Donald Trump is No Non-Interventionist
Doesn't quite want to get rid of NATO, but may want to get rid of the Geneva conventions.
NATO is obsolete, Donald Trump explained at a CNN town hall earlier this week, saying the military alliance, formed as a defense against the Soviet Union, was out of date.
Trump is right. NATO is an artifact of the Cold War, which ended a quarter of a century ago. Rather than dismantling the alliance once it had outlived its usefulness, American and other Western leaders instead looked to refocus and expand NATO. NATO spread eastward toward the Russian frontier while finding other ways to flex its muscle, most notably the Kosovo campaign in 1999 and the NATO-led intervention in Libya in 2011.
Despite broad bipartisan support for NATO, there's little in the way of justification for the military alliance. Serbia (the aggressor in Kosovo) never presented a national security threat to the United States, while those terrorist groups the U.S. considers a threat to its national security today (like ISIS and Al-Qaeda) were absent in pre-2011 Libya but have found safe spaces there since then.
But Donald Trump's critique of NATO wouldn't see the U.S. disengage from what's become an entangling alliance. (The U.S., for example, is obligated to defend Turkey in case that country is attacked—Turkey is focusing its counterterrorism efforts in the Middle East more on Kurdish separatists than on ISIS, while the U.S. is working with the Kurds in the campaign against ISIS).
But despite his position being characterized by some as being in favor of "abolishing" NATO, Trump has repeateldy stated he would like to see the alliance continue.
"I don't mind NATO per se," Trump told Fox & Friends last week, for example. "It has to be reconstituted, it has to be modernized," he said. "We need to either transition into terror or we need something else, because we have to get countries together."
He repeated the same critique at this week's town hall, calling for NATO to refocus on terrorism and for other member countries to pay more into the alliance, following a broad Trump theme that the U.S. pays too much and other countries pay too little for America's military presence and actions abroad.
In an interview with the Washington Post's editorial board earlier this month, Trump also questioned the useful of NATO, laying out what the Post described as an "unabashedly non-interventionist approach to foreign policy." Interpreting Donald Trump's often chaotic and even self-contradictory pronouncements on foreign policy as some kind of commitment to non-interventionism is a serious mistake.
What was so "non-interventionist" about Trump's comments to the Post?
Trump left the door open to withdrawing troops from places like Japan and South Korea (though he'd prefer to keep them stationed there and have the hosting countries pay more for that), re-iterated his skepticism about the war in Iraq, and stressed that other NATO countries should be doing more of the heavy-lifting, especially when it comes to situations like Ukraine, which are far more relevant to those countries than to the U.S.
And at another town hall this week, Trump identified the Geneva conventions, which define a range of war crimes, was a problem that made soldiers "afraid to fight." He lamented that U.S. forces could not waterboard people or chop heads off. Not exactly concerns shared by, uh, actual non-interventionists.
Trump's primary critique of NATO, the war in Iraq, and American intervention in other countries isn't the unintended consequences or actual counter-productivity of the specific interventions, but that the United States is not reimbursed properly for it.
As far back as 1987, the first time Donald Trump flirted with a presidential run, Trump has expressed the idea that America's allies should be paying more its support. That year, in a speech in New Hampshire, Trump said he was tired of the U.S. "being kicked around" by its allies, who had become "the world's greatest money machines" because the U.S. was funding their defense. "We should have these countries that are ripping us off pay off the $200 billion deficit," Trump said, according to a contemporaneous New York Times report.
Then, as now, Trump insisted the "right person" could negotiate better deals for the U.S. with its allies. Restructuring American hegemony to formalize the payment of tribute is hardly a non-interventionist stance. Perhaps more importantly, it's impossible for Donald Trump to be a non-interventionist and anti-trade at the same time. Sound non-intervention requires free trade, which liberates and liberalizes countries far more effectively than military action.
The U.S. lost tens of thousands of troops in Vietnam, with millions of Vietnamese casualties, and lost Vietnam to communists. A decade-plus of free trade brought more prosperity to Vietnam than U.S. war ever could. For Donald Trump and his zero-sum world view, a prosperous, liberalizing Vietnam is bad for America. Trump would work toward wiping out more than half a century of unprecedented global economic growth and poverty eradication in sacrifice of some misguided notion that what's wrong with America is that not enough of its young people are employed in factories like they once were.
