So...this is a common retort being used against democrats by MAGA when we dont wanna fund the war with iran. The argument is we're unpatriotic, that we hate the troops, we hate America, blah blah blah.
And it's BS.
First of all, let's not even BEGIN to discuss the ways Donald Trump hates the troops. Isn't he the "losers and suckers" guy? The one who had disdain for combat veterans who died over seas for being losers? Oh, and are we talking the guy who dodged the draft because he had "bone spurs"? Yeah, we got your number, Donald. Keep the idea of others hating the troops out of your mouth.
However, there is one thing Donald WAS right about, and it was the fact that Iraq was a mistake and we shouldnt get in more unnecessary regime change wars. If a war is necessary, it's one thing. But Iran did nothing to provoke this war. We just created some BS jusifications to rationalize it that were flimsy AF and we went in. And, again, the big reasons we're there? Epstein, Israel, oil. That's it. That and religious nutjobbery about bringing about the end times. There's no legitimate reason to be in this war.
And if there's no legitimate reason to be in this war, then guess what? Maybe we shouldn't be. And maybe we shouldnt be risking our own soldiers over such a pointless endeavor? What did I do the second I heard the first troops died in this war? I wrote an article about it. And I condemned the war. Because I don't hate the troops. I want our troops to remain safe. And the best way to keep them safe is not to deploy them in unnecessary conflicts. unncessary conflicts puts our soldiers in harms way, which means they come home in caskets. But for Trump, that's an acceptable sacrifice. "Oh well, it's war, some people will die." Really? And after he has that cavalier attitude the right has the gall to say WE hate the troops? We're the ones trying to protect them.
There's a lot of talk about "America first", but for all that talk, the right never delivers. Bush campaigned in 2000 on not getting involved with UN peacekeeping missions and kinda just minding our own business. But then 9/11 happened and he turned into a massive neocon who got us into two major wars. Admittedly, Afghanistan was at least SOMEWHAT necessary. I do think Bush could've negotiated with the taliban better and got Bin Laden that way. But let's say we didnt agree with their terms. Okay, so we go in. I kinda think it was unnecessary. The american people wanted blood after 9/11 and being alive and remembering that time period quite well, they weren't gonna take no for an answer. And then Bush got us into iraq, which...at best was due to his own incompetence, and at worst was because of malicious intent. But at least Bush had that whole plausible deniability insofar as the nefarious option goes. He really kinda was that stupid.
Trump though? No. This is pure malice. He lied to get us into a war that he campaigned against getting us into. Why? Again, Epstein, Israel, oil, and religious nutjobbery. None of which are legitimate reasons. And he's putting our troops on the line, for a war that has no clear goal in mind, with shifting goalposts, and is already getting good American soldiers killed. For what? I ask, for what?
See? I keep saying it, that's the big reasons I'm against interventionism. I dont wanna see our troops getting killed for no reason. If we gotta send people to their deaths, let it be for a good cause. Ya know, like storming the beaches of Normandy or Iwo Jima. Necessary sacrifices for the good of the nation. This serves no one, but Donald Trump himself, Israel, a foreign power I'm hating more and more by the day, and oil companies. And it feeds into a bunch of delusional religious nutjobs' delusions about end times prophecy. But the American people? We ain't being served by this. This isn't making us safer. It's actually making us less safe. Because now we gotta worry about retaliation because we started an unprovoked war.
Trump and republicans would be best to know that there's a difference between hating our troops/hating the country, and hating the current leadership of said country. And that's what applies to the Bush era, and the Trump era. You can support the troops and the country, but think current war was a terrible, stupid idea, and that the leadership was daft or evil for getting us into it. And that's where I'm at. That's where most of us were during the Bush era, and that's where we're at now.
I ain't saying there isnt a small but vocally loud contingent of anti war leftists with deranged ideas that hate the US no matter what we do. But that's not what around 85% of the opposition to this current war is saying. And one can check my posting history, I was heavily critical of those guys during the Biden era and believe that they are a detriment to the left as a whole because they fall into the same stereotypes we're often lambasted on.
Believe it or not, I actually would say I like the idea of "America first" in theory, just not the execution. I believe that a nation state's first responsibility is to protect its interests. I just believe that soft power and multilateralism is the way to do it. I believe that institutions like NATO and the UN serve our collective security, and that liberal democracies are all best served by working together in mutual alliances. I believe that the US led ruled based order that we had under Biden served America's interests, and was shaped in our image. Im not saying it was perfect. We clearly only applied the rules when we felt like it while exempting ourselves and our allies from them when convenient, leading to some global resentment, but still, I believed in the idea of it and largely supported Biden's leadership there.
But it was Trump that upset that because his type of thinking is stuck in the 19th century. he only understands hard power, spheres of influence politics, and imperialism. His way with the world is might makes right. He is the hunter from starfield, whereas I am the emissary. He's might makes right, we're all rules and principles. Both are self serving in their own way, which is the hunter's point, but at least one has some philosophical legitimacy. The other is just a raw execution of power. And that's what Trump's foreign policy is. A raw execution of power. Might makes right, unmasked.
But again, I'm not against the US looking out for its interests. I just believe those interests are best served in that international order, and using soft power, ie, relationships, alliances, rules, and legalism, rather than the raw "MURICA F YEAH!" stuff of the Bush/Trump type people. One builds alliances, leaving a global network of rules and allegiances that serve our best interests, and the other alienates everyone and makes them hate us. And trump is the latter.
So yeah, dont ever get it twisted. We on the left dont hate the troops, we dont hate the country. We just have a different and better idea of how to make us safe, and it generally works better. It's the intelligent way to run the world, while trump is a stupid and boorish cave man who only understands how to swing a stick. But the problem is if you swing sticks too often, people start swinging back, and then we're LESS safe. The damage trump is doing to the US in the long term is stacking up, and it could do immeasurable damage to us in the future. Is that really "America first?" Not really. it might seem like it, but it's a 70 IQ take on leadership when we need a 130 IQ take instead.
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