This from my buddy Chuck Spinney, by way of prefatory remarks for this post by Yale’s David Bromwich, who has become Obama’s most eloquent and damning critic:

Future historians may well view the 25 year pattern of aggressive behaviour exhibited by the United States since the end of the Cold War to be acts of arrogant triumphalism aimed at humiliating the Russian remnants of its Cold War adversary.  Examples are overwhelming, including America’s promotion of (a) NATO expansion after promises to the contrary, (b) the wars of the Yugoslav succession culminating in the Kosovo War, (c) the neo-liberal looting of Russian state property during the Yeltsin regime, (d) the abrogation of the ABM treaty, (e) the unprovoked aggression in Iraq, (f) the unfocused whack-a-mole’ war on ‘terror’ in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, etc., (g) the of “colour revolutions” in Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan (h) the war of ‘responsibility-to-protect’ humanitarian aggression in Libya, (i) the quasi alliance with and promotion of Jihadis in the murderous civil war in Syria in the name of regime change, and now (j) the tolerance of neo-fascist conspirators and provocateurs in the active promotion of regime change in Ukraine.

It now seems probable, perhaps inevitable, that a comparison of America’s behaviour with the disastrous triumphalism, vindictiveness, cynicism, and outright lying exhibited by the Allies during the 1919 Versailles ‘peace’ conference lies in the historical offing.

The basic goal of any sensible grand strategy should be to end conflict on terms that do not sow the seeds of future conflict. Yet the United States seems to be careening out of control in the opposite direction.

Barack Obama, a man who likes to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln (a man who understood the nature of a sensible grand strategy), promised to change America’s behaviour.  He came out of nowhere to win the presidential campaign of 2008 with soaring rhetoric centered on the now forgotten slogan: “change you can believe it.”  But as president, the mismatch between Mr. Obama’s words and deeds emerged to cement the status quo, including especially America’s grand-strategic march to disaster.

The attached essay by David Bromwich, a professor of literature at Yale, brilliantly analyzes the central role of Obama’s rhetoric plays perpetuating destructive grand-strategic policies of his three immediate predecessors.

Of course, Obama is merely a bit player in an ongoing drama: the roots of America’s grand strategic pathway to catastrophe reach deeper into the dim mists surrounding the origins of the Cold War and especially the domestic politics defense spending accompanying the rise of the Permanent War Economy that began 65 years ago. The habits and mores of the war economy are now deeply woven into our domestic politics. (See for example, my essay The Domestic Roots of Perpetual War)

Here’s the Browmwich essay link. Do read it in its entirety.  I have thoughts on how the United States morphed from a status quo power to one that is revolutionary, seeking to install or remake regimes across the globe in its image, but it’ll have to wait for another post.