US Presidents: Masters of Perpetual Air Diplomacy
Newsweek dutifully charts the bipartisan parade of explosions under Trump, Biden, and Obama, a veritable 'Who's Who' of global aerial intervention. What's omitted? Oh, just the inconvenient context, like the fact that Barack Obama, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, oversaw a sevenfold increase in drone strikes compared to his predecessor. Or that the 'humanitarian interventions' he initiated in Libya
ultimately paved the way for more chaos and failed states. This isn't just about presidents; it's about a deep-seated foreign policy establishment—the same one that funnels billions in aid to countries like Israel, regardless of their own widespread bombing campaigns. (Remember the defense industry's predictable financial ties to Congress ?) We're left to ponder: Do we celebrate the expansion of
American power projection, or question why 'democracy promotion' so often looks an awful lot like 'dropping bombs on brown people'? It's a question the map illustrates, but dare not speak.