President Donald Trump got an unexpected acknowledgment that, on foreign policy, he has been a man of his word.
The Financial Times’ Edward Luce – no friend of the president – wrote that Trump has started no new wars, is winding down U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, has seen ISIS lose the bulk of its territory and forced American’s allies “to think about a world in which the US no longer underwrites their security.”
Luce says there are plenty of officials in Washington, and around the globe, who disagree with such initiatives – particularly those who are part of the DC foreign policy establishment (also known as “The Blob”).
As the Cato Institute’s Doug Bandow wrote, The Blob has been the architect of America’s endless, costly wars:
Members of this well‐educated, well‐connected group disagree on peripherals but agree on essentials of foreign policy. Their almost unanimous bottom line is that the U.S. government must run the world.
The result over the last couple decades has been catastrophic. Thousands of dead Americans. Tens of thousands injured, many maimed horribly. Hundreds of thousands of dead civilians in the nations Washington was supposed to be liberating. Millions of people driven from their homes. Trillions of dollars wasted. Enemy nations empowered. Terrorists created. America’s reputation shattered.
Luce writes that a Trump defeat would mean The Blob wins. And with that win would come a renewed push for America to again become both the world’s policeman and its paymaster.
Image Credit: Gage Skidmore [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]
