Food For Thought Tuesday

There is more to write about the Trump Doctrine, but it could literally become several doctoral theses in the years to come. Meantime, there is a lot of good food for thought out there, and I’m going to share some of it here.

Older, but still worth the read is why there won’t be a draft or WWIII.

How Dare You Not Include Us??? The real reason behind some of the strong reaction.

The media misses not one, but many huge stories. This is but one of them.

Is Donald Trump writing a farewell letter to the Middle East? An interesting possibility.

If anyone thinks that Journolist is dead, take a look around. One good example

I agree that the leadership of the Democratic party hates Trump with a passion that leaves them no way, no room, to love anything else. To that end, they have embraced the enemies of the United States as a mean to defeat Trump. Just one part of the mask slipping. For them, it doesn’t matter if Americans are killed or the interests of the United States and its Citizens are compromised — all that matters is winning and defeating Trump.

A companion piece to the excellent story linked yesterday in the discussion of the Trump Doctrine. Read it, and try not to weep.

A Never-Trumper has an epiphany. Now if we could only get Rod Dreher, who’s writing on faith and issues in various churches I read somewhat religiously, to quit clutching his pearls, pissing his panties, declaring FlounceCon1, and flouncing to his fainting couch every time Trump inhales…

The media is in the tank for the DNC, and would be willing to die (literally, I suspect) to protect the illusion and reputation (such as it is) of Obama. But one example is this cringe-worthy effort out of the rapidly tanking CNN.

More questions than answers. Have to agree, the news reporting today does bring that out.

The world is indeed watching, and not just the Iranian leadership. U.S. leadership, and the leadership of the so-called free world, is being watched as well. The masks are slipping, will they come completely off in the days to come?

The Emperor’s New Clothes

The old children’s story and cautionary tale seems to be getting a bit of a makeover. At least as it applies to Iran and America’s foreign policy.

An interesting article states that Iran and America are both naked now, in that Iran’s power was and is an illusion generated by Washington’s handling of Iran. The author makes a very good case, and I will simply note that almost anyone with two neurons to form a synapse long ago figured out that Jimmah (we elected the wrong Carter) was terminally clueless and naked in terms of the article. Thank goodness only in those terms…

The idiocy of our Iran policy, starting with Chief Idiot Carter, is indeed now laid bare. It is clear that our past emperors had no clothes (or much of a clue) in their dealings with Iran.

Trump, however, has shown that he at least was clothed and had a clue. What’s more, he’s provided those smart enough to so what I think is an amazing wardrobe: The Trump Doctrine.

It really is very simple, having but two or three parts depending on how one outlines it. First, if you want peace, then we want peace and to engage in free trade beneficial to all. Second, if you kill an American, you will die. Third, if you use a proxy then both you and the proxy will die.

The complexity woven into it, however, is interesting. The first part stands a great deal of existing foreign policy on its head. Regime change? Not our job, that is up to the people of the nation in question (as it should be). Parts two and three may set up the conditions where an oppressed people can take matters into their own hands, but that is just a happy benefit of going back to an older take on treatment of our Citizens.

Free and fair trade is going to take more room and time than I have this morning. Trade is a way to reward, to the benefit of the populations of both countries. It can also be a carrot to encourage changes desired by the U.S. It can also be a way to assist regime change without having to employ troops. For a historical example that applies to some degree, look to the Dutch “Golden” island and it’s role in the American Revolution. Trade can also be a formidable weapon, as Trump has repeatedly shown over the last three years.

Parts two and three are, in my opinion, long overdue. There was a time where if you made it a point to harm American’s, there were repercussions. Look at the “War of Jenkin’s Ear.” I think the Marine’s have something about one or two places where they went for just that reason in a song of which they are rather fond.

There is much more to get into with the doctrine. For now, I would simply note that past American foreign policy as a whole, not just with Iran, has been shown to be naked per the article. There are already strong efforts underway to insist that this is not so, and that we must, simply must, return to that threadbare charade. With luck, that will not happen. We should make the most of this new clothing, armor really, that has been given to us.