Most things in this excellent article will be familiar to readers of this blog. The basic point is that the media - BO narrative of the past 8 years has given us Tump -- and he counts the ways.
This is a good example paragraph. I think it is safe to say that Russia, China, ISIS and Cuba have enjoyed the BO administration very much -- are there ANY allies that have? I don't think so.
I am worried about Trump’s flamboyance and about his sloppy and dangerous references to NATO and U.S. foreign commitments. But from the reaction to his ad hoc and sometimes incoherent musings, one would think that the next president was inheriting a time of peace and stability — not one in which the entire Middle East has imploded, reset with Putin has become a nightmare of Russian expansionism not seen since the Soviet period, “jayvee” and “on-the-run” terrorists are insidiously destroying the calm of the entire international order, and China is creating artificial islands with commensurate “sovereign” air and sea space. If there is one region in the world that is safer and more stable than it was in 2008, would someone please identify it? Iraq? Syria? Ukraine? Libya? North Korea? France? Baton Rouge? For now I am worried about what was and is rather than what might be. Are there any traditional U.S. allies that feel more secure in their partnership with us? Israel? Japan? France?I'm not really bothered about the NATO references. There is no question the USSR was an existential threat to the US and we were correct to "pay any price, bear any burden" to combat that repressive and expansionist ideology. Of course aside from the fact that it is Kennedy that uttered that "pay any price" phrase, Democrats were pretty much in the "better Red than dead" camp!
Eventually we will have to defeat Islam, another repressive and expansionist ideology, where it lives or they will continue to slaughter innocents where we live. W gave us a superb start prior to BO, but now we are back to pre 9-11 vulnerability with terrorist attacks world wide increasing in frequency and devastation.
The Islamists are equal opportunity slaughterers -- they find European or even Asian blood to be just as red as BOistanis, so if Europe etc wants security work done, they can damned well pay for it. They certainly ARE NOT going to pay for it if we keep saying that we will cover them "no matter what". I really can't imagine any ally that feels confident that mr "red lines" or miss "What difference, at this point, does it make?" are likely to come to the aid of anyone but themselves.
The whole thing is worth a read. Hanson shows off a bit in his discussion of Satyricon, Scipio, etc. Satyricon is like "classical pulp fiction", Trimalchio is an ostentatious rich cad in it, Scipio is a great and honorable general, Catiline, Clodius, and Milo are various schemers, traitors and murderers ... the idea of "sterling character or morals" in post-America BOistan is as laughable as it was in post morality Rome.
Little wordy but worth it.
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