Pat usually has it right ... I must have grown up at some point!!! On Sat, Apr 30, 2016 at 10:50 AM, MJ <[email protected]> wrote:
> > April 28, 2016 > > *At Last, America First! *By Patrick J. Buchanan > > Whether the establishment likes it or not, and it evidently does not, > there is a revolution going on in America. > > The old order in this capital city is on the way out, America is crossing > a great divide, and there is no going back. > > Donald Trump’s triumphant march to the nomination in Cleveland, virtually > assured by his five-state sweep Tuesday, confirms it, as does his foreign > policy address of Wednesday. > > * Two minutes into his speech before the Center for the National Interest > <https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trump-foreign-policy-speech>*, > Trump declared that the “major and overriding theme” of his administration > will be “America first.” Right down the smokestack! > > Gutsy and brazen it was to use that phrase, considering the demonization > of the great anti-war movement of 1940-41, which was backed by the young > patriots John F. Kennedy and his brother Joe, Gerald Ford and Sargent > Shriver, and President Hoover and Alice Roosevelt. > > Whether the issue is trade, immigration or foreign policy, says Trump, “we > are putting the American people first again.” U.S. policy will be dictated > by U.S. national interests. > > By what he castigated, and what he promised, Trump is repudiating both the > fruits of the Obama-Clinton foreign policy, and the legacy of Bush > Republicanism and neoconservatism. > > When Ronald Reagan went home, says Trump, “our foreign policy began to > make less and less sense. Logic was replaced with foolishness and > arrogance, which ended in one foreign policy disaster after another.” > > He lists the results of 15 years of Bush-Obama wars in the Middle East: > civil war, religious fanaticism, thousands of Americans killed, trillions > of dollars lost, a vacuum created that ISIS has filled. > > Is he wrong here? How have all of these wars availed us? Where is the “New > World Order” of which Bush I rhapsodized at the U.N.? > > Can anyone argue that our interventions to overthrow regimes and erect > democratic states in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen have > succeeded and been worth the price we have paid in blood and treasure, and > the devastation we have left in our wake? > > George W. Bush declared that America’s goal would become “to end tyranny > in our world.” An utterly utopian delusion, to which Trump retorts by > recalling John Quincy Adams’ views on America: “She goes not abroad in > search of monsters to destroy.” > > To the neocons’ worldwide crusade for democracy, Trump’s retort is that it > was always a “dangerous idea” to think “we could make Western democracies > out of countries that had no experience or interest in becoming Western > democracies.” > > We are “overextended,” he declared, “We must rebuild our military.” Our > NATO allies have been freeloading for half a century. > > NAFTA was a lousy deal. In running up $4 trillion in trade surpluses since > Bush I, the Chinese have been eating our lunch. > > This may be rankest heresy to America’s elites, but Trump outlines a > foreign policy past generations would have recognized as common sense: Look > out for your own country and your own people first. > > Instead of calling President Putin names, Trump says he would talk to the > Russians to “end the cycle of hostility,” if he can. > > “Ronald Reagan must be rolling over in his grave,” sputtered Sen. Lindsey > Graham, who quit the race to avoid a thrashing by the Donald in his home > state of South Carolina. > > But this writer served in Reagan’s White House, and the Gipper was always > seeking a way to get the Russians to negotiate. He leapt at the chance for > a summit with Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva and Reykjavik. > > “Our goal is peace and prosperity, not war,” says Trump, “unlike other > candidates, war and aggression will not be my first instinct.” > > Is that not an old and good Republican tradition? > > Dwight Eisenhower ended the war in Korea and kept us out of any other. > Richard Nixon ended the war in Vietnam, negotiated arms agreements with > Moscow, and made an historic journey to open up Mao’s China. > > Reagan used force three times in eight years. He put Marines in Lebanon, > liberated Grenada and sent FB-111s over Tripoli to pay Col. Gadhafi back > for bombing a Berlin discotheque full of U.S. troops. > > Reagan later believed putting those Marines in Lebanon, where 241 were > massacred, to be the worst mistake of his presidency. > > Military intervention for reasons of ideology or nation building is not an > Eisenhower or Nixon or Reagan tradition. It is not a Republican tradition. > It is a Bush II-neocon deformity, an aberration that proved disastrous for > the United States and the Middle East. > > The New York Times headline declared that Trump’s speech was full of > “Paradoxes,” adding, “Calls to Fortify Military and to Use It Less.” > > But isn’t that what Reagan did? Conduct the greatest military buildup > since Ike, then, from a position of strength, negotiate with Moscow a > radical reduction in nuclear arms? > > “We’re getting out of the nation-building business,” says Trump. > > “The nation-state remains the true foundation for happiness and harmony.” > No more surrenders of sovereignty on the altars of “globalism.” > > Is that not a definition of a patriotism that too many among our arrogant > elites believe belongs to yesterday? > > http://buchanan.org/blog/last-america-first-125165 > > -- > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > * Read the latest breaking news, and more. > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "PoliticalForum" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- brine http://brineb.blogspot.com/ -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
