President Donald Trump has totally destroyed American foreign policy, creating a massive disaster which will impact the nation and the world for long beyond his tenure in office.
He has damaged our relationships with our democratic allies in NATO, along with our alliance with Japan and South Korea.
He has developed a total admiration for authoritarian dictatorships, including Russia, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, the Philippines, and Brazil.
He has created a situation in the Middle East that is causing disintegration of any hope of stability, by helping Russia, Iran, Syria and Turkey massacre the Kurdish minority that helped the world against ISIS. And he claims to be unwilling to trust Iran on the repudiated Nuclear Deal, but now is helping them and Vladimir Putin to increase their influence in the Middle East, a situation which also endangers Israel.
ISIS now is again a major threat to the world, particularly to our allies in NATO, and Trump seemed to encourage that with his outrageous comments last week, showing lack of concern with that reality. But it will also affect the United States as well over time, and will make it more dangerous for Americans to travel world wide, as ISIS will be out to attack Americans, as well as Europeans.
Trump is totally clueless on foreign policy, and has fired anyone who has any sense of reality on the subject, and now has sycophants working to destroy the Foreign Service and the State Department, a long range detriment to any future President who will follow Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
This is only one of a multitude of reasons why Donald Trump needs to be removed from the Presidency, but will 20 Republicans join 47 Democrats in doing what needs to be done, to rid the Presidency of this menace to the nation and to the world?
Sadly, the odds are strongly against it!
What’s the call here?
Leave 50 guys to face the Turkish Army and attack a NATO ally?
Leave 50 guys in the middle of a hot battlefield just to maintain the position?
Militarily intervene directly in defiance of a Senate-ratified treaty with no declaration of war from Congress?
Funny how there is no decency and compassion for the millions of people stuck in refugee camps in Turkey for years while Obama’s alternate dithering and interference plunged Syria into chaos. These people might finally be able to go home again if peace can be restored.
Social justice seems to demand a lot of people just get ignored and discarded in favor of whoever is flavor of the month. Did you write or breathe in your lifetime one single word about Kurds before they were useful as a weapon with which to smite the unholy Trump?
This is kind of bothering me because it’s seriously Twilight Zone level how did we get here bizarre.
When precisely did the “progressive” movement adopt George W. Bush’s foreign policy?
@ Alexis. Well said; and damn fine questions, all.
My 1st question, Professor, is: If Trump’s foreign policy is a such disaster, what does that make Obama’s [as alluded to by Alexis], Cheney’s, Clinton’s, Bush the Elder and Bozo’s, and the Peanut Farmer’s?
This whole goat-rope started back in 1978-79 when we helped Saddam establish rule in Iraq, saw the rise of radical Islamistism in Iran, and created al-Qaeda in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
It continued when we bankrolled our boy Saddam’s Holy War against the Great Satans in Tehran [including slaughtering several thousand ~ ahem ~ Kurds with the first use of chemical weapons since WWI, provided by ~ ahem ~ the US Department of Defense.]
Fast forward to 1990 and Saddam’s “invasion” of Kuwait; providing the US with the pretext to establish a permanent, combat-ready military presence in the Middle East [in Saudi Arabia, conveniently], something we’d been trying to figure out how to do since the end of WWII, if not WWI, along with the British and the French.
And then, of course, came 9/11[after due preparation of the American psyche for “terrorism”: ie, WTC in 93, Oklahoma City, the African Embassies, and the Cole.]. And then Saddam’s WMDs. And then Libya, Somalia, Yemen; and now Kurdistan.
If Trump’s foreign policy is a disaster, all he is doing is carrying on and fulfilling the tradition of what started back in 1979 under Carter, and continued thru right up to Obama.
My 2d question is: What are the Democrat candidates’ plans for fixing Trump’s disastrous foreign policy, and how will they actually go about fixing it?
They could start by responding to his last Wednesday’s Tweet that went: “The United States has spent EIGHT TRILLION DOLLARS fighting and policing in the Middle East. Thousands of our Great Soldiers have died or been badly wounded. Millions of people have died on the other side. GOING INTO THE MIDDLE EAST IS THE WORST DECISION EVER MADE…..IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY! We went to war under a false & now disproven premise, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. There were NONE!”
Whether You hate the man or not: Is this an accurate statement of fact and history? And if it is, So What and Now What?
Until last week, the only other thing President Trump has ever said that i can recall ever 100% agreeing with was back in early 2017 when he said that the [First] “American Civil War could have been avoided”; that it didn’t necessarily need to happen.
His Tweet of last week may go down in history as one of the profoundest and most important Tweets ever:
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“The United States has spent EIGHT TRILLION DOLLARS fighting and policing in the Middle East. Thousands of our Great Soldiers have died or been badly wounded. Millions of people have died on the other side. GOING INTO THE MIDDLE EAST IS THE WORST DECISION EVER MADE…..IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY! We went to war under a false & now disproven premise, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. There were NONE!”
