The D.C. Foreign Policy "Blob" and Its Discontents w/ Doug Bandow

On this edition of Parallax Views, President Barack Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor famously to Washington D.C.'s bipartisan foreign policy consensus as the "the Blob". For critics and skeptics of the dominant beltway views of U.S. foreign polciy today, this description has proven apt. The D.C. foreign policy "Blob", critics argue, has entangled the U.S. in a quagmire of "Forever Wars" in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan that have been a net negative for the U.S. and the world.

Joining us to unpack the concept of the D.C. Blob, or Capitol Hill's bipartisan foreign policy consensus, is Doug Bandow, a former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, Senior Fellow at the libertarian CATO Institute, regular contributor at Antiwar.Com, and staunch U.S. foreign policy critc. Initially this conversation was sparked by Doug's op-ed on infamous Iran/Contra participant and longtime beltway mainstay Elliot Abram's announcement of a new neoconservative, pro-interventionist/pro-war think tank called the Vandenberg Coalition. However, the conversation proves much broader in tone as we delve into issues related to foreign policy ideology in D.C., the announced U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years, American Exceptionalism, Robert Kagan's recent op-ed in Foreign Affairs chastising the American people for their lack of commitment to U.S. military adventurism, the problem of sanctions, elite attitudes in D.C. and the its disconnection from the broader population, Doug's view as a libertarian on U.S. foreign policy toward Venezuela, Charles Koch and the Quincy Institute, and much, much more.