The Runback: America, Alone
If American allies cannot rely on America to live up to its commitments, how will America be expected to call upon them when it’s our time to act again?
Welcome to another week of The Runback. Have you been enjoying The Duckpin? Do you have comments or suggestions? Do you want to write for us? Let me know at theduckpin@gmail.com. And please be sure to follow on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and YouTube. Thanks in advance.
News and Politics
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The Monday Thought
For over thirty years, the United States has been the world’s superpower. This is beyond contestation. And that system, for the most part, has worked. America has been the leader of the free world. Threats to the global order have been relatively neutralized. Sure, there have been disruptions to the order. Dar es Salaam. Nairobi. September 11th. The invasion of Iraq. The Financial Crisis. COVID. But the order has maintained itself.
And yet, successive administrations have sought to bring about not continued American leadership, but an unnecessary and unwise American retreat.
The Obama Administration began a period of international weakness. Obama’s foreign policy was a series of failures, one after another:
A soft policy on Venezuela that sought practically to legitimize the communist government of Hugo Chavez;
Did little to nothing in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to seize the Crimea, all after laughing off Mitt Romney’s description of Russia as our biggest geopolitical adversary during the 2012 campaign;
Implemented the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran Deal, which took a laughably weak position on Iran’s nuclear program.
Ended US operations in Iraq, which gave de facto control of the country to anti-American forces;
Let the Assad Regime blow past the “Red Line” that Obama set on the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Civil War
The Trump Administration was equally terrible on foreign policy, just in different ways;
Coddled dictators like Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duerte, and Kim Jong Un, including becoming the first American President to visit North Korea;
Withdrew the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership;
Constantly antagonized our neighboring ally in Mexico;
Put a hold on aid to the Ukrainian military, which became the basis of his first impeachment;
Threatened to step back US involvement in NATO;
Negotiated a peace settlement with the terrorists in the Taliban and practically handed Afghanistan back to them.
Trump does get credit for two things; ending the thawing of relations with Cuba and for ending the Obama Administration’s Iran Deal.
Amusingly, one of the better things that Trump did was withdrawal from NAFTA. Trump railed against NAFTA as a horrible deal, then negotiated the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which is basically NAFTA with a few extra things thrown in.
The Biden Administration has been just as weak as Biden and Trump’s. While Biden has wisely continued and increased US support Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion, Biden has failed in a number of other areas;
Normalized relations with Cuba after Trump rescinded Obama’s normalization;
Reimplemented the Iran Deal;
Withdrew the final American troops from Afghanistan;
Most alarming is the Biden refusal to provide some weapons aid to the Israeli government in their ongoing war against Hamas terrorists.
US foreign policy for the last several years has focused on a few key aspects:
Dithering on whether or not to support allies during times of crisis;
Withdrawal from certain international hotspots;
A weak posture in dealing with rogue nations.
Trump of course is a special case in this regard, because he wants to dismantle the alliance structure with NATO and withdraw the US back into its 1920’s and 1930’s isolationist cocoon. While he’s at it, he will also happily sell our American interests to appease dictatorial strongmen like Vladimir Putin.
Let me take you back to a few events from the past.
Do you know how many countries joined the US in the Gulf War? 42
Do you know how many countries joined the US in the War in Afghanistan? 51
Do you know how many countries joined the US in the Iraq War? 40
The point of all of this is the fact that the United States does nothing alone. When the United States acts, the United States never acts alone. And yet, our foreign policy these days seems designed to make sure that America will have to do just that.
If American allies cannot rely on America to live up to its commitments, how will America be expected to call upon them when it’s our time to act again? If there is another attack on our soil, will our allies step up for us if we cannot be trusted to stand up for them?
I’m afraid no matter who wins the General Election, American interests abroad will be taking a giant step backward in the next four years thanks to two decades of foreign policy focused not on American strength, but American weakness.