Analysis by Joe Schaeffer, 247 Real News
If "international rules-based-order" warmongering were an Olympic event, Anne Applebaum would be taking home a gold medal.
Not content to declare a state of war between the United States and Russia in the name of the elastic term "democracy," as defined by such ruling establishment figures as Barack Obama, Applebaum has gone on to include a laundry list of other nations that must feel the brunt of "liberal world order" military might. Applebaum wrote in the Atlantic on March 31:
There is no natural liberal world order, and there are no rules without someone to enforce them. Unless democracies defend themselves together, the forces of autocracy will destroy them. I am using the word forces, in the plural, deliberately. Many American politicians would understandably prefer to focus on the long-term competition with China. But as long as Russia is ruled by [Vladimir] Putin, then Russia is at war with us too. So are Belarus, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Nicaragua, Hungary, and potentially many others.
We might not want to compete with them, or even care very much about them. But they care about us. They understand that the language of democracy, anti-corruption, and justice is dangerous to their form of autocratic power — and they know that that language originates in the democratic world, our world.
No, she is not speaking rhetorically. In fact, she emphasizes this very point:This fight is not theoretical. It requires armies, strategies, weapons, and long-term plans. It requires much closer allied cooperation, not only in Europe but in the Pacific, Africa, and Latin America. NATO can no longer operate as if it might someday be required to defend itself; it needs to start operating as it did during the Cold War, on the assumption that an invasion could happen at any time.
Germany’s decision to raise defense spending by 100 billion euros is a good start; so is Denmark’s declaration that it too will boost defense spending. But deeper military and intelligence coordination might require new institutions — perhaps a voluntary European Legion, connected to the European Union, or a Baltic alliance that includes Sweden and Finland — and different thinking about where and how we invest in European and Pacific defense.
In Applebaum's mind, Denmark faces annihilation at the paws of the rapacious Russian bear at any moment. Or is it the ferocious Hungarian Turul that is poised to rip Danes apart limb by limb with its razor-sharp talons? Either way, you can count on one thing: the future of democracy is at stake. Applebaum has long been a curious presence on the globalist intellectual stage.Now based at The Atlantic, where she is labeled a "staff writer," she had previously made her home at The Washington Post, where she penned a column for 17 years. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Applebaum's writing has long been powered by a deep animus for displays of nationalism in European countries such as Hungary and Poland and an even more strident antipathy for Russia.
While she has been lavished with awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, from her ruling establishment colleagues, there has always been something distinctly discomforting about Applebaum, even for those inclined to share her worldview. The woman has never met a war she didn't love and which couldn't afford her an opportunity to beat the drums about larger threats to her ill-defined "liberal democratic order":
Also: we might be tired of “forever wars,” but the Taliban are not tired of wars. The Pakistanis who helped them are not tired of wars. Nor are the Russian, Chinese, and Iranian regimes; nor is al-Qaeda. We might not care about any of these brutal thugs - but they care about us
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) August 20, 2021
Throw in her eagerness to very publicly defend some of the darkest figures inhabiting the dominant Western progressive ruling nexus today, and the overall effect is akin to breathing in a toxic irritant.
Applebaum is still stained by her despicable defense of child rapist Roman Polanski more than a decade ago. The privileged Hollywood film director fled the U.S. in 1978 during his trial for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl. No one is disputing that he plied the child with champagne, drugged her with a quaalude and then performed oral and anal sex on her. WorldTribune reported in 2016:
Washington Post columnists Anne Applebaum and Richard Cohen were pilloried in 2009 for their over-the-top defenses of Polanski.
In a column titled “The Outrageous Arrest of Roman Polanski,” Applebaum argued that the on-the-lam Polanski had suffered enough over the years in terms of lawyer’s fees and personal inconvenience.
Without offering any corresponding proof, she wrote that “There is evidence that Polanski did not know [the girl’s] real age.”
Applebaum concluded her screed by stating “If he weren’t famous, I bet no one would bother with him at all.”
Her claim that Polanski may not have known the girl's actual age is a flat-out falsehood that had been refuted by Polanski himself long before the sickening Washington Post column went to print:Polanski himself casually admitted in a disgusting 1984 interview with Britain’s Clive James that he “knew [the victim] was [about to turn] 14 because she was talking about her birthday before that.”
Applebaum's fondness for the celebrity child rapist is exceeded, however, by her love for nation rapist George Soros. Applebaum has repeatedly championed the progressive globalist billionaire over the years:Criticize Soros all you want. Disagree with him, please. But don't call him a "puppetmaster" running a "secret plot" unless there is some other point you are subtly trying to make.
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) February 11, 2018
Note to headline writers: It is incorrect to describe the Central European University as "Soros's University," just as it would be incorrect to talk about "Eli Yale's University." Soros donated the original founding money, but the university is independent
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) December 4, 2018
It's not just US Congressmen repeating conspiracy garbage! A news channel watched by millions joins in. Remember, the "George-Soros-controls-everything" false narratives originated in Russia and works because of its anti-semitic undertones https://t.co/zCDeIhzp8R
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) November 14, 2019
Applebaum is such an avid Soros apologist that she even allows herself to be utilized as an authoritative quote in big-box media articles meant to whitewash his activities. A flagrantly pro-Soros January 2018 Financial Times article is titled "George Soros fights back against populist foes." "Once a symbol of the spread of democracy in Europe, the billionaire’s foundation is now the target of resurgent nationalism," the subhead tellingly reads. "Historian" Applebaum was tapped to back this loaded narrative:
A Jewish billionaire is a convenient enemy for leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban, according to historian Anne Applebaum: “They don’t want to be openly anti-American or anti-EU so they’ve identified [Soros] as a bogeyman figure that represents the parts of the west they dislike,” she says, adding that critics play on anti-Semitic tropes. “It’s a neat tactic because it avoids criticism of the EU and the US. And it’s a simpler, older kind of message.”
That's a nice two-fer there. All criticism of Soros is due to anti-Semitism, and attacks on Soros are really attacks on America, Applebaum asserts. If you think Applebaum's furious cries to unleash the Dogs of War on every "enemy" of the rules-based international order she can imagine are merely the rantings of a fringe character that can be laughed off with ease, check out who's amplifying them:After weeks of horror, what happens next in Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine?
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 22, 2022
Join me as I talk to two experts—@McFaul and @AnneApplebaum—about what drives Putin, what the US can do to help Ukraine, and how to fight Russia's crackdown on truth. https://t.co/MrtAmZSHLc pic.twitter.com/xvQDQ21JIv
The similarities to the overheated rhetoric promulgated by those hyping the coronavirus hysteria over the past two years are uncanny. Only now it is World War Without End being advanced, with all the horror that that entails.
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