The Who, a British band, had a major hit titled ‘Won’t get fooled again’. Many of us are too young to know the song but are all too familiar with the great line ‘meet the new boss, same as the old boss’ and that line in what was a politically charged song remains as true today as when it was first sung. The recent US election and inauguration of Joe Biden and his democratic administration has elicited scenes of joy from some areas of the Global South as we seem to think that with Trump and his obvious brutishness removed, decency or even normality will return. These people think, after 4 years of Trump, Biden will now be as a new broom, creating stability across the globe and making the US everyone’s friend.
This notion I think was immediately shot down during and after the confirmation hearings of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. During the confirmation hearings, Mr Blinken when questioned about Venezuela noted that while the Trump administration was sloppy in the use of sanctions, his state department will use more ‘targeted and effective’ sanctions in order to remove President Maduro from office, all this while vocally recognising Guaido as the ‘legitimate president’ of that nation. It, this belief that Biden will be a new different thing, was also proven to be a mirage when during questioning about Iran, Blinken noted that while theoretically, his State Dept wanted to re-enter the JCPOA (which Trump unilaterally walked away from leaving just Iran and EU in the deal), he would not seek immediate re-entry unless Iran negotiates on its ballistic missile program, a program which the Joint Chiefs of Staff have admitted are defensive and only aimed at protection from American aggression. Blinken went on to state that the sanctions imposed by Trump on Iran after he left the deal will remain.
This is the new boss, who apart from a more polite demeanour is the same as the old boss. Demanding the same tributes and utilising the same aggression, but this time in a fitting robe and with some class as opposed to an ill-fitted suit and with no-class. That the first foreign policy utterances from this administration were the maintaining of sanctions which have killed over 40,000 Venezuelans, or sanctions and a murderous assassination program which renders access to foreign medical goods impossible and kills scientists on the false pretence that they are ‘nuclear experts’.
jamaicachange 