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So, Trump says NATO is obsolete, yet he doesn’t want to get rid of it. He is the GOP’s Hillary, i.e. you can’t pin him down.
But don’t forget to join Walter Block’s Libertarians for Trump group.
Thank goodness, I thought I’d have to go a whole hour without a fresh Trump article.
Dude, as long as people are going FULL RETARD about Trump and giving them shitfucktons of page hits, there are going to be endless Trump articles. You can’t fault them for that. It’s just business.
Nobody needs 23 Trump articles every day.
Apparently, H&R does. Somebody tell Bernie about this!
WHYCUM YOU LUV THA PINKO?
You jest, but I’m sure a commenter will be along shortly to piss and moan about that very thing.
“Something something… reason like Sanders… mumble mumble… why not say something nice about Trump… yada yada… stealth pinkos…”
RAW would love this “nobody needs 23” meme.
It’s just business.
Nothing personal?
But Ho Chi Minh was totally a moderate nationalist who didn’t want to go Communist – sure, and so were Tito, Nasser, Nehru, Kenyata and Mugabe. All paragons of free trade with the US, who never intervened to stop any of them coming to power.
Seriously, Trump said something dumb, but don’t please don’t go full Greenwald “if only US didn’t have military, everything would be fine everywhere”.
I’ve heard that Uncle Ho went Commie after the US reneged on WW2 promises to support Vietnamese independence – I haven’t followed up on that lead, but it sure makes for an interesting angle on the country and war.
Yeah, that’s the revisionist bullshit I had in mind. From Wiki:
It is hopeless Pan. The entire reason staff are illiterates when it comes to history. They each have a small notebook highlighting the important things their leftist 12th grade world history teacher told them and are certain that is all they need.
The fall of the iron curtain was the greatest single expansion of freedom since forever maybe. And of course these jackasses can find a way to spin it as an evil aggressive expansion of US influence. Nothing says “libertarian” like pissing all over millions of people escaping the chains of communism.
But hey, lets talk about how much there is to cheer about the Bernie Sanders campaign. Shall we?
But Ed is a Pole (well, OK, an American, but you know what I mean). Maybe I’m not rational in my Polonophillia, but I’d think Partitions, Warsaw 1920, Bzura, Cassino, Warsaw Uprising and post-war Troubles would explain why Poland in NATO is better than no NATO.
And shit, it’s not like Poles don’t pull their weight. Their army is still #3 by numbers (after US and Turkey) and they fought in Afghanistan (Article 5, NATO coming to US aid, BTW) and Iraq.
The Poles may be the last and best hope for Europe. They have pretty much the only functioning and effective Army left there. The Fins likely have one but they are neutrals.
And considering that Poland has spent most of the last 500 years under the boot of one great power or another and is a generally Democratic, pro western and peaceful country, you would think Ed would see their joining NATO as if not a good thing at least a not bad thing.
Objection, John! Downfall of Poland is barely 300 years old – first big disaster did hit around 1650, with Cossack uprising and Swedish invasion, but they managed to recover just in time to save their Aryan betters from Turks. It wasn’t till Peter, Catherine and Maria T got their countries rolling that Poles started getting well and truly fucked (and of course, because Poles, a lot of that fucking was self-inflicted).
Final Partition was at the end of 18th century and Republic was reconstituted in 1919. Even while under Soviet dominion, Poland had the honor of being the only Warsaw Pact country without Soviet troops in it, as Soviets understood that even Polish communists had the independent streak running through them.
Um…yeah, I picked my handle for a reason.
We won’t mention Poland’s craven participation in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia.
And I said “most of the last” not the last. I knew it wasn’t 500 years but couldn’t remember exactly how long.
Oh yes, they certainly took a piece of Czechoslovakia, once the country was dismembered. It was basically, hand over Polish-speaking minority to Germans or grab for self. Likewise, taking Wilno/Vilnus from Lithuania, just because Marshal Pilsudski was born there. Interwar Poland was certainly a dictatorship, just one that was less aggressive and more humane by far then its eastern and western neighbours.
Jeebus Christ, get a room, you two. Preferably an empty room at the Heritage Foundation.
