Reading Mr. Stavridis’ CV, condensed by Bloomberg editors, is revelatory, to understate the case:
James Stavridis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a retired U.S. Navy admiral and former supreme allied commander of NATO, and dean emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is also an operating executive consultant at the Carlyle Group and chairs the board of counselors at McLarty Associates.
Mr Stavridis record of service is immaculate, in sum he is not Colin Powell, Stanley McChrystal nor David Petraeus! He projects both military and personal virtue, not to speak of his personal accomplishments, on a scale not many attain. That he is a political conformist is demonstrated by his latest essay:
Headline: Trump’s Retreat From Germany Is a Victory for Putin
Sub-headline: Pulling U.S. troops from Europe won’t save any money but it will make America less safe.
Mr Stavridis is not just a believer in the American Mission, but one of its vital actors: ‘ former supreme allied commander of NATO’. This firmly establishes his credentials as not just an advocate, or a mere apologist for American hegemony, but one of it former military actors. He is not one of the collection of New Democrats and Neo-Conservatives who speak from the comfort of their offices/studies. Yet The New Cold War has become a article of faith, featuring Putin, in the political guise of The New Stalin, for almost the whole of the American bourgeois Political Class , whose failed attempts at political self-rescue, generates an endless stream of political commentary, like my own!
What might Mr. Stavridis think of this news report?
Headline:France’s Macron pushes for ‘true European army’
Sub-headline: French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that Europeans cannot be protected without a “true, European army”, as he marks the centenary of the World War One Armistice.
On a visit to the former Western Front in Verdun, he said Russia had shown it could be a threat and Europe had to be able “to defend itself better alone”.
Russia’s president will be among world leaders marking the Armistice in Paris.
Mr Macron has already proposed a joint intervention force for crisis missions.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed the idea of an intervention force in June, but said it would have to be part of “the structure of defence co-operation”.
The UK, while in favour of such a joint force, is opposed to a European army, because of the potential risk of creating a parallel structure to Nato.
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Political Apprentice
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