Biden, Blinken and the Blob

(Disclaimer: La Tonique Media LLC does not represent any political ideology. While we do not espouse any political beliefs, we do seek to provide a balance perspective by incorporating voices from both sides of the political spectrum.)

By Matthew Laurence

In my life, one of the more frequent reasons people tell me they voted for President-elect Joe Biden was to get back to "normal." What they typically mean when they say normal, is that they want to stop hearing about politics all the time. This also rings true for foreign policy. The way that President Trump has conducted himself on the world stage has been different than anything we've ever seen. The incoming Biden administration wants to amplify that this is their plan. This is one reason he appointed Anthony Blinken to be America's top diplomat. Joe Biden said one of the first things he will do as President is calling other world leaders and say, "America's back, you can count on us." What Biden means by back is that the bipartisan consensus on American foreign policy is back. That is to say, the blob is back.

The appointment of longtime Biden staffer Anthony Blinken to Secretary of State is a commitment to get back to what the national security apparatus view as normal. This is enticing to many people.  The Trump era saw an unprecedented attack on the State Department. Cutting its staff and leaving morale at a historic low. Instead of trying to strong-arm allies into paying their fair share of defense budgets, Biden wants to adopt the Paris Climate Accord, the World Health Organization, and attempt to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal. While the latter isn't likely due to a variety of reasons, you can see where the Biden administration’s head is. Blinken has been by Biden's side for a long time, and his experience gives some people a sigh of relief that they will again be able to assume that everything is under control. 

But there are more important things to focus on obviously, such as questions about war and peace. When it comes to the most important questions in regards to America's foreign affairs Joe Biden, and his longtime friend Anthony Blinken, are anything but what I would like to believe is normal. In fact when it comes to these issues, as former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates who served under Barack Obama said in his memoir Duty, Biden in particular "has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." Anthony Blinken has been by his side that entire time.  This is because both Blinken and Biden hail from a school of thought that goes all the way back to President Woodrow Wilson in the Great War of 1914. It is supported by Bush and Obama acolytes alike. In short, foreign interventionism is bipartisan. They are all a part of the blob that is the United States military-industrial complex and national security culture. A culture that continues to entangle the United States in disaster after disaster with little to no compunction. And manages to cash in while doing it. 

Vice President Joe Biden and Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken listen as President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki address reporters in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Nov. 1, 2013. (Jonathan Ernst | Reuters)

Biden and Blinken's foreign policy positions are almost inseparable. While Biden was the head of the Senate Committee for Foreign Relations in the lead-up to the Iraq war Blinken was his top staffer. He was in the room helping, as reporter Ryan Grim put it, "craft Biden's own support for the Iraq war."  Joe Biden has since regretted his part in voting for the war in Iraq. He has even strayed from the pack when it came to issues in the Syrian Civil War. But Blinken never truly learned his lesson. After Biden and Blinken’s participation in selling that war, a pattern formed. Because as Republican Senator Josh Hawley points out Blinken "backed every endless war since the Iraq invasion."

And there is no reason for him to learn a lesson because he is rewarded regardless of these failures. Anthony Blinken has "failed upwards." Despite advising Biden to support a war that killed his son Beau, Blinken got promoted. He was brought into the White House national security team with Joe when he became Vice President. It was during this time that Blinken along with other top officials "lobbied hard" according to President Obama, to go through with intervention in Libya. When they got their wish chaos ensued. By supporting the people who overthrew and brutally murdered Libyan strongman Mummar Gaddafi the country spiraled out of control. It has never recovered. It is a failed state. Run by warlords fighting for territory and terrorizing innocent Libyan people. Slave markets have reappeared on the African continent for the first time in a century. There could not be a sadder story and a better example of failed "humanitarian intervention." This is not a defense of Gaddafi, who also terrorized his people through an iron fist. It is instead another harsh lesson for the naive yet optimistic leaders in Washington who overestimate America’s ability to change regimes in this part of the world. Where the unintended consequences are invariably worse than the status quo.  You would think the people who put forward this effort would forever hang their heads in shame, or at least rethink their worldview. 

But Anthony Blinken persisted. President Obama's policy during the Syrian Civil War was admittedly a mess. This is partly because there was no real policy. Publicly the President was threatening the Assad regime with a "redline." When crossed the administration stepped back. Behind the scenes, the CIA was sending weapons to rebels in a one billion dollar operation called "Timber Sycamore." Which further enflamed the conflict, and helped land American weapons into the hands of at best sketchy individuals through the black market. In an interview with Nexus Institute, Anthony Blinken owned up to this mistake. But did not go in the direction of a more restrained foreign policy. Instead, he doubled down in explaining that what we need is more international cooperation in these expeditions. Anthony Blinken still does not understand that the harm in these ventures isn’t from having sufficient support from allies. The premise that underpins his interventionist worldview is flawed.

As part of the blob culture, Anthony Blinken was rewarded for this experience in the private sector. He opened up a consulting firm called WestExec as co-founder. Doing so with other potential Biden national security staff pick Michele Flournoy in 2017. This is following in the footsteps of many Washington foreign policy elite. After Hillary Clinton lost the election in 2016 this firm was set up with eyes on a future Democratic administration. The tagline for the company is "from the situation room to the board room." Due to how they classify their profession, they are not technically lobbyists. And so they are not required by law to disclose their client list. However, Prospect confirmed in July that "they have worked for a major defense contractor, Google billionaire Eric Schmidt’s philanthropy, and an Israeli high-tech surveillance company." This is not considered a conflict of interest in the national security blob culture. This is merely a perk of being in the situation room so you can later cash out in the board room.

So when the Biden national security team is waving that the United States is back they do not just mean back to being nice to European allies. To have cocktail parties at embassies across the globe. To give impassioned speeches about human rights and democracy.  They mean that this type of old school interventionalist governance is back. That the United States is not afraid to use its military might to correct wrongs no matter how many times it has failed before. That the blob culture of government officials to consultant pipeline is secure. Because again, why would they learn? Anthony Blinken just got the biggest promotion of his life.

Matthew is a political writer for La Tonique.