View from America
By M.R. Josse
TAMPA. FL: Understandably, President Joe Biden the other day touted new mask guidance by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as “a great day for America and an important milestone in the U.S. coronavirus response.”
Biden’s comments came in the wake of the CDC’s announcement that people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 do not need to wear masks or practice social distancing, indoors or outdoors, in most cases. Biden nevertheless stressed the need for continuing vaccinations at an aggressive pace in order to drive transmission numbers down.
A GREAT DAY
45% of adult Americans are fully vaccinated against Covid-19
At this point, 45% of adult Americans are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, as per CDC. If vaccinations continue at the current clip, 70% of adults will have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by the second week of June.
Biden has set a goal to have at least 160 million Americans fully vaccinated by the July Fourth holiday. It is a target that will very possibly be met given copious positive indications on the ground, currently.
While such roseate developments are no doubt most heart-warming for the Biden administration – even more so when one compares it to the grim, heart-rending situation in many pandemic hotspots around the globe – there are nevertheless patches of dark clouds visible, here and there, amidst America’s increasingly azure pandemic skies.
One such worrisome ‘cloud’ was the recent CNN disclosure that a Marine Corps officer was arrested in connection with FBI investigation into the horrific 6 January 2021 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. What’s more, one is informed that the concerned individual was the first ‘active duty’ service member to be charged in the context of that insurrection.
The significance of the related disclosure that, in the above context, more than 400 service members have been held, including over 40 veterans, can hardly be glossed over. It certainly leaves one wondering: to what extent may such a dangerous malaise have infected the military?
FBI investigation into the first-of-a-kind violent riot against the bastion and symbol of America continues slowly but surely, even as it casts an ever-widening dragnet with a view to snag all perpetrators of that shameful assault on American democracy.
One presumes that such an endeavour will also unearth a mountain of intelligence, on how such a massive, brutal attack on the U.S. Capitol was planned and executed – and who its principal movers and shakers were.
Worrisome, too, is that, as ABC reported, the Department of Homeland Security recently issued a ‘National Terrorism Alert’ to the public, although no specifics were provided, apart from the disclosure that the terrorism threat was ‘ideologically motivated.’
When conjoined with a subsequent cyber attack on the Colonial Pipe Company purportedly by ‘Russian hackers’ – affecting oil supplies to thousands of gas stations around the country – it is obvious that the Biden administration cannot complacently sit on its hands merely on the basis of its exemplary showing in the pandemic domain.
What made one scratch one’s head was to learn that ransom was paid to the hackers, reportedly in the ‘low millions of dollars’, to ensure the resumption of the Company’s fuel. If that is indeed true, it will no doubt provide much more that a quantum of solace to America’s adversaries!
GOP REBELLION
On the face of it, the current tumult in the Republican Party may not, per se, be a serious concern for Biden. Yet, over the long haul, it could morph into a major issue.
Lest we forget, Biden has, from the get-go, committed himself to grabbing the holy grail of ‘bipartisanship’ – in order to attain his ambitious domestic goals – including for the costly remaking or overhauling of America’s antiquated and failing infrastructure. That simply is not entirely possible without the political support of the Republicans.
Besides, apart from the nearly equally-divided strength of the two rival parties in the Senate, the past few weeks have proven that Biden is having a hard time placating the progressive wing of his Democratic Party which believes he is going too far in attempting to mollycoddle the Republicans.
With that backdrop in mind, now consider the recent upheaval within the GOP, epitomized by the 14 May ouster of Wyoming Republican Representative Liz Cheney, whose biting criticism of former President Donald Trump led to her ouster from the House Republican leadership.
When that happened – as had widely been predicted – she publicly alleged that several Republican members of Congress had voted against impeaching Trump out of fear for their own lives! What was telling is that 80% GOP members supported the removal of Cheney from her leadership position.
Confiding to CNN’s Jake Tapper 14 May that there are “more members who believe in substance and policy and ideals than are willing to say so,” Cheney cited the impeachment vote earlier this year, in which she was one of only 10 Republicans who voted to hold Trump accountable for the Capitol riots.
“And this tells you something about where we are as a country, that members of Congress aren’t able to cast votes, or feel they can’t, because of their own security,” she said.
Hours earlier, New York Republican Representative Elise Stephanik, a Trump acolyte, was voted House conference chairwoman. The main difference between the two is that while Stephanik has supported Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election Cheney has repeatedly rebutted them leading the former to complain that the Wyoming Republican is undermining the party’s image of promoting Trump’s brand of politics.
Notably, Cheney has dropped hints about her next steps as they relate to shaping the future of the party, confirming that she will run for her U.S. House seat next year.
On 16 May, CNN reported that Cheney warned that the direction that the GOP was adopting is “dangerous”, even as Stephanik called on the party to move on, and not be trapped in what happened in the past.
