Thread by @Mauerback, https://www.spectator.com.au/2020/09/the-return-of-the-blob/ The notion of "the Blob" as a bunch of would-be Kennans, [...]

Marshall Auerback

Mauerback

https://www.spectator.com.au/2020/09/the-return-of-the-blob/ The notion of "the Blob" as a bunch of would-be Kennans, supplying the expertise needed to make the government work, is completely out of touch with reality & certainly inconsistent with the actions of the foreign policy establishment over the last 40 yrs

The return of the Blob | The Spectator Australia

For decades, Washington think tanks were vital to a virtuous revolving door. Young policy professionals, both Democrats and Republicans, would serve time in government, then remove themselves to...

https://www.spectator.com.au/2020/09/the-return-of-the-blob/

Ironic that this was written for the Spectator Australia. Ask any Australian about America's Kennan-like restraint when the CIA played a key role in undermining the Gough Whitlam government. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/23/gough-whitlam-1975-coup-ended-australian-independence

The British-American coup that ended Australian independence | John Pilger

John Pilger: In 1975 prime minister Gough Whitlam, who has died this week, dared to try to assert his country’s autonomy. The CIA and MI6 made sure he paid the price

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/23/gough-whitlam-1975-coup-ended-australian-independence

Kaplan's article evokes this monstrosity from Eugene Robinson a few years ago: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/god-bless-the-deep-state/2018/07/19/de36bd00-8b8a-11e8-85ae-511bc1146b0b_story.html

Opinion | God bless the ‘deep state’

Trump ignores evidence of his own intelligence community on election hacking.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/god-bless-the-deep-state/2018/07/19/de36bd00-8b8a-11e8-85ae-511bc1146b0b_story.html

As an aside, George Kennan himself would not understand the supposed "realism" imputed to him by Kaplan. In 1997, he wrote an Op-Ed in the NY Times opposing NATO's eastward expansion:
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/18/politics/george-f-kennan-dies-at-101-leading-strategist-of-cold-war.html

Money quote. Kennan wrote that

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