American Foreign Policy — Properly Understood
Politics is not a game of Texas Hold'em. Russia lacks our bankroll but they do have balls in spades. A pair of balls willing do what we are unwilling to do in this case. Here are two aces—presently unused—that could avoid war. Tweet
Highlights
My lifetime has been framed by a geopolitical contest between Russia, China and us.
Not just at the Olympics, but more importantly on the world's chess board.
The United States slipping to silver or bronze has global humanist consequences.
We humans are by nature citizens not subjects. Since declaring this truth we have done a pretty good job of proving it.
We are fans of man. Of mankind in general and of the ideal and reality of the American man in particular.
The best way for an American man to affirm his shared humanity is to be the best American he can be.
If this sounds slightly jingoistic to you, it should. If you have a problem with it, you ought to examine your privilege. You have put mankind—our species—above your country and the stamp it puts on you and its requirements. It’s a very American thing to do lately. But you could and should do more. Humanity benefits when you do.
The best way for an American man to affirm his shared humanity is to be the best American he can be.
Russian men don’t think that way. Nor do the Chinese. They are not humanists like us—and by “humanists,” I don’t mean just rabid secularists, but all of us who consider our fellow man to be the whole point of civilization. Russians and Chinese meanwhile are fans of a particular flavor of man. Their own. We favor a bigger picture.
The American idea of Man is not built on blood or soil but on the universal idea that is not willed through a poet’s capacity to imagine that “all men are created equal” but in the real world of Nature and Nature’s God. Humanity—meaning all men and women—are born with the capacity for self-government. We humans are, by nature, citizens not subjects.
Since declaring this truth we have done a pretty good job of proving it. And doing so has created a rising tide of that has lifted humanity’s boat.
Do the Chinese and Russians think all men are created equal? Are they humanists? To ask this question is to answer it. No.
In 1985, when Russia was the Soviet Union, the artist still known as Sting sang the pangs of humanism: “I hope the Russian’s love their children, too.” It was clear then as it is now: not as much; but they do love their own children more than they love ours. The same can said of Chinese then and now.
My lifetime has been framed by a geopolitical contest between Russia, China and us. Not just at the Olympics, but more importantly on the world’s chess board. If China or Russia bests us at the Olympics, it stings. But it’s a different game entirely if they beat the US as the world’s leading global power. The United States slipping to silver or bronze has global humanist consequences, since all men are diminished as a result.
If this point is lost on you, what do you think the people of Ukraine or Taiwan think? They get it, existentially.
To be clear: I don’t think the United States should go to war for either Ukraine or Taiwan.
Ukraine is as Russian as Massachusetts is American. Since 1989 and the collapse of the USSR, the US has played a proxy game of chess with Russia over it. We dangle the carrot of giving entrance to Massachusetts—sorry, Ukraine—to NATO, while the American government and its K-Street mandarins milk both the US taxpayer and the Ukrainian people.
I am hearing from saber-rattlers that Russia’s economy is the equivalent of Italy’s. So what? Look at what they do with it. Unlike Italy, Russia is a bronze medal winner in the competition between nations.
To be clear: I don’t think the United States should go to war for either Ukraine or Taiwan.
Politics is not a game of Texas Hold’em. Russia lacks our bankroll but they do have balls in spades and are willing do what we are unwilling to do in this case, which is bleed and pay the economic consequences for the sake of political prestige. That contest is what appears to coming down the river.
Could we have played our hand better short of war that might have taken war itself off the table? Of course.
We could have made a deal that was in all parties’ interests. Give Putin what he purported to want: A Ukraine that is not a member of NATO. Sell Ukraine arms to defend themselves—good for US and Ukraine. And pile on the sticks if Russia invades.
My two favorite consequences would be:
- Strip them of their veto on the UN’s Security Council—which, along with China, has turned its promise of a “covenant of arms” into a “cockpit of the Tower of Babel.” So kick them out.
- Ban them participating in the Olympics.
And we should say the same thing to China regarding Rhode Island—sorry, Taiwan.
To reach Guy Shepherd contact: [email protected]
For media enquires contact: [email protected]
