Caitlin Johnstone

I’ve got a soft spot for Trump supporters. I disagree with them about a great many issues, they make a terrible mess out of my comments section whenever I write about feminism, and the socialists whose actual ideology I happen to align with give me hell for it, but I can’t help it. I have a special affection for the MAGA crowd and I’ll never apologize for it. I like the populist energy of their online communities and the anti-establishment streak that runs through it, I admire the way the rank-and-file community is able to shove a pet issue into mainstream media attention in a way the far left simply has no ability to, and I respect the significant percentage among their ranks who sincerely oppose US military interventionism in a way that can at times transcend petty partisan loyalism.

It’s the latter feature that I hope to speak to here.

I’ve been writing a lot lately about the steadily increasing amount of blatant neoconservative pivots this administration has been making, so I’m not sure how much of my MAGA following are still with me, but I hope to speak to the good, sincere people among that crowd who I know for a fact are out there. I know that a lot of the sweeping generalizations that my lefty brothers and sisters make about you are wrong — a fact I’ve consistently insisted upon despite taking a lot of heat for it — and if you’ll indulge me for a few paragraphs I’d like to sincerely ask for your help on a very important issue.

Breaking – Tillerson Unveils 'New' US Syria Plan: 'Assad Must Go!'https://t.co/CrUJKWZJGF pic.twitter.com/jAIEu5Z7bG

— Ron Paul Institute (@RonPaulInstitut) January 17, 2018

Daniel McAdams, who many of you may recognize as the co-host of Ron Paul’s Liberty Report videos, has written an excellent article about Rex Tillerson’s recent comments on the Trump administration’s new policy of regime change in Syria which I encourage everyone to read. McAdams outlines how the “new” policy is actually an old one, which “is no different from that of Hillary Clinton or her former boss, President Obama.”

Do I have your attention yet? This administration is working to advance an agenda the ends of which are functionally identical not only to that of toxic Never-Trump neoconservatives like Bill Kristol and John McCain, but to Obama and Hillary Clinton as well. There has been a lot of confusion and dispute about the term “deep state” lately, but whatever your definition, a military agenda which transcends party boundaries and remains in effect no matter who is in office surely points to an unelected power establishment calling the shots from behind the scenes.

Now for me this administration’s plan of an invading military force holding a sovereign nation at gunpoint until its leader is replaced by someone the invading force finds more acceptable is already intrinsically evil, but I am aware that many conservatives don’t disagree with US interventionism for the same reasons I do. I understand and respect that, so here are five other reasons Trump supporters should be loudly opposing this move:

1. It needlessly keeps US troops in harm’s way.

Tillerson said it plans to keep 2,000 troops in Syria to keep the Assad government from recapturing the nation’s own land, as well as to compel the country into holding an election that ousts its sitting president. The excellent analysis blog Moon of Alabama reports that the real number is actually 5,000 troops plus an equal number of contractors. That’s a lot of young Americans sitting around in a region full of factions that don’t want them there, which could potentially erupt into full-scale warfare. And for what? To advance the ongoing agendas of America’s unelected power establishment. To win the geopolitical games played by a few powerful elites who do not care about US troops.

And you may be certain that this is all it is. The US power establishment has been plotting for years to topple Syria, and it has been saturating the west in propaganda about that nation for a long, long time. This isn’t about protecting civilians from an evil dictator who spontaneously discovered a new sexual kink in gratuitously barrel bombing and gassing his own citizens a few years ago, this is about ousting a leader who refuses to bow to the agendas of a few globalist elites. That’s not worth putting US troops in harm’s way.

The War On Syria Can Show You What’s Happening In Our World#Syria #HandsOffSyria #oligarchy #propagandahttps://t.co/KcdWgL5wAn

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) October 30, 2017

2. Someone needs to slam the brakes on the neocons.

A recent report by The American Conservative documents the way more and more neocons have been showing up inside this administration, and there is only one thing neocons ever want: blood. If Trump’s base doesn’t slam the brakes on this ongoing trend they’re looking at an administration of regime change interventionism that could end up rivaling George W Bush’s. The time has come to stand up to these bloodthirsty neocons and refuse to give the globalists the consent they’re working to manufacture. They are counting on being able to utilize a Republican president to manufacture that support, hoping you’ll all fall in line and help them expand their global power network as long as Trump is in office.

The Democrats are worthless idiots babbling about how much the president weighs and the far left has been almost completely neutered in America, so it comes down to Trump’s base to stop this. That means you.

No, Trump is not "reducing US commitments abroad." In fact, he is deepening our foreign entanglements. My latest in @nypost @NYPostOpinion https://t.co/hIPBY2DfR7

— John Glaser (@jwcglaser) January 18, 2018

3. Needless escalations with Russia

A lot of Trump supporters started following me because I’ve been consistently attacking the establishment Russia narrative from top to bottom since day one, and I’ve been attacking it because it’s being used to manufacture public support for new cold war escalations with a nuclear superpower on behalf of the unelected power establishment that is seeking to cripple the Russia-China tandem. Others started following me in the lead-up to the 2016 election because they saw me fighting against the election of Hillary Clinton tooth and claw, which I was doing first and foremost because I feared the possibility of a dangerous conflict with Russia as a result of Clinton’s horrifyingly hawkish Syria policy.

Our species barely survived the last cold war. There are too many small moving parts in increasing escalations between two nuclear superpowers for there to be any reasonable assurance that something won’t go catastrophically wrong, and in the last cold war it very nearly did more than once. The further into cold war escalations the US and Russia get, the greater the possibility of a nuke being deployed by accident, on purpose, or some combination of the two in the chaos and confusion, and once one nuke goes off mutually assured destruction goes into effect.

Holding US troops in Syria, an ally of Russia for decades, in an attempt to overthrow its government can exponentially increase these escalations and will necessarily increase the risk of a world-ending event. Nothing is worth that, especially not regime change.

https://twitter.com/AmayaAnzai/status/953756781057986560

4. Nationalism

This is a simple question of values. If you believe in the primacy of the nation-state over globalism, as many Trump supporters do, then the notion of America invading a sovereign nation to oust its leader is intrinsically opposed to your ideology. If China invaded America and set up troops around DC until a China-friendly president was installed in the White House, all nationalists in America would be up in arms, quite literally in many cases. The US invasion and illicit occupation of Syria completely degrades the notion of national sovereignty on a planetary scale. If you consent to that, you are consenting to the continued erosion of your own ideology.

5. US regime change interventionism never works

Ever. Never, ever, ever. It is always destructive, it never accomplishes what its proponents claim it will, and it always leads to destabilization and terror. It’s a loser’s game. Every time they claim it will work, and when it doesn’t the party not in office claims the party in power just made mistakes, and next time will be completely different. It never is. Syria is in the mess it’s in now because of US-led regime change interventionism, and there is no reason to believe that more will make it any better.

I’ll take flak for this article from all across the political spectrum, but I don’t care. There is nobility and authenticity within Trump’s base, and I’m going to speak to it. Please think long and hard about the Trump administration’s continual movement away from his campaign promises of non-interventionism, MAGA friends, and ask yourselves if you’re really willing to consent to this. Humanity needs your help slamming the brakes on these dangerous neoconservative capitulations, and I’m more than happy to work alongside you all to help make that happen.

Remember: they wouldn’t work so hard to manufacture your consent if they didn’t require it. So don’t give it to them. Stand up.

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