{"id":45510,"date":"2024-01-17T17:58:40","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T01:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=45510"},"modified":"2024-01-17T17:59:13","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T01:59:13","slug":"that-old-canard-of-isolationism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/17\/that-old-canard-of-isolationism\/","title":{"rendered":"That Old Canard of Isolationism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views<\/a> with the author\u2019s permission.<\/i><\/p>\n

In my \u201cdaily briefing\u201d from Reuters this morning, an old canard popped up again:<\/p>\n

As\u00a0Donald Trump strengthens his lead in the race for the Republican nomination, some US allies are worried about an American turn toward isolationism<\/a>, a shift that would reflect an electorate largely focused on domestic issues.<\/em><\/p>\n

We can\u2019t have a U.S. electorate focused on domestic issues! That would be \u201cisolationism.\u201d America must lead! Because Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Gaza, et al.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n\"\"<\/picture>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
When Donald Trump was president, the U.S. military was involved in 40% of the world\u2019s countries in its war on terror. Isolationist? (Smithsonian\u00a0Magazine,\u00a01\/19)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

These concerns about \u201cisolationism\u201d always amuse me. The U.S. has roughly 800 overseas bases and a military configured for global reach, global power, and full-spectrum dominance. What are the odds that the U.S. empire is going to abandon all this and turn to isolationism under the visionary and dynamic leadership of Donald J. Trump? It\u2019s not like America became isolationist when Trump was president from 2017 to 2021.<\/p>\n

The smartest thing the next U.S. president could do is to start dismantling this costly global empire while reinvesting in America. This is not \u201cisolationism.\u201d This is common sense. Yet \u201cisolationism\u201d is the scary word that\u2019s tossed out there to prevent any downsizing of America\u2019s imperial bootprint.<\/p>\n

Speaking of empire and bootprints, William Hartung has an excellent article<\/a> at TomDispatch on the bottomless pit that is Pentagon spending. As Hartung succinctly puts it in his subtitle: \u201cOverspending on the Pentagon is Stealing Our Future.\u201d You can see how the military-industrial-congressional complex strikes back at any talk of focusing on domestic concerns \u2013 America can\u2019t come home and put its own house in order. That\u2019s isolationist! That would \u201cworry\u201d our allies, who need us and our global military.<\/p>\n

Maybe those allies, if they\u2019re truly worried, could choose to spend more on their own militaries? Not that I\u2019m worried that our allies genuinely fear a less interventionist America.<\/p>\n

As I read and digested Hartung\u2019s article, I had the following disconnected thoughts that I sent along to a friend.<\/p>\n

It seems one of the few things Congress can agree on is funding the military, weaponry, bases, etc.\u00a0 They continue to feed a monster because they personally profit from it and\/or are afraid to challenge it.\u00a0 Presidents as diverse as Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden refuse to challenge it as well.<\/em><\/p>\n

The entire system is cowardly.\u00a0 What the British termed LMF: lack of moral fiber.\u00a0 Or what\u00a0MLK Jr. diagnosed as a form of spiritual death.<\/em><\/p>\n

The solution?\u00a0 Wish I knew.\u00a0 The awfulness of the Vietnam War spawned a strong and committed antiwar movement, but now America’s wars and profits have been outsourced to Ukraine, Israel, etc.\u00a0 The monster is flexible and adaptable.\u00a0 It is so intertwined with our society and culture today that to reform it meaningfully would require major invasive surgery that might just kill the patient, meaning America as we know it.<\/em><\/p>\n

I urge you to read Hartung\u2019s article and then ask yourself if America is in any danger of turning to isolationism under Biden or Trump or any other major candidate for the presidency in 2024. The idea is arrant nonsense.<\/p>\n

William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF). He taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools. He writes at Bracing Views<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author\u2019s permission. In my \u201cdaily briefing\u201d from Reuters this morning, an old canard popped up again: As\u00a0Donald Trump strengthens his lead in the race for the Republican nomination, some US allies are worried about an American turn toward isolationism, a shift that would reflect an electorate largely focused on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-45510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"We can't have a president that focuses on domestic concerns!"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45510"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45523,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45510\/revisions\/45523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45510"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=45510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}