Mr. Brzezinski, is it 'checkmate' yet?

[Dover]

Who is the better chess player now?

Russia's Gazprom has outmaneuvered the U.S. and Europe on securing oil/gas supplies and pipeline realestate, essentially shutting us out unless it relents. And now we call Gadafi our friend.

China has outbid us on supply deals and holds us in debt.

We are now ALSO stuck in the quagmire that is Afghanistan AND Iraq.

Europe is basically unarmed and our armies are diminished and exhausted, abused and tired of
bein lied to.

South America is in the process of kicking the U.S. out, holding their resources tight to their chest as well. Venezuela has rallied S. Amer. to stand together, even as the U.S. plans coups.

The world economy has shifted away from the standard petro-dollar, the dollar inevitably falls, Western banking systems are on the verge of collapse (mostly a ponzi scheme from the getgo), new trading bourses and central banks begin to rise as others fail, and currencies are becoming diversified and regional.

Due to biofuels and other trade issues, as well as the falling dollar, food costs are skyrocketing.

Jobs are being sent overseas which may last as long as unions and higher wages don't take hold in those foreign countries....or until U.S. wages (and the Middle Class) are so low that we are again competitive.

Unregulated banking and credit practices, unregulated growth in the housing sector and so on, has has knocked the columns out from under the facade of wealth.

And leading us over that cliff there are unregulated speculative traders playing pied piper.

And unregulated industry and growth that is inherently incompatible with the health and survival of the planet is, as an issue, permitted to take a backseat to all the rest.


And there's more....SO much more.

The American people have HAD it, as has the rest of the world!



.....I believe it's our move.

[Wetzelbill]

1. In Zbigniew's defense, he had no idea we would be governed 8 years

by a complete imbecile with a psycho VP.

That being said, we never should have started playing with fire to the extent that we did.

[Dover]

2. Chess is symbolic of a black and white reality. Maybe we need a new game..

And an economy, industry and foreign policy that isn't completely dependent on oil/gas and is more sustainable. We might have begun to dig ourselves out of this hole much earlier, but it wasn't considered as 'profitable' or as cheap. So much for the long view...

And perhaps our apparent incapacity for that long view makes us less skilled at this chess game, and more reliant on a military solutions.

[Wetzelbill]

3. yeah it's a combo of a lot of things

Electoral politics is more about sounding good than policy. The media bolsters that. That's why we get slogans, or ill-thought out quick fixes rather than good policy. It was fine to make fun of Jimmy Carter wearing a sweater and talking about energy conservation and alternative fuels, just the same as it was easy to harp on Obama when he talked about inflating tires. If we only listened to some of what Jimmy was saying decades ago, we'd be infinitely better off.

But you hit on something. It was easier and more feasible to sell something as stupid as the Iraq War than it has been to sell something as rational and important as a comprehenseive energy and alternative fuels plan. We always go for the easier way out. Partly because rallying around the flag while we prepare for war is more beneficial to getting votes than rallying somebody around a solar and wind plan. It's easier to say "Drill, baby, Drill!" than it is to legislate good policy.

[Dover]

9. Brzezinski

It's true that Brzezinski didn't contribute to the mess of the last 8 years.

Nonetheless, I have mixed feelings about his foreign policy advice. Some things I agree with, others I'm dead set against. His career has spanned many presidents and administrations. A neocon he is not, but is he good for America? I'm astounded in reading this wikipedia bio on him or discussions of our foreign policy in general how rarely the issue of oil/gas and pipelines comes up as a contributing factor, as if it had no bearing on events whatsoever. Even now, our public discussions of foreign policy leave these juicy details out...the elephant in the room.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zbigniew_Brzezinski

So how does the Obama/Biden team hope to cut our dependencies on big oil and wrap up thos trillions of dollars in investments, etc?

[Truth2Tell]

12. It's true that Brzezinski didn't contribute to the mess of the last 8 years.

Well, maybe not directly. But it's his "Grand Chessboard" analogy that has defined the fundamental tenants of the bi-partisan (and strategically suicidal) American foreign policy of the last 30 years - neocon and neolib alike.

As for the next move: In all likelihood, Zbig and co. (or representatives of his worldview) will be back in the driver's seat after an Obama victory. It seems clear their next "move" will be to re-align our Imperial focus toward Central Asia and away from the ME (a bit). The new emphasis will be on seizing full control of Afghanistan/Pakistan and the former Soviet republics. Time to move some of the chess pieces from oil to natural gas.

Putin and friends haven't yet achieved checkmate, but they are pressing their advantage powerfully.