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If the precursor of “Peace” is “Justice,” and the antecedent of “Justice” is “Truth,” then Trump should get the Nobel Prize for Peace for daring to utter the following blasphemic Facts and Truths:
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1. That the United States is an serial enabler of War Profiteering. Every dime of that $8 trillion has gone or is going into some American’s pocket, or some American flunky’s.
2. That the United States is the biggest War Criminal of the 21 st century. While not yet in the league with Stalin, Hitler, and Mao just yet, we are closing in on Pol Pot.
3. That the United States is a War Monger. And while no closer to winning this War than it was on 9/12, we are ever looking forward to bigger, badder, and better “threats” and “enemies.” And more money for more weapons systems to meet those threats and beat those enemies. [See #1, above.]
Generally speaking ~ in this, Year III of The Age of Trump ~ the prevailing doctrine among Trumpatistas is that Trump’s “truth” trumps Truth. That is, what he says is “true” trumps what really Is.
This is one of those very rare instances where Trump’s Truth [what really is] trumps “truth” [what those who embrace, endorse, and are invested in “The Forever War” would rather the American people not even think about].
This should be a litmus test for anybody who aspires to be the next President of the United States: Do You agree with President Trump’s Tweet? If You do and if elected, what do You intend to actually, really DO about it?
And if You don’t agree with the hard, cold, blunt facts presented in that Tweet, why not? How much money have we spent? How many casualties have there been, here and there? What was a worse decision in the history of our country? And have those WMDs ever been found?
So Yeah. If Obama can get the Nobel Peace Prize after doing absolutely nothing but making promises and actually, really doing absolute zero to bring peace anywhere, why doesn’t Trump deserves it for introducing that rarest of factors in modern American [and global] political discourse and debate: Facts?
For again, as the Latin American Liberation Theologians put it back during the terror reign of future-NRA President Lt Col Ollie North and his assassination squadst:
“There will and can be no Peace unless and until there is Justice.
And there can and will be no Justice until and unless there is Truth.”
Trump has given us a Truth that may be like the one Rudy Giuliani spoke of on the afternoon of 9/11 when asked how many people may have been killed: “That may be a Truth that is too terrible to bear.”
For all the bleating and braying coming out of SwampLand, You’d think he might have hit a very raw nerve, or something, eh?.
Jeffrey, I will agree that our foreign policy has been truly monstrous and disastrous, but I also point out that much of this was under Republican and conservative control of government, as with Reagan and the first Bush, and then the Gingrich and after GOP control of Congress.
I am not saying that Democrats are without fault, but clearly it is Republicans and conservatives who bear the much greater fault.
At the same time, abandoning the Kurds is a disgrace, and will cause renewed violence and terrorism in the Middle East, and it will affect Europe and the United States directly, as Trump has no clue on foreign policy, and is too cozy with authoritarians in a way that is disgraceful and unacceptable.
So to say Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize, NO WAY! For his destruction of domestic and foreign policy, he should get life in prison without parole, and his family, cabinet, and other advisers should pay the penalty for the widespread corruption that is the greatest in American history!
Exactly, Professor! Dumb Dumb Trump is impulsive and doesn’t know what he’s doing. You don’t pull out the troops without having an exit plan in place.
The Dangerous Door That Trump Has Opened in Syria
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/10/14/the-dangerous-door-that-trump-has-opened-in-syria/
Barack Obama often compared the presidency to a relay race, where he took the baton from a range of people who came before, ran his best leg, and then passed the baton onto his successor. He built on that analogy while talking to Max Fisher about the Iran nuclear agreement, where the topic of Nixon’s opening with China came up (emphasis mine).
[To hear him draw a connection between the nuclear deal and China’s transformation, then, was striking. It suggested that Obama, though he has repeatedly insisted he does not expect the character of Iran’s regime to change, does see it as a possibility, one potentially significant enough that it evokes, at least in his mind, President Nixon’s historic trip to China.
At the same time, the lesson Obama seemed to draw from the comparison was not that he, too, was on the verge of making history, but rather that transformations like China’s under Deng, opportunities like Nixon’s trip, can have both causes and consequences that are impossible to foresee. boldedtext-His role, he said, was to find “openings†for such moments.-endofboldtext]
All of that wasn’t simply a profoundly wise view of the presidency, it demonstrates the ability to put ones actions in the context of history and make decisions that open possibilities for the future.
We now have a president who is deeply ignorant about history and only considers his own immediate interests when making decisions. With Trump’s recent actions in Syria, it has become clear that a very different kind of opening has occurred—one that future presidents will be dealing with for decades to come.
