At the Republican National Convention, War Is Peace

Trump’s supporters tried to sell “peace through strength”—and war for “generations to come.”

Rep. Mike Waltz (R–Fla.) is a fan of forever wars if there ever was one.

"Under President [Donald] Trump we had a president who defeated ISIS, broke Iran, stood with Israel, always stood with our allies, made China pay," Waltz bragged at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night. "You didn't see any spy balloons under President Trump, did you? He deterred Russia. You know what he told [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin? You try anything, and I'll take the tops off the Kremlin."

And to round it all out, Waltz called President Joe Biden's military withdrawal from Afghanistan "a stain on our national conscience," promising instead that Trump brings "peace through America's strength."

That was the message of the RNC's third night. Although some speakers made nods to ending the "endless wars" or achieving "peace through strength," the convention was a relentless attack on any kind of military drawdown or diplomacy—or as former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich put it, "appeasement in the world."

Instead, speakers called for Americans to prepare for an endless struggle against a kaleidoscope of enemies, especially in the Middle East and Muslim world. The night began with a speech by Rep. Brian Mast (R–Fla.), a U.S. Army veteran who was wounded in Afghanistan and later volunteered for the Israeli military.

"Biden and [Vice President Kamala] Harris's weakness invites aggression and our enemies are on the march," he said. "Russia invaded Ukraine. Hamas attacked Israel. Iran is funding terror across the Middle East and the Chinese Community Party has Taiwan in their crosshairs."

How did Republicans reconcile this belligerent worldview with a message of peace? Vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance said that "we will send our kids to war only when we must, but as President Trump showed with the elimination of ISIS and so much more, when we punch, we will punch hard."

Former Trump administration official Richard Grenell similarly claimed a vote for Trump is "a vote for the strength and grace that will bring peace and prosperity back to you," because enemies would "dare not escalate" against him.

It's a new spin on a stale old sales pitch. By pretending that the problem is a lack of will rather than the real limits to American power, Republicans are offering to win without sacrifice. Like the Bush administration before them, the next Republican administration will learn that it cannot just "create our own reality" by wanting it hard enough.

Bizarrely, Grenell railed against exactly the kind of policies he implemented during the Trump administration. "We intervened in other countries' affairs and signed treaties that only benefited other nations" during past administrations, Grenell complained. "We spent too many years ignoring America's priorities."

Old habits die hard, apparently. During his tenure as U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020, Grenell aggressively pushed his German hosts to stop doing business with Russia and Iran and made "unprecedented" interventions in German politics. His crowning diplomatic achievement was a Serbia-Kosovo peace agreement that included a random laundry list of U.S. demands, from recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel to decriminalizing homosexuality.

Almost every foreign policy speaker also condemned the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Some tried to argue that the problem was not the deal to withdraw, which Trump had initiated, but the way Biden implemented it. "President Trump orchestrated an orderly end to the Afghanistan war with no American killed in nearly two years. Biden ordered a chaotic panic-filled withdrawal that left 13 American troops and hundreds of Afghans dead," Gingrich said.

Other speakers didn't even pretend to want peace—and actually argued for new wars. Former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan promised that Trump would designate Latin American drug cartels as terrorist groups and "wipe [them] off the face of the earth." Many Republicans have made no secret of their desire to invade Mexico in order to expand the war on drugs.

U.S. Army veteran David Bellavia, meanwhile, promised the next Trump administration would seek vengeance against all of its foreign enemies for "generations" to come—in other words, endless war.

"Our enemies will know that American power is as decisive as it is overwhelming. And if you provoke the United States of America, we will hurt you," he thundered. "If you threaten citizens of the United States of America, we will hurt you for generations to come, so help me God."

The forever wars are dead. Long live the forever wars.