And for those who don’t care about history, I forgot the most important contribution of Poland to H&R: a saying that goes “Not my circus, not my monkeys”.
Try applying it to Trumpticles, anything that Richman writes or abortion threads. It works wonders.
So it’s like the Frank’s Red Hot Sauce of Polish proverbs?
“”Try applying it to Trumpticles””
I did that with Ben-Gay once and whoooooo-wheeeee yeah don’t ever do that.
Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.
John, joining NATO post-SU is not an expansion of freedom, its more people hanging off the chains that bind us to Europe.
It may be great for them, so let them join NATO – but for us? What are they bringing to the table other than more obligations? The only thing this does for *us* is push the trigger-line further east.
NATO can stay – let is be a European thing. We can still be *allied* without being *in* – same as the UK can still trade and have diplomatic relations with the continent even if they leave the EU.
Preach it, Pan. This revisionist horseshit history grinds my gears, especially when it downplays the horrible brutality of the communists.
Look RC, Ho was comparatively decent compared to Mao and there was much to cheer about his defeat of the American and French imperialist forces.
The “Oh, those commies aren’t so bad. We certainly shouldn’t actually go to war to stop their armed takeovers” line needs to explain exactly how the people of South Korea would be better off as part of North Korea.
Easy, if US didn’t stop North Korea from reunifying, they would totally have become moderate free traders in about three years.
Fun fact – one of the reasons NK had a relatively easy time smashing SK was that Northern part was far richer and more industrialized at the time. Other factor was US not arming SK and leaving it as-is, while USSR sent T-34/85s to North Koreans because what would you do with them? Dump them into ocean like they were Shermans?
My other favorite Korea fact is that in 1953, South Korea was poorer than Haiti. But remember, evil western oppression and imperialism is why places like Haiti are poor.
Wake me when South Korea produces someone with the musical talent of Wyclef Jean.
My guess: I will be sleeping for a long time.
So Gang Nam Style undoes creating one of the worlds most advanced economies from nothing in less than two generations?
Okay, you got me there.
You have terrible taste in music, John.
I heard that John’s favorite band is Nickelback. Second favorite: Coldplay.
Fuck no. Everyone knows its Limp Bizkit.
You are joking about liking Limp Bizkit, when I think we can all agree that Limp Bizkit defined a generation.
Well, Crusty, you’re uh, you’re not wrong there.
Thank you, Machine.
Jesus, John, I was just joking. Even I’m not that cruel.
Read my post again Crusty. I don’t think it means what you think it does. In case you missed it, the last sentence wasn’t specifically meant to be sarcastic.
It’s odd, but there is a small but growing African-American K-Pop fan base.
There’s nothing like driving down Ala Moana Boulevard in Honolulu while listening to the J-Pop/K-Pop station on the radio. It’s quite an experience.
Seeing some of the female K-Pop performers, I find nothing odd about it.
I wouldn’t describe myself as a K-Pop fan, as the mute button is firmly pressed.
I wonder if Waveya counts as K-Pop, or just dancing.
For anyone who doesn’t know Waveya…just Google. You can thank me later. If you’re not on Team Ari, I hate you.
?Por que no los dos?
The male K-crap performers, on the other hand….
What about Psy…cy…gungdom dude.
Wake me when South Korea produces someone with the musical talent of Wyclef Jean
What, you didn’t like the Gangnam Style dude? /sarc
Fun fact – one of the reasons NK had a relatively easy time smashing SK was that Northern part was far richer and more industrialized at the time
Fun Fact #2- No doubt they would have stayed more industrialized than the south under a post Stalin USSR.
Central planning always determines who is the leader.
“The “Oh, those commies aren’t so bad. We certainly shouldn’t actually go to war to stop their armed takeovers” line needs to explain exactly how the people of South Korea would be better off as part of North Korea.”
While I don’t agree with the “commies aren’t so bad” angle, allow me to make the token non-interventionist argument.
1) Not our job to ensure South Korea is well off. I wish them luck, though.
2) My money says that if we went back in time and didn’t get involved, Korea as a whole stays bad until about 1991. By now, all of Korea would probably look nearly like South Korea does now.
^^^^THIS
Why would a unified Korea collapse with the Soviet Union, but not North Korea?