We are at the very early stages of seeing what some of the ramifications of Trump’s actions might be. The message sent from our Kurdish allies in northern Syria is that they feel betrayed by the United States, indicating that we are no longer a country that can be trusted to stand with our allies. Instead, the Kurds have weighed the costs of the Turkish invasion and made an agreement with Assad.
[Without U.S. backing and amid mounting chaos, the Kurds appeared to face the choice between a deadly confrontation with the militarily superior Turkish forces — or a deal with the Assad regime.
By Sunday, the SDF had opted for the second option: They announced a deal with the Syrian government to allow forces loyal to the regime to enter its territory. By Monday, Syrian government troops were raising flags in the towns close to the Turkish-Syrian border…]
As Rick Noack writes, that is a move that primarily benefits Russia, given that Putin has been Assad’s staunchest ally. The fact that the Kurds are now turning to Assad and Putin for assistance demonstrates how desperate they have become.
Russia began to intervene militarily in Syria on Assad’s behalf in the fall of 2015. The siege of Aleppo, which was then controlled by rebel forces, was likely a war crime. On Sunday, the New York Times released a report documenting that the Russian Air Force intentionally targeted hospitals as part of the bombing campaign. As Max Fisher wrote, it was a calculated move on Putin’s part.
[The strategy, more about politics than advancing the battle lines, appears to be designed to pressure rebels to ally themselves with extremists, eroding the rebels’ legitimacy; give Russia veto power over any high-level diplomacy; and exhaust Syrian civilians who might otherwise support the opposition.]
That is how Assad and Putin “play†politics—by committing war crimes. Now, because of Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds, they have been forced to make a deal with the devil and turned to Assad for protection from the Turkish invasion. Keep in mind that this is the regime that used chemical weapons on its own people—something the Kurds experienced in Iraq under Saddam Hussein.
What I haven’t seen addressed at this point is how Turkey will respond to the presence of Syrian forces. If fighting breaks out between the two countries, it will present an impossible situation for NATO, given that Turkey is a member that the rest of the alliance is committed to defend. As the U.S. considers sanctions against Turkey and our NATO allies condemn their incursion into Syria, Vladimir Putin has spent time courting Erdogan, creating a potential wedge in the alliance.
But it isn’t just NATO that is affected. We could be witnessing the beginning of a realignment in the Middle East, especially considering the meetings described by Adam Taylor on Monday.
[Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in Riyadh on Monday for his first state visit to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in more than a decade, emphasizing not only coordination between three of the biggest oil producers in the world but also Moscow’s growing influence in the Middle East…
It is part of a strategy that puts Moscow at the center of Middle East politics. Putin recently announced that he intends to visit another U.S. ally, Israel, early next year. Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Russia to meet with Putin last month, just days before a bitterly contested election…
Russia ultimately remains far weaker than the United States in a variety of ways. Its economy has suffered greatly under sanctions, and it has suffered a number of humiliating military setbacks in recent years; even its vaunted S-400 system remains untested in real life.
But with longtime partners Syria’s Kurds finding themselves at odds with Trump’s Middle East plans, and even those with many friends in Washington such as Israel’s Netanyahu unsure of their footing, allies such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE may see Russia as a more reliable alternative — even if it is opposed to the United States and allied with many of their own rivals.]
The least d—ing explanation for what is happening would be that Putin is playing Trump like a fiddle in order to strengthen his own power and diminish the influence of the United States. But the deeper question is whether Putin is actually directing Trump.
Either way, the Russian president is using every means at his disposal to realign geopolitical alliances in a way that threatens our national security. Americans tend to have short memories, but it is important to note the events of the last week and recognize that the United States will be paying the price for Trump’s malevolence and incompetence for decades to come.
This is sickening! Over the weekend, an absolutely vile video began to circulate online. It was a meme video taken from a gruesome scene in the movie Kingsman depicting Donald Trump inside a church using a gun to systematically murder journalists and political foes like Kathy Griffin, and even pistol-whipping former Sen. John McCain. With media logos covering the faces of targets, the fake video shows Donald Trump murdering CNN, BuzzFeed, CBS, The Washington Post, and many others. There’s even a moment where Trump smashes Barack Obama’s face into a pulpit. Equally as troubling is the fact the video aired at a conservative event hosted by American Priority at Trump’s Doral Resort (of course). The event featured high-profile Trump supporters including Donald Trump, Jr., Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Rep. Matt Gaetz, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fake-trump-meme-video-florida_n_5da3cc27e4b087efdbb09278
This is precisely the reason why Donald Trump MUST somehow be removed from office, as he is a threat to any decent person who has the nerve to criticize him!
The people surrounding him are truly dangerous and evil, even to create such a video!
@ Ronald wrote: “Jeffrey, I will agree that our foreign policy has been truly monstrous and disastrous, but I also point out that much of this was under Republican and conservative control of government, as with Reagan and the first Bush, and then the Gingrich and after GOP control of Congress.”
