Is there a narrow line between charming naïveté and being dangerously deranged? If so in her most recent Washington Post column Katrina vanden Heuvel is teetering on its edge. In it she urges Democrats to give peace a chance:
In a sane world, Trump’s escalation of nuclear dangers would provoke a much louder outcry, especially from Democratic politicians who have taken up the mantle of resistance to the president. But Democrats, with a few notable exceptions, haven’t offered alternatives to Trump’s calamitous, con-man foreign policy. While there are a number of explanations for the party’s response, perhaps a central part of the problem is that, with less than six months until the midterms, Democrats still don’t have a coherent message on national security. Without control of the White House or Congress, the moment is ripe for Democrats to rethink the failed establishment approach that has guided the party for too long. But when potential 2020 contenders gathered recently at the Center for American Progress’ Ideas Conference, national security wasn’t even on the agenda.
Let’s look at the record. President Obama expanded the war in Afghanistan, attacked Libya, went to war in Syria, and killed more people with drones than his predecessor by an order of magnitude. Of the candidates for the two major political parties, who was the more hawkish? Hillary Clinton by a mile.
Liberal interventionists are hawks, too. Neither major political party offers anything other than endless war.
A terminal event in the career of an American politician who wants to be president is the perception of weakness. Projecting toughness and belligerence seems to be a plus. You can talk about peace, but only in passing and only in the context of America having kicked ass and trounced whatever opposition is current. No one wants to leave Afghanistan and be accused of weakness when things fall apart there.
Clearly, both parties bear some fault here, but in this case I think a lot of blame goes to the American people. See anything like a peace movement going on? Lot of public outcry about our Forever wars?
Steve
Which is another way of saying what I said in the post: we’re stuck with endless war.