{"id":172513,"date":"2020-11-16T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T12:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=172513"},"modified":"2020-11-12T06:45:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T06:45:49","slug":"will-the-biden-team-be-warmongers-or-peacemakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/11\/will-the-biden-team-be-warmongers-or-peacemakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the Biden Team Be Warmongers or Peacemakers?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Obama and Biden meet Gorbachev – did Biden learn anything?
Credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

9 Nov 2020 – <\/em>Congratulations to Joe Biden on his election as America\u2019s next president! People all over this pandemic-infested, war-torn and poverty-stricken world were shocked by the brutality and racism of the Trump administration, and are anxiously wondering whether Biden\u2019s presidency will open the door to the kind of international cooperation that we need to confront the serious problems facing humanity in this century.<\/p>\n

For progressives everywhere, the knowledge that \u201canother world is possible\u201d has sustained us through decades of greed, extreme inequality and war, as U.S.-led neoliberalism<\/a> has repackaged and force-fed 19th century laissez-faire<\/em> capitalism to the people of the 21st century.\u00a0 The Trump experience has revealed, in stark relief, where these policies can lead.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden has certainly paid his dues to and reaped rewards from the same corrupt political and economic system as Trump, as the latter delightedly trumpeted in every stump speech. But Biden must understand that the young voters<\/a> who turned out in unprecedented numbers to put him in the White House have lived their whole lives under this neoliberal system, and did not vote for \u201cmore of the same.\u201d Nor do they naively think that deeply-rooted problems of American society like racism, militarism and corrupt corporate politics began with Trump.<\/p>\n

During his election campaign, Biden has relied on foreign policy advisors from past administrations, particularly the Obama administration, and seems to be considering some of them for top cabinet posts. For the most part, they are members of the \u201cWashington blob\u201d who represent a dangerous continuity with past policies rooted in militarism and other abuses of power.<\/p>\n

These include interventions in Libya and Syria, support for the Saudi war in Yemen, drone warfare, indefinite detention without trial at Guantanamo, prosecutions of whistleblowers and whitewashing torture. Some of these people have also cashed in on their government contacts to make hefty salaries in consulting firms and other private sector ventures that feed off government contracts.<\/p>\n