December 19, 2016

Obama Fails to Start a War and Our Allies Are Worried

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For some reason, I’ve been thinking lately about news memes that I’m tired of hearing about. For example, I’m tired of hearing about how containers revolutionized shipping. I’m tired of hearing about Van Halen’s brown M&Ms. And I’m tired of hearing endlessly about how US allies are supposedly worried because we haven’t started a war over something. According to the New York Times, the latest sign of America’s worrisome restraint is President Barack Obama’s response to China’s seizure of one of our research drones near the Philippines:

Across Asia, diplomats and analysts said they were perplexed at the inability of the Obama administration to devise a strong response to China’s challenge. It did not even dispatch an American destroyer to the spot near Subic Bay, a former American Navy base that is still frequented by American ships, some noted.

…The end result, analysts said, is that China will be emboldened by having carried out an act that amounted to hybrid warfare, falling just short of provoking conflict, and suffering few noticeable consequences. “Allies and observers will find it hard not to conclude this represents another diminishment of American authority in the region,” said Douglas H. Paal, the vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Who knows? Maybe this kind of thing really does worry our allies. But if that’s the case, maybe our allies need to settle down. Not everything is worth a military response. Not everything is even worth a sternly worded note. These kinds of penny-ante provocations are usually designed precisely to evoke a response, and it’s usually best just to ride them out. That’s especially true when there’s nothing much we can do in the short term anyway, which means that any kind of aggressive response would almost inherently end up looking weak and incompetent.

Anyway, I have a feeling that if Donald Trump starts responding more belligerently, we’ll start getting stories about how our allies are worried that America is stirring up trouble and they’re the ones who will have to pay the price. They should be careful about what they wish for.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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