The New GPC (Greenland-Panama-Canada)
...and other acronymic apostasies accompanying the Trump administration's radical hemispheric policy and its attempted Arctic atrocities...
Tune in on YouTube for some of the most mannish commentary this side of the Man-o-Sphere. In this video, I join forces with the indomitable Sasha Gabuev in conversation about Washington’s scary new vibes in the western hemisphere.
I brought my globe because the White House must have lost theirs.
Now, none of us is old enough to remember the last time a US president tried to conquer the Americas. Towering figures like Mt. McKinley ran roughshod over the hemisphere, from Alaska to Argentina.
Now that Trump is fixing to be the next Hero of San Juan Hill, he should probably check the tapes. Seems he yammered his way through all of his TV intel briefings: the 19th century is over. And anyhow, WE ALREADY HAVE ALL OF THE BENEFITS OF REGIONAL HEGEMONY without the costs of military conquest.
But Trump can (and will?) squander America’s hard-won advantages with his new “punch down and steal candy from babies” policy. We have the technology. We have the ideology. We now have a policy process so pointless that you may as well just throw pet rocks into the oval from the Rose Garden to land an idea. [Aside: if I only had millions of dollars to pay Trump’s vig, I’m sure he’d listen to me and stop squandering America’s power and prestige on his vanity projects.]
Delta Force commandos’ bravura kidnapping performance in Venezuela really doesn’t impress China — nor does the juvenile menacing of Greenland, Canada, or Iran for that matter.
Let’s just say it straight up: China does not intend to challenge the USA militarily in the West Hemisphere — not now and maybe not ever!
America’s unhinged new groove is all upside to the PRC, whose primary power tools remains economic. Their strategic goals are not affected by Washington’s regional bullying, and are likely advanced because they come off as comparatively nice.
That monstrous sucking sound emanating from the Chinese mainland? That’s PRC firms extracting all of Latin America’s natural resource wealth via infrastructure and ships and mines and refineries that they own and operate.
A policy to deny PRC military access to the western hemi is a strategic category error. That’s just not the issue. You’re out of your element, Donny. China isn’t here for the territory, they want the resources — and now they just get sit back and watch us shoot ourselves in the face.
More thoughts in the video above and here in the FT, for the full hi-lo effect:
https://www.ft.com/content/e5e9c46e-ed7e-46dd-9b3b-691ec3137390