Kamala’s National Security Adviser Points to Continuation of Biden’s Russia Policy

August 21, 2024 admin Finance 0

What will President Kamala Harris’ foreign policy look like? He has already signed that Israel’s policy will remain unchanged. What about Russia?

For more information on that we can look to Philip Gordon, who currently serves as Harris’ national security adviser. It has been around for decades. He is a regular at the Munich Security Conference. He is also expected to take over from Jake Sullivan as national security adviser if Harris wins the presidency.

Although it is highly doubtful that Kamala’s group is sitting at the table chasing a foreign policy that considers the interests of all Americans (they probably do little important in big picture decisions), their ideological formation is that it is almost a representation of what the US oligarchs want. And judging by Gordon’s record, it seems that the American oligarchy has no intention of using Biden’s exit as an opportunity to change course or abandon Project Ukraine. So who is Philip Gordon?

He began working on the staff of the National Security Council under Bill Clinton. He then moved to a senior position at the Brookings Institution from 1999 to 2009 where he established the Institute in the United States and Europe. Gordon was Assistant Secretary of State for European and European Affairs under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from 2009 to 2013. He then served as special assistant to then-President Barack Obama and White House liaison to the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region until 2015.

Author James Mann writes in “The Obamians” that Gordon and others like him “represent a generation of Democrats who learned how to manage foreign policy in the 1990s. They were eager to show that the Democrats were not a group of pacifists, that they understood national security issues and were willing to use American power when necessary. “

They just think they are smart about it. For example, there was a time when the Obama White House praised NATO’s role in overthrowing Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as validating the decision to “lead from behind.”

Gordon joined the Council on Foreign Relations in 2015 as a senior fellow focusing on US foreign and national security policy and stayed there until he ran into Harris in 2020 — first as a foreign policy adviser to his ill-fated campaign and then as National Security Adviser to the Vice President. The president.

In an office of the Vice President that has moved staff, Gordon has been a pillar and is among the national security officials, including the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and the deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer, to be part of the daily intelligence of the president. to appreciate.

As a longtime survivor of Washington, it’s no surprise that Gordon is the epitome of all the violent orthodoxies that emanate from the Blob, such as unwavering support for Israel and the unquestioning belief that China is not just a threat to the US, but a huge one. one.

On the issue of Ukraine where there is no consensus (diehard Russophobes want to continue escalation while China hawks want to give the Europeans a bag to focus on China), Gordon believes that the US can do both.

A recent Politico piece explains that European Atlanticists, terrified that they will be forgotten if the US focuses too much on China and Asia, favor Philip Gordon. “He speaks four European languages, wrote his thesis on Charles de Gaulle and even translated a book by the infamous former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.”

Best of all, Gordon loves football, writes Politico:

In June 2012, Gordon even took then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to see the semi-final of the UEFA Euro championship in a bar full of Germans, after dinner in St. Petersburg and Sullivan and the US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.

Definitely a team. If you dig through all the fluff, though, here’s the real money breakdown of the entire Politico profile piece:

To this day, he is still in regular contact with the European Commission. Norbert Röttgen, a Christian Democrat member of the German Bundestag, hopes that Harris’ adviser still thinks that “European security is the basis of US global power” and accepts that he shares his “criticism” of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for not sending a long distance . Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine.

The fact that Gordon is among those pushing Berlin to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine puts him among the hawkish, powerless war supporters.

Let’s not forget that Taurus missiles have a range of 500 kilometers, which means they can hit Moscow. At the same time, it is reported that it is difficult to work, the Ukrainians will not be able to do it, so the Bundeswehr personnel will be asked to do so. That would mean Germany openly firing missiles at Russia, and one can imagine all the consequences that would have. Here’s German opposition politician Sahra Wagenknecht criticizing German nationalists back in March when it looked like those advocating the use of the Taurus might carry the day:

So has Gordon lost his mind? You wouldn’t know it from the Politico puff piece, which bluntly states his criticism of the German government for not going to war with Russia and goes on to quote friendly former US Ambassador to Russia and WWIII chief Michael McFaul. He concluded that if Gordon becomes Harris’ acting national security adviser, “Europe will have a friend.”

This is probably as good a place as any to insert an old Kissinger quote that is almost mandatory when it comes to US foreign policy these days: “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but it is deadly to be America’s friend.”

If we combine Gordon’s time in the Obama White House and his “leading from behind” rhetoric regarding Libya with his current insistence that Germany should introduce Taurus missiles to Russia, that should be of great concern to Germans and Europeans in general. And how ironic is it that this is someone European politicians would hail as a close friend in the Harris administration?

While Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are not expected to keep their jobs in the Harris administration, Gordon is expected to seamlessly replace the former. Response from Politico:

We reported on initial skepticism about Harris earlier this summer, largely due to Europeans’ unfamiliarity with the current vice president. But his choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as his running mate and the prospect of Phil Gordon, a confirmed Europhile, as his national security adviser, appear to have eased some of the jitters..

Back in 2018, Gordon co-authored a report for the Council on Foreign Relations with Russia hardliner Republican Robert Blackwill. They asked for the kitchen sink to be thrown on Russia, including sanctions, weapons, permanent commitment to Ukraine and Europe – basically what the US has done since then. The reason why Gordon wanted this approach was not only the situation in Ukraine, but because of “Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.”

So Gordon is also an analyst of the false information that Russia was behind Clinton’s loss in the 2016 presidential election. [1] He and Blackwill proudly declared, “If this package of measures sounds like a recipe for a new Cold War with Russia, it is.”

Gordon’s condition has not changed. Here’s him driving that point home recently:

Of course, “patience” may mean a few months in DC, but for now the Harris team – or its benefactors – are sticking to that line.

What about the “father of America,” vice president Tim Walz, one of the Europeans who breathe? Maybe he can be a voice of wisdom? Keep looking.

Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States Oksana Markarova says that among the American rulers, “Walz is one of the leaders of such support and a faithful friend of our country.”

Walz was one of the first US governors to criticize Russia in 2022 and issued an order that required federal agencies to terminate existing contracts with Russian organizations and refrain from entering into any future contracts. He has been riding ever since.

In conclusion, all signs are that the Harris administration’s Ukraine policy will be a continuation of Biden’s (as would his Israel policy). At least in one way, it’s worse because it throws off another chance to get off the road. We heard a lot about how the Biden team wanted to drag the whole sad issue to the line to end the election. Now, the money behind Harris announces that even with a new face the lost and dangerous strategy will remain unchanged.

Notes

[1] Gordon also strongly believes in the dubious chemical weapons allegations against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Not only that, but he criticizes one of Obama’s few successful foreign policy decisions – the one where he chose not to bomb Syria on the pretext that Assad crossed the red line of chemical weapons in 2013. Gordon told The Atlantic in 2016 that “we should have bombed Assad.”




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