On September 20 Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, wrote a column, “The Madness of Antony Blinken” on how “the crazies in the basement” are now in the “penthouse” running US foreign policy. Lauria starts off with the history of neocons in Washington, and details how Hillary Clinton, the “Queen of Warmongers,” brought in neocon Victoria Nuland into the Obama administration; Donald Trump invited neocons John Bolton and Mike Pompeo into his White House; and Biden brought in Blinken, and for a time Nuland again. Lauria wrote, “Instead of banishing these people, they are allowed to linger and drag the U.S. into evermore perilous failures: Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza and Ukraine, leaving behind a mountain of squandered dollars and an ocean of blood.”
On Blinken Lauria writes of his failures in 2022 when he called for a “no-fly zone” over Ukraine and called for NATO-member Poland to provide Mig-29 fighter jets to confront possible Russian aircraft. At the time Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and much of the Washington press corp rushed to support the plan. Ultimately the “no-fly zone” was shot-down by the Pentagon which warned of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia. Lauria writes that it was a surprise that Blinken did not lose his job over this reckless blunder.
