They have a lot to teach us, particularly to prepare for China.
One thought on “The Great MAGA Reversal”
The “original” MAGA position on Ukraine was, unfortunately, the same sort of dim-witted and myopic idiocy of its 1930s-era America First forbears that presaged WW2. Not being interested in far away places doesn’t mean far away places aren’t interested in you.
When Trump entered office for the second time, the US had six consequential enemies. In descending order of importance, they were: the PRC, Russia, the DPRK, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. It also has a few other enemies that are not consequential even if they wish they were, Nicaragua being the most significant of these based purely on geography.
It strikes me that the ultimate America First policy would be to actively rid the world of our consequential enemies. That would make the nation genuinely safe for even the most myopic and stupid among the MAGAns.
The Trump 2.0 administration has taken one of our erstwhile enemies off the list – Venezuela. If it would quit farting around and simply send in troops and liquidate the current regime, the same could soon be said of Cuba.
Iran, after a promising start – followed by the seemingly inevitable feckless mucking about with “diplomacy” – seems back on track for the only possible conclusion consistent with long-term US interests – the utter and complete destruction of the current Iranian regime and the confiscation of all of its fissionables. The destruction of its foreign levies we can leave to the Israelis.
If we had weighed in decisively in favor of Ukraine from the first hour of the Trump 2.0 Administration, we might already have witnessed Putin signing the instrument of unconditional surrender to Ukraine in the Kremlin with a company of Ukrainian tanks outside in Red Square to underline the change of status.
Even given the erstwhile general fecklessness about Russia and entirely unwarranted hostility toward Ukraine by the Trump 2.0 administration, it is certainly possible to reverse those own-goals and be in at the kill when Russia goes down for good. Given the rate of incremental advantage Ukraine keeps advancing anent Russia, even without much additional US help, Ukraine now seems fated to win the current war in, at most, two more years and perhaps as soon as the end of the current year.
Any true defeat of Russia, of course, must include confiscation of its nukes and fissionables stockpiles as well as the destruction of all strategic delivery systems and the industrial facilities used to build all of this.
Thus, if the Trump 2.0 administration plays its cards right from here on out, there is a very real possibility that the list of consequential enemies extant when it took office could be reduced by a full 2/3 by the time it leaves.
If, of course, the PRC comes unstuck from its own fundamentally insoluble internal problems before then, then the entire list can be put paid to on Trump’s last watch. The odds probably favor the PRC and the DPRK still being problems for President Rubio/Vance to deal with, but we – and Trump – still might get lucky.
As noted, it would be nice if the systematic destruction of US enemies was part of the MAGA agenda from the get-go, but one goes to war with the army one has, not the one one wishes one had. We may manage to stumble our way to victory even so.
The “original” MAGA position on Ukraine was, unfortunately, the same sort of dim-witted and myopic idiocy of its 1930s-era America First forbears that presaged WW2. Not being interested in far away places doesn’t mean far away places aren’t interested in you.
When Trump entered office for the second time, the US had six consequential enemies. In descending order of importance, they were: the PRC, Russia, the DPRK, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. It also has a few other enemies that are not consequential even if they wish they were, Nicaragua being the most significant of these based purely on geography.
It strikes me that the ultimate America First policy would be to actively rid the world of our consequential enemies. That would make the nation genuinely safe for even the most myopic and stupid among the MAGAns.
The Trump 2.0 administration has taken one of our erstwhile enemies off the list – Venezuela. If it would quit farting around and simply send in troops and liquidate the current regime, the same could soon be said of Cuba.
Iran, after a promising start – followed by the seemingly inevitable feckless mucking about with “diplomacy” – seems back on track for the only possible conclusion consistent with long-term US interests – the utter and complete destruction of the current Iranian regime and the confiscation of all of its fissionables. The destruction of its foreign levies we can leave to the Israelis.
If we had weighed in decisively in favor of Ukraine from the first hour of the Trump 2.0 Administration, we might already have witnessed Putin signing the instrument of unconditional surrender to Ukraine in the Kremlin with a company of Ukrainian tanks outside in Red Square to underline the change of status.
Even given the erstwhile general fecklessness about Russia and entirely unwarranted hostility toward Ukraine by the Trump 2.0 administration, it is certainly possible to reverse those own-goals and be in at the kill when Russia goes down for good. Given the rate of incremental advantage Ukraine keeps advancing anent Russia, even without much additional US help, Ukraine now seems fated to win the current war in, at most, two more years and perhaps as soon as the end of the current year.
Any true defeat of Russia, of course, must include confiscation of its nukes and fissionables stockpiles as well as the destruction of all strategic delivery systems and the industrial facilities used to build all of this.
Thus, if the Trump 2.0 administration plays its cards right from here on out, there is a very real possibility that the list of consequential enemies extant when it took office could be reduced by a full 2/3 by the time it leaves.
If, of course, the PRC comes unstuck from its own fundamentally insoluble internal problems before then, then the entire list can be put paid to on Trump’s last watch. The odds probably favor the PRC and the DPRK still being problems for President Rubio/Vance to deal with, but we – and Trump – still might get lucky.
As noted, it would be nice if the systematic destruction of US enemies was part of the MAGA agenda from the get-go, but one goes to war with the army one has, not the one one wishes one had. We may manage to stumble our way to victory even so.