Struggle has a way of making people dig in their heels. Perhaps they would have hung onto Communism as long as Cuba, but I have my doubts, but maybe sanctions would have done it.
For much the same reason the Castros have held power for decades, or any other dictator – when you have an external enemy to point to its easy to control your populations, ‘for their own good’.
“The US involvement delayed impoverishment and mass murder in the South by couple decades.”
Did we? Or did we just front-load a lot of the impoverishment and mass murder into the war years?
And Matti Alanen is a ‘no no homo’.
That video is giving me flashbacks. Dude has the quintessential Finnish accent.
No, I’m not not going to not read this.
Quadruple negative?!? How dare you!
You won’t not be not loving it!
So how was it ?
Where does Johnson stand on NATO?
Trump even critiquing these sacred cows looks like an improvement to me. (They could always be made worse though)
Where does Johnson stand on NATO?”
Lyndon ?
That is actually another load of horseshit. There was a nasty civil war going on in Libya that broke out before we intervened. And those groups were most certainly involved in it.
Fuck you reason for making me be fair to Hillary.
The terrorist groups started to flock there after the Mohmar was killed, creating what Eli Lake called “scumbag woodstock.”
I have it on good authority Dan Quayle was no Non Kennedy.
No, but Kasich and Cruz and Clinton are worse.
And Bernie Sanders is a comparatively decent man next to all of them.
/signed
Matt Welch.
“Restructuring American hegemony to formalize the payment of tribute is hardly a non-interventionist stance.”
No, but it is a stellar example of the unintentional honesty we’ve come to so expect and value from Trump. His comments forced Hilary to make clear that US foreign policy is *not* a protection racket. It is something entirely different and much more wonderful.
If only it were a protection racket. At least that would be rational.
A better-for-the-public protection racket would involve direct payment to the US Gov. That payments go to the Clinton Foundation instead is just one of the more beautiful innovations in our modern and more socially just system.
+1 Delian League.
-1 Peloponnesian war
This seems like a good time to bring up the CIA involvement in that Greek coup, which indirectly led to the Greek financial crisis of the last couple of years.
And Trump is lying when he says he is a non interventionist but we can totally believe Bernie Sanders when he says he is going to repeal the Patriot Act and legalize pot.
Trump didn’t actually say he was a non-interventionist – the Washington Post did.
I actually do believe Bernie when he says he would legalize pot, and I believe him when he says he would *like* to repeal the Patriot Act, but I’ll bet he finds himself powerless to do so (since presidents can’t repeal legislation).
Reason.com Trump de Trump. Trump de Trumpity Trumpy Trump. Until one day, the Trumpa Trumpa TrumpaTrump. Trump de Trump. Da teedily dumb. From the creators of Der, and Tum Ta Tittaly Tum Ta Too, Reason.com is Da Trump Dee Trump Da Teetley Trumpee Trumpee Dumb. Rated PG-13.
Beautiful. Haven’t seen that particular gem in a little while.
It’s nice to hear the hits once in a while.
Rhetoric matters.
I think of Trump’s foreign policy this way. Yeah, it sounds nice compared to Lindsey Graham. He’s at least willing to say Iraq sucked. But I don’t think Trump has a guiding political philosophy that would steer him to say Iraq sucked so much as he just likes saying anything that makes him feel powerful. “They were wrong about Iraq, I was right” – great power trip. “We shouldn’t police other countries without them paying for our awesome service.” – great power trip. Actual consistent policy of noninterventionism and human rights – not good power trip, so you’ll never hear it out of Trump.
So if he’s at least not reliably warlike, his level of warlikeness at any given time is correlated to how it would feel to his ego.
^This^
*GROOOOAAAANNN*
I’m sorry that you have to suffer, Paul, but reading your posts does make me feel better about Vancouver. It’s gotten to the point where I look and go “yes, our idiots are dumb, our idiots love aping Seattle. But there’s so much stupid down there, even our idiots cannot keep up and import all of it!”
Oh, you wanna know the latest ‘Seattle Gripe’? I have a friend who’s a Metro Bus driver. King County employee. Note that “King County” has fuck all to do with Martin Luther King, but King Country declared itself “Martin Luther King County” a few years ago, just as PC2.0 was kicking into high gear nationally.
