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Joe Biden (left) and Susan Rice
Projected winner of the US 2020 election Joe Biden is stacking up his purposed cabinet with hawks who will escalate American military aggression abroad, according to author and political commentator John Steppling.
Steppling, who is based in Norway, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Tuesday while commenting on reports that the outgoing administration of US President Donald Trump is planning to cut the number of American troops deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.
A US official confirmed the Trump administration’s plan of troop drawdown on Monday to National Public Radio (MPR), which is an American media organization based in Washington, DC.
The news comes after a change of leadership at the Pentagon, where Secretary of Defense Mark Esper was fired by Trump last week.
Esper was replaced by acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, who issued his first public guidance to all Pentagon staff, declaring, "It’s time to come home" from Afghanistan.
"We are not a people of perpetual war - it is the antithesis of everything for which we stand and for which our ancestors fought. All wars must end," Miller emphasized in a two-page memo sent Friday and publicly released on Saturday, adding: "Ending wars requires compromise and partnership. We met the challenge; we gave it our all. Now, it’s time to come home."
Steppling said he does not believe American "troops are going to be coming home. They’re not going to bring all the troops home. That’s never going to happen not in the immediate future."
"And this General Miller in an interview he gave and it was on National Public Radio qualified this statement anyway saying we have to make sure the violence has decreased and blah blah blah. They always have excuses to not bring the troops home. Now there’s been a resurgent Taliban level of violence, and they’re very active in Helmand Province in the south and there’s an exodus of families from that capital city in Helmand Province," he added.
"So one has to wonder how aware of that the US military is, how aware the Pentagon is when they make these statements saying the violence has to decrease. But it is strange timing, you know, Trump has purged everybody from the Defense Department and the Pentagon and it’s a strange act on his part, given that he is presumably a lame-duck president right now for only a couple more months, but that’s Trump and nothing should surprise anybody about anything that Trump does," he said.
"He did promise, of course, during the campaign four years ago that it’s time for the US to bring troops home and stop all these what he called for forever wars, but he’s done no such thing. I mean there’s been record bombing runs in Afghanistan by the US military just in the previous few months. These are permanent bases the US has in Iraq and Afghanistan. They’re not going to disassemble them, and take them apart and leave. That’s just not going to happen," he noted.
"The US is an imperialist power and it sees itself as the enforcer interest. What’s good for US capital, Western capital is good for the world. That’s their mindset. And they’re not about to change that and even if this general were serious and even if Trump were serious Biden, the presumptive next President, will take power soon and he’s not going to withdraw the troops. We’re talking about probably the most hawkish US president in history in Joe Biden," he said.
"And he’s already mentioned Susan Rice who was one of the kingpins in the whole Paul Kagame in Rwanda debacle. The US covert ops there, she’s nicknamed the Tea Girl and you can look that up as to why. And Michèle Flournoy, I mean these are hawks, and these are the people that will be in the Biden administration, and they will escalate US military aggression. They will not decrease it. So, this is political theater probably and not much more than that," he concluded.