The same day, CNN’s Chris Cuomo reported that almost the entire GOP walked out before Cheney’s speech ahead of the vote that removed her from position as third in the GOP leadership. In her speech she bluntly declared: “Our election was not stolen…I will not sit back in silence.”
Fareed Zakaria, also of CNN, explained Sunday that the GOP has, since the 1960s, gradually transformed itself from practicing a “country club type” of republicanism to one imbuing a combative form of “tribal republicanism” where “tribalism trumps principle.” In such a situation, it is not difficult to envision that Trumpism – anchored on the outrageously false claim that the 2020 election was ‘stolen’ – is likely to prevail as the dominant force within the party, at least into the foreseeable future.
As long as that is the case, it is hard to see how Republicans will play ball with Biden. Taking their cue – and the money for their upcoming elections – from Trump, they will, in all likelihood, make life hell for Biden.
ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT
Yet another problematic policy area for Biden was just showcased in the Middle East, even as the fierce Israeli-Palestinian conflict – the most lethal in the past several years – entered its second week. It was climaxed by Israeli warplanes pounding Hamas tunnels in Gaza, amid international calls for an immediate ceasefire and an ever-mounting civilian death toll.
As CNN analyst Kevin Liptak reports, 17 May, White House concerns are growing over rising civilian deaths in the intensifying battle between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. President Biden said Monday afternoon that he planned to speak shortly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the third conversation between the two men in six days.
As reported, Biden has so far resisted calls from fellow Democrats and foreign allies to publicly increase pressure on Israel amid the worsening violence. “The White House is placing enormous stock in efforts by Egypt and Qatar to broker an end to the violence, according to officials. Yet, so far, Biden has not called for a ceasefire himself, raising questions about his strategy in the Middle East among Democrats whose approach to the issue has shifted in recent years…So far, Biden said he did not believe Israel was overreacting in pummeling Gaza with airstrikes…Now, as Israel signals the violence will continue into a second week, Democrats in Washington are calling on Biden to say more…Biden has so far shown few signs he is bending to pressure from his party. A longtime supporter of Israel, his politics do not appear to be shifting even as progressives in his party are pushing for a strong condemnation of Israel.”
Indeed, as reported by the BBC, 17 May, the United States once again blocked a UN Security Council resolution calling for a halt to the fighting.
[Just before forwarding this for publication, Biden in a call to Nethanyahu for the first time expressed his support for a ceasefire.]
The point I want to make here is this: despite long and loud assertions of several policy wonks in the United States that America will now pivot away from the Middle East – and Afghanistan – and veer increasingly to the “Indo-Pacific” region, the above developments, as also the continuing violence in Afghanistan, would tend to indicate that America will, willy-nilly, have to deal with both those regions, on a priority basis for years.
For the present, the mess in the Middle East adds up to another layer of worry for Biden and would tend to limit America’s foreign policy ambitions in the “Indo-Pacific” or elsewhere.
CHINA
Moving on to China – America’s main adversary today – it is noteworthy that the past week has been rather good for her.
As BBC reported, quoting Chinese state media, China successfully landed a spacecraft on Mars early Saturday (15 May). BBC stated that the successful touchdown is a remarkable achievement given the difficult terrain of the task. Only Americans, the report indicated, have really mastered landing on Mars until now. Also all countries that have tried have either crashed or lost contact soon after reaching the surface, it recalled.
No wonder, then, that Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated the mission team on its “outstanding achievement.”
Noteworthy strides have also been made by China in the field of Covid-19 vaccines as indicated in the two following stories put out by Bloomberg lately. The Straits Times 12 May reporting the relevant news item from Jakarta headlined the story thus: China’s Sinovac Covid-19 found highly effective in real world study.
The other news item dated 7 May reported by Bloomberg from New York and also published in The Straits Times had this headline: The world turns to China for Covid-19 vaccines after India and US stumble.
INDIA
Now, moving to India, here are some revealing nuggets of pandemic-related information. First, there is the news story from the Indian Express, 14 May, informing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be travelling to the UK for the G-7 summit from June 11-13. His visit has been cancelled due to the Covid situation in India. The newspaper additionally informs that this would mean that the possibility of an in-person Quad meeting has been ruled out.
Meanwhile, as the Indian Express also reported, the Red Cross of China has donated 100 oxygen concentrators, 40 ventilators and other essential supplies which arrived in India from Chengdu. It also decided to provide $ 1 million in cash assistance to the Indian Red Cross Society.
International news agencies reported that India is facing a second wave of the pandemic with new cases surging past 400,000 a day; and that people who put up posters critical of Modi’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis have been arrested!
NEPAL
While pleased to note that my hunch last week that Prime Minister Oli might not be ‘out’ permanently proved on the ball, I am amazed to read, in this journal, that Nepalese health authorities are reluctant to accept Chinese Covid assistance! I wonder if ‘commission’- or lack of it – provides a clue to that conundrum.
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