Yves here. Although this post by Thomas Neuburger heavily quotes the interview of former Lt. Colonel Larry Wilkerson of Andrew Napolitano, I don’t see the idea being drawn here, of a coup, right. Yes, speaking of it, the rise of Biden and the anger is caused by the fact that the American military was told “no”. But this is not disrespect in the sense that Neuburger seems to appreciate. Biden has repeated the statement “We are the United States. We have the most powerful military in the world. There is no limit to what we can do.”
Another idea is that someone managed to get through the thick skull of Biden that the US could not win against Russia or Iran (the latter has been the discovery of repeated war games) in a conventional war, and the consequences of the US growth and losses. it can be worse than reverse. Another confirmation of this theory is that some reports suggest that Jake Sullivan supports the position of the American military, which means that Biden was opposed by important members of his party, not only the military.
However, a different way of assembling this circle is to note that US presidents, for a long time, have not had much control over US foreign policy. In Oliver Stone’s documentary that presented nearly four hours of interviews with Putin, Putin explained how Bush made commitments to him that would have greatly improved US-Russia relations, only to remain silent when Russia followed through and issued a counter-document, IIRC 18 months later. Putin saw a similar inability to implement proposals negotiated by recent Presidents. He concluded that the bureaucracy is running the system.
A test of Wilkerson and Neuburger’s thesis is that the US ultimately authorizes a long-range missile attack on Russia. That fact would disprove Neuburger’s theory, but continuing to refuse to do so is not a separate counter-evidence. It should be noted that the explanation given by Lloyd Austin, that Russia had moved the right military goals, as in the plane, without scope, is probably true. Note that Simplicius points out in the new episode that the successful attack on the ammo depots in Tver was carried out by jet drones and this facility was actually outside the range of ATACMS or Storm Shadow missiles.
Written by Thomas Neuburger. It was first published in the book God’s Spies
The President shall be the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy
—United States Constitution, Article 2, Section 2
I found the following news through a clip on Ian Welsh’s site, and it struck me as important. While I don’t want to overplay what you’re saying, I don’t want to underplay it either.
An American Coup?
In a 30-minute interview with Judge Napolitano on September 18, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell and critic of American wars, described a recent incident in which Pentagon chief Gen. Lloyd Austin told President Biden that, in Wilkerson’s words, “the Pentagon has taken over, basically, the negotiations and any action, militarily speaking, with regard to both theaters of war,” meaning Ukraine and Israel.
Wilkerson added, “And they’re in charge now.” Austin, according to this account, listened to “people in the bowels of the Pentagon who know the truth” and forced the President to back down.
Biden was furious, we’re told, but “took that advice.” Except, as Wilkerson says, it wasn’t advice, but education. “No dice,” as Wilkerson notes the message, sounds final.
This is good news and bad news. Well, US policy now:
- For Netanyahu, if you attack Lebanon or attack Iran, you are on your own.
- For Zelenskyy, there are no long-range missiles that reach deep into Russia.
So we and the world are safer, at least for a while.
Bad: Is this a coup? Have the soldiers stood up to the President, forcing him to change his policy?
If the answers are yes, we are on our way to revise the Constitution as it is done. Both political parties have confirmed that the Fourth Amendment can be ignored. That is now the “new normal.” So what is this Pentagon intervention in foreign policy, if not another “new normal”? Has MacArthur finally won?
Whatever the truth, you won’t see this reported in what people call “the news,” but I doubt Wilkerson’s sources are wrong. In any case, we will soon know how Zelenskyy and Netanyahu are doing.
Welcome to the future of US foreign policy.
Wilkerson Exchange in Full
The video above contains Wilkerson’s full interview, which is named after the conversation about Austin and Biden. I’m reprinting that exchange below, slightly edited. Speaker’s emphasis.
Wilkerson: I think what we are seeing here is another attempt, because the 100-air strike didn’t do it, it’s Netanyahu to provoke Hezbollah into some action that he can’t say is like a war that he can do what he’s doing. you want to do – anyway I am told with great confidence from sources that the last two visits of the Central Command Unified Commander were to tell him. [Netanyahu] that we will not be with him if he goes to fight with Hezbollah which he provoked. We will not have him fighting against Iran which he has provoked. And we have made it clear that we will know when he stirs it up.
Neapolitan: He is talking about General Kurilla [CENTCOM commander since April 2022].
Wilkerson: Yes. Yes.
Neapolitan: So Scott Ritter agrees with you, Doug Macgregor says he can’t imagine Austin and Blinkin letting General Kuralla do that. It’s very interesting. … Is this speculation on your part or based on sources?
Wilkerson: It is based on some good reliable sources. Here is the big picture and I hope others tell you this too. Biden’s anger – and you can see it – was burning when he met with the British Prime Minister.
Neapolitan: Yes, yes, we have that clip. He couldn’t control himself because of his anger.
Wilkerson: And what is he [had] I was just told, apparently, by the Pentagon, “No dice, Mr. No dice in Ukraine and no dice in Gaza. We are in charge now.”
Neapolitan: There are no dice. You’re not talking about dice for long-range missiles that reach deep into Russia, even though Tony Blinkin told a week in Kyiv and his British counterpart that this was happening. And Sir Keir Stormer, the British Prime Minister, had every reason to believe as he flew across the Atlantic that Joe Biden’s answer would be yes.
Wilkerson: He was shy. He was really shy — he was releasing his maps with target data and Biden told him, “Don’t even release them. We will not talk about that.”
I’ve been told, and by reliable sources, that Blinkin and Sullivan – Blinkin primarily, but Sullivan as well – have been diverted, and what has happened is that the Pentagon has taken over, in fact, the negotiations and any action, militarily speaking, on both fronts of the war.
And so now they are in charge.
I have to change my assessment of Secretary Austin if that’s the case, because it means that he finally listened to the people in the bowels of the Pentagon who know the truth, and he’s responding to that, and he told President Biden that, and to Biden’s credit, even though he was angry, he finally took that advice.
Neapolitan: Colonel, he once ran the State Department [as Secretary Colin Powell’s chief of staff under George Bush]. How does the Department of Defense engage in diplomacy?
Wilkerson: They engage in diplomacy every day. Every day. There are four stars in the various syndoms, autonomous regions, AORs [Areas of Responsibility] [who] they are true ambassadors of the US. And some of them are very good at it. I saw some of them. I have worked with some of them who are doing very well, better than any Secretary of State.
But it doesn’t have to be like that. That’s a parenthetical comment. We should not have military-oriented diplomacy. But we usually do.
And the prime minister of Japan once told me why to my face. He said, “Larry, when your Assistant Secretary for East Asia and the Pacific comes out here, he has nothing but his wallet. When the man from Honolulu comes out here, from Camp Smith in Hawaii, he pulls air wings, submarines, battle groups, Marine amphibious groups, Army Division. I listened to him. This is the Prime Minister of Japan.
Neapolitan: Who told General Kurilla to tell Prime Minister Netanyahu, “If you attack Lebanon, you are alone?”
Wilkerson: It was, I think, Austin. But that’s the chain of command. Austin relayed that message to him [Kurilla]. But I think it was Austin who convinced Biden to give him that order to pass on to Kurilla.
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