Our only winning strategy at this point would be a full-scale draw-down of our crumbing Empire and a new focus on Peace as the centerpiece of our international relations. Too bad we have no chess players on our starting team with the strategic vision to play that out. As such, our checkmate is only a matter of time.

[Mabus]

14. There are so many subtleties about chess that it is hard to say it is black and white

My husband is a student of chess (he's also has a lifetime Expert rating and has coached chess teams that have placed in the five in the country and one that was national co-champions) and chess is a game of strategy which makes it anything but "black and white". I mean, how many games of chess have you played that were absolutely identical to any previous game you've played?

Chess, to me, is a lot like economics. It can come down to what variable is important at any given time. With chess it could be that someone has studied the traditional openings like the English and is playing someone who has studied various gambits. While their objectives are the same - winning the game - their tactics are different. Our foreign policy is the same. For quite some time the most important variable we have wanted is oil. Now we're up against people who aren't placing as a high a value on the commodity of oil as much as they are looking at their religious views or freedom from colonization. In the end, it isn't a 'black and white' game because we're playing for different for different types of wins. We want oil, they want us gone.

[Jack Rabbit]

16. Chess

Chess is a struggle. So said Dr. Emanuel Lasker, who was the world chess champion a hundred years ago and perhaps the most remarkable single individual to hold that title. He also wrote books on philosophy, argued about the theory of relativity with Einstein himself and discovered an important mathematical theorem concerning polynomial rings (which I won't pretend to be able to explain).

Lasker found a game of chess symbolic of a boxing match. Instead of a physical struggle, it is a purely mental fight with the board and pieces used as the medium for expressing strategic and tactical thought. It is not symbolic of a fight between forces of good and evil as defined by some B-Western.

It is somewhat meaningless to call chess, or anything else, "symbolic of reality." All symbols relate to something real without being the thing for which they stand. That's why I always get morbidly amused at a politician trying to score points by banning flag burning while the same politician doesn't think there's anything urgent about global warming or lesser forms of environmental pollution or is more concerned about the rights of a gun owner who just shot up a schoolyard than the rights of the parents of the murdered children; these politicians have misplaced their concern for America not in the land and people itself, but a symbol.

As for Dr. Brzenski, I don't think for a minute that he was unaware that weakening the Soviet Union by ensnaring it in an unnecessary war in Afghanistan wouldn't posit new problems that would have to be solved, either by him or other foreign policy leaders in another administration. However, he didn't know what they were. Nor did he seriously think the ultimate benefit of the conflict was the fall of the Soviet Union; since no one in the West saw that coming until it actually happened, it is absurd to credit any Western statesman with the end of the USSR, whether it is Brzenski or Ronald Reagan. The individual who, in my opinion, deserves the most credit for the fall of Soviet Communism is Leonid Brezhnev. But I digress.

Blame somebody for the Jihadist blowback? Somebody should take a good examination of Reagan's policiy, or lack of one. Does anybody realize the Gipper had seven national security advisers in eight years? And the neoconservites, who were a part of Reagan's kakatocracy as well as Bush's, said Clinton's foreign policy was "adrift." Blame somebody for the resurgence of an imperialist Russia? Most of that has occured on Bush's watch. If any lurking freepers think I'm just being a partisan hack, they can take comfort in knowing it really is at least partly Clinton's fault, too.

[PaulaFarrell]

15. There is no defense

He didn't care about the lives of the Afghans when he was busy playing his chess game. He is amoral through and through.

[Wetzelbill]

17. And that makes him responsible for Bush and Cheney

Thanks for clearing that up.

[JDPriestly]

4. Good points. Thanks.

[daleo]

5. The response of neo-conservatives to "checkmate"

Will be to kick the chessboard over, and draw a gun. But the opponent is also packing.

[Dover]

6. Great analogy!

Yeah, China demonstrated not too long ago by shooting down one of their own aged satellites that
they are also prepared to deal with our Star Wars game as well.

Did we really think we could rule the world from above or below with a gun?

[Dover]

7. dupe

[inna]

8. K&R

great post.

it's not anywhere near "checkmate" though.... yet.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

10. If Grampy is installed (he can't be elected honestly)

just watch the Koreans and Chinese start to sell off dollars and start buying the solvent Euro. Boom. End of game.

[Dover]

11. I think the economy will collapse regardless of who is sitting in the WH in 2009.

How that will unfold is another story. A slow incremental slide most likely.
We are already well into that slide.

[Truth2Tell]

13. Great post Dover. K&R nt