How Joe Biden Leads | TIME - 4 June 2024 |
Joe Biden makes his way through the West Wing telling stories. In the Cabinet Room, with sun pouring through French doors from the Rose Garden outside, he remembers the first time he sat around the long mahogany table, its high-backed leather chairs ordered by seniority. It was more than 50 years ago, Biden says, and Richard Nixon told National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger to brief the 30-year-old first-term Delaware Senator on the still secret timing of the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam.
Obituary Henry Kissinger, alleged war criminal, pioneering a policy of détente with the Soviet Union and promoting an open door policy toward China.
Walking slowly through the halls, the President unspools anecdotes about heads of state: Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Emmanuel Macron. In the Oval Office, he talks about his childhood home in Scranton, Pa., and the 2008 phone call from Barack Obama asking Biden to be his running mate.
Biden recounts these memories over the course of more than 90 minutes on a warm spring day, speaking in a quiet, sometimes scattershot way. The impression he gives is one of advancing age and broad experience, of a man who has lived history. Biden leads the U.S. as the American century is fading into an uncertain future, a changing world of threats, opportunities, and power shifts. At 81, he holds fast to a vision that has reigned since World War II, in which a rich and powerful America leads an alliance of democracies to safeguard the globe from tyranny.
On June 6, Biden will travel to Normandy, France, to memorialize an event that has served for eight decades as a focal point of this vision. He will arrive as the 12th--and certainly the last--American President who was alive on that day in 1944, when 73,000 American troops led the largest amphibious invasion in human history, accelerating Nazi Germany's defeat and Europe's liberation. For generations, D-Day has been a hallowed anniversary. The President says commemorating it is as much about the future as the past. "We're playing [that role] even more," Biden says. "We are the world power."
Four years of Joe Biden and American "exceptionalism" left the world and Planet Earth worse off. His main accomplishment was defeating Der Trumf in 2020 and delay his 2nd term giving allies a chance to Trump proof his version of MAGA.
The Caucasus and Central Asia: How the United States and Its Allies Can Stave Off a Crisis | Brookings - May 2001 |
by Fiona Hill
The Caspian Basin and the surrounding states of the Caucasus and Central Asia have crept from obscurity onto the U.S. foreign policy agenda. While the individual countries of the two regions may not be of vital interest to the United States, the countries that border them are. Four have nuclear weapons, one is an important NATO ally, and two are states that have posed direct challenges to U.S. security by their support for terrorist movements.
There is great potential for interstate conflict involving these border countries. So even if the United States did not consider the Caucasus and Central Asian states of vital interest, it might be drawn in by the actions of others. Keeping the regions off the crisis response list should be a priority for the U.S. and Western governments.
The EU In Inevitable Economic Backslide
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TIME Magazine
In late 1927, editors at Time magazine collectively facepalmed over the fact they hadn't yet devoted a cover to Charles Lindbergh, the pilot who'd become a global sensation earlier that year by flying solo cross the Atlantic. As they'd missed the boat on the original news story, Time needed an excuse to belatedly put Lindbergh on the cover. So, they came up with the concept of the 'Man of the Year', beginning an annual tradition - since re-named Person of the Year - that still triggers discussion and debate to this day.
Politicians, business titans, activists and religious leaders are among those who've been declared Time's Person of the Year. Some choices may seem surprising or even shocking ... Adolf Hitler was named Man of the Year in 1938.
TIME failed to decide between Bibi and Joe to get the award in 2024. You Mrs. Glick are part of the extreme group of Israeli settler movement and predators of terror in the Middle East. 🔥 🔥 🔥
The Ugly American
New Fascist Pariah States America and Israel Lashing Out | June 2018 |
Former Dutch ambassador Nikolaos van Dam ...
ICJ Ruling on Gaza Genocide
Former Ambassador of the #Netherlands to #Indonesia, #Germany, #Turkey, #Azerbaijan, #Egypt, #Iraq and Special Envoy for #Syria
مقابلة | نيكولاس فان دام: الأزمة السورية هي مزيج معقد من الثورة والحرب الأهلية [Arabic]
Translation:
Interview | Nicolas Van Dam: The Syrian crisis is a complex mix of revolution and civil war
Multiple diaries @BooMan ... US With Both Feet in Syrian Quagmire
Syrian Quagmire: Pakistani Taliban and Chechens Join Sectarian War | 16 July 2013 |
Who's dangerous? Russia or Europe's incoherent "reformers"?
by Jerome a Paris on May 8th, 2006
No, Mr Munchau. European warmongers are the ones who are increasingly dangerous to the rest of Europe. Those who think that our current energy crisis can be solved by blaming Russia (or French "patriots") for it instead of taking the tough decisions to cut our (wasteful and unsustainable) energy consumption. Those who seem intent on conflict and confrontation everywhere rather than cooperation and diplomacy. Enough already.
Ukraine: Conflict at the Crossroads of Europe and Russia | CFR |
Some experts view the Russia-Ukraine war as a manifestation of renewed geopolitical rivalry between major world powers.
