Leaving Behind “Leading From Behind”

[Draggingtree]

Hoover Institute :

Leaving Behind “Leading From Behind”

by Mark Moyar

Monday, October 31, 2016

 

In 2008, Barack Obama campaigned as a foreign policy moderate, wary of the aggressive interventionism of the George W. Bush administration but willing to take on a leading role for America in combating particularly ominous threats.

 

While promising to pull the remaining American forces out of Iraq, he vowed to send additional troops to Afghanistan. He said that he would collaborate with other nations to a greater extent than Bush, but at the same time served notice that he would act unilaterally when vital U.S. interests were at stake.

 

During his first years as president, Obama generally conformed to these pledges. He authorized several increases in the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. He began withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq, at a slower pace than promised in the campaign, but one that nonetheless put the administration on a course for complete withdrawal. He worked with foreign allies on trade deals, and used drones unilaterally against extremists in Pakistan.

 

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A Trump Doctrine—'America First'

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By: Pat Buchanan | November 15, 2016

 

However Donald Trump came upon the foreign policy views he espoused, they were as crucial to his election as his views on trade and the border.

 

Yet those views are hemlock to the GOP foreign policy elite and the liberal Democratic interventionists of the Acela Corridor.

 

Trump promised an "America First" foreign policy rooted in the national interest, not in nostalgia. The neocons insist that every Cold War and post-Cold War commitment be maintained, in perpetuity.

 

On Sunday's 60 Minutes, Trump said: "You know, we've been fighting this war for 15 years. . . . We've spent $6 trillion in the Middle East, $6 trillion—we could have rebuilt our country twice. And you look at our roads and our bridges and our tunnels . . . and our airports are . . . obsolete."

 

Yet the War Party has not had enough of war, not nearly.

 

They want to confront Vladimir Putin, somewhere, anywhere. They want to send U.S. troops to the eastern Baltic. They want to send weapons to Kiev to fight Russia in Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea.

https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/a-trump-doctrine-america-first/