Anyhoo, as a King County Metro (bus) driver, they have to ‘punch’ peoples’ little transfer sheets. The punch machine apparently tends to line up with Martin Luther King’s little visage on the slip, and punches a hole where his face is supposed to soothe the riders into believing they’re entering a “safe space”. Seattle Riders have begun to complain about this hole-punch intolerance which may actually force a reprinting of all the transfer slips.
Oh fuck, I just googled it. It’s a thing. It’s actually a fucking thing.
Why? Why can’t I copy paste from this? It’s amazing…beautiful…the words fail me.
They should have sent a poet.
It’s a thing. My friend texted me about it earlier, but I didn’t realize that it would show up in Google search as an actual thing. Jesus tapdancing Christ people are stupid.
…Words cannot express… I have no words…
“The patriarchy hates being laughed at!”
This is true, actually. I was sitting down with the Patriarchy the other day and he was positively throbbing with anger at all the people laughing at him.
I think they’re finally starting to wear him down.
“even while the band tackles serious topics like street harassment and the cultural shift brought about by the influx of tech money to Seattle”
And how much do you want to bet that every. single. member. of the band grew up in an affluent suburb and went to private school? Each member is wearing four figures worth of high-fashion clothing and makeup easy.
Punk my ass.
It’s the three-car-garage band!
Yeah, that shit irritates me to no end.
There’s always one skinny dude in the band with a look on his face like, “uh, yeah, uhm… i play drums… don’t ask”
Also = I (heart) “Tacocat”. I was hoping every band would have a vagina-combo-euphemism
But how can they pay our debt if they don’t have dollars from trade?
But then they would get the jobs building bombs that belong to every Congressional District in Americu.
Unless we can get them to pay us for building the bombs.
This shit with us ( being US taxpayers) paying to build the bombs ( military) that allow certain European countries to be somewhere on the socialist scale while telling us we should copy them ?.
That time needs to end.
AMERICU !!?!
P.S. Don’t forget that the very worst part, that part that Obama decided didn’t take effect until after he left office, of Obamacare hits in 2017.
If you plan on getting sick soon, do it now.
It’s impossible to be anti-trade and non-interventionist because why?
Because, what Sevo said.
TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!,
Out of 15 articles, starting with the AM links, 6 headline Trump and the others probably mention him. I don’t bother reading ANYTHING that headlines the loudmouth, anything that can be said of him has been thirty times over…TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!
Oh, and TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!
Mushroom mushroom!
Please, please, please. Someone needs to do a Trump mashup of that.
Badger, badger, badger.
“Despite broad bipartisan support for NATO, there’s little in the way of justification for the military alliance. Serbia (the aggressor in Kosovo) never presented a national security threat to the United States,”
Surely that’s not what NATO is for, it’s a military alliance to ensure the security of all the members as this is deemed beneficial to all, not just something to address US national security.
I read somewhere that something like one in four jobs in the US depends on a relationship with Europe, meaning that is Western Europe went out of business so would a pretty big slice of the US economy. Seems like a reasonable reason for maintaining an alliance.
“I read somewhere that something like one in four jobs in the US depends on a relationship with Europe, meaning that is Western Europe went out of business so would a pretty big slice of the US economy. Seems like a reasonable reason for maintaining an alliance.”
And this is just the sort of thing that starts to pull at the bonds of the Union. Because while this is probably true of the East Coast, I’ll bet it’s not true for the West – meaning the ratio is probably actually much higher on the East Coast, whereas on the West Coast we probably have a closer economic relationship with East Asia.
It’s the argument over trade with pre-1812 New Orleans all over.
why would NATO have anything to do with Western Europe “going out of business”?
do whole countries just “go out of business” in your mind? like, the whole of England just packs up and says “yo Kate get the lights on your way out!”
He was also for sending troops to Darfur, wasn’t he?
Most Democrats were. Hell, we even got entire documentary movies by the Film Actors Guild on our “failure to act” in Darfur.
WHITE PEOPLE!
We already indexed our minimum wage to indlation and have you seen the per pupil spending of MPS?
The typo in your message made me read it as “indexed our minimum wage to indignation”
Which would be an accurate summation.
I truly despise phone typing.
I would put our BLM up against the best the rest of the country offers.
Yeah, I heard he doesn’t even lift anymore.