What was the status of Congress during all those Reagan/Bush the Elder years [or during Cheney/Bush the Lesser]? The Dems had no say in what was unfolding? And are You saying that Gingrich and After’s “control of Congress” dictated Clinton and Obama’s foreign policy? Are You really claiming that? You continued:
“I am not saying that Democrats are without fault, but clearly it is Republicans and conservatives who bear the much greater fault.”
Well, that’s certainly White of You Doc: to admit that the Democrats are not without fault. Not a lot of mainsteam corporate Democrats or too many progressive and neo-proto socialists seem to be willing to admit that.
The simple facts are this: in the forty years between 1976 and 2016, the Democrats sat in the Oval Office for 20 years and the Republicans sat in it for 20 years. Dead even time at the top of the heap.
As i pointed out earlier: this whole goat-rope started under Carter’s watch in 1978-79, with the establishment of Saddam in Iraq, the overthrow of the Shah and Embassy seizure in Iran, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which the American foreign policy establishment determined would be a great opportunity to give Russia their very own Viet Nam. Hence our creation of al-Qaeda, and global, radical, fundamentalist, Islamofascist terrorism; folks that made Yassir Arafat and his PLO chums look like a bunch of chumps.
And after Bush the Elder’s twelve year reign, Clinton picked up the ball and ran with it.
Bill Clinton’s claim to fame as a War Criminal is his keeping the sanctions in place against the Peoples of Iraq following our smashing victory in Operation Desert Storm to liberate Kuwait and, obtw, establish that full-time, combat-ready military presence in the Middle East we’d been hankering for since the end of WWII, if not WWI, along with England and France.
Can You think of anything that Billy Bobb could have done that would have better guaranteed everything that has happened in Iraq and the Neighborhood since?
As his Secretary of State Madelaine Albright put it when asked if the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi Children was “worth it,” she simply shrugged: “I think so. Yeah;it was worth it.”
And then after Cheney and Bush the Lesser, came Obama to carry on the fight and spread the wealth. You continued:
“At the same time, abandoning the Kurds is a disgrace, and will cause renewed violence and terrorism in the Middle East, and it will affect Europe and the United States directly, as Trump has no clue on foreign policy, and is too cozy with authoritarians in a way that is disgraceful and unacceptable.”
We abandoned the Kurds a long, long time ago when we gave Saddam his chemical weapons to use on them after he waged our Holy War against The Great Satans of Tehran in the 80s. Dig deep enough, and You will see that the Kurds were abandoned first and foremost of all at Versailles, and the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. It’s interesting how there was room for a Homeland for the Jews, but not for the Kurds, eh?
So what’s Your solution? Send in the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard to protect the Kurds? Or maybe we could get the Israelis to do it for us, eh? Obama started that whole shit-storm in Syria [along with Libya and Yemen, among other places], and now nobody, especially on the Left, knows what to do with and/or about it.
And when did the violence and terrorism die off in the Middle East that abandoning the Kurds will bring back? If there’s been any reduction in violence and terrorism anywhere [from Pakistan and Afghanistan in the east to Yemen, Somalia, Libya, etc in the west], i’m sure the people living in those places would love to know about it. You concluded:
“So to say Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize, NO WAY! For his destruction of domestic and foreign policy, he should get life in prison without parole, and his family, cabinet, and other advisers should pay the penalty for the widespread corruption that is the greatest in American history!”
First of all: On what basis are You declaring this to be “the greatest widespread corruption in American history!”? The only difference between what is going on now and what has been going on for a long, long time is that it is more open, overt, and obvious. [Altho that was pretty obvious when Obama was managing the “recovery” from the 2008 financial “¢risi$ and meltdown.”]
None of this shit started with Trump. It’s just that he knows that a significant number of the American people either agree with what he is doing, don’t give a flip, or have too many other more pressing things to worry about. His approval ratings have consistently stayed very close to his percentage of the popular vote in 2016.
And i said Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize for daring to speak the TRUTH about The Forever War, which is the only way that it will be brought to an end, and for there to ever be Peace.
On what basis did Obama get HIS Peace Prize? What had he done before he got it to earn it? And, more importantly, what did he he do after he got it to justify his keeping it?
Obama ranks right up there with Aung San Suu Kyi as Peace Prize winners who have betrayed the whole reason for their getting the Prize in the first place.
And if You’d like to talk about corruption: How have Clinton and Obama ~ two folks who never did anything but work for a government [other than Obama’s brief stint as a “Constitutional Law” professor ~ retire as multi-millionaires?
You Tube is not going to take that hateful video down. Shame on them!
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/14/tech/fake-trump-video-youtube-response/index.html
Trump had a meltdown today. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chuck-schumer-trump-nancy-pelosi-turkey-discussions_n_5da77afbe4b0b5c9be4882a4