GOP Debate: Trump on Foreign Policy
By Sheryl Hamlin
In the December 2015 GOP debate, a question about dictators was posed to various candidates. Donald Trump’s answer has caught the attention of only a few media outlets. Here is the question and answer:
Mr. Trump, are Americans safer with dictators running the world in the Middle East?
TRUMP: In my opinion, we’ve spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people that frankly, if they were there and if we could’ve spent that $4 trillion in the United States to fix our roads, our bridges, and all of the other problems; our airports and all of the other problems we’ve had, we would’ve been a lot better off. I can tell you that right now.
We have done a tremendous disservice, not only to Middle East, we’ve done a tremendous disservice to humanity. The people that have been killed, the people that have wiped away, and for what? It’s not like we had victory.
It’s a mess. The Middle East is totally destabilized. A total and complete mess. I wish we had the $4 trillion or $5 trillion. I wish it were spent right here in the United States, on our schools, hospitals, roads, airports, and everything else that are all falling apart.
Source: http://time.com/4150816/republican-debate-las-vegas-transcript/
The Washington Posts Wonkblog interpreted Trump’s statement as a call for more infrastructure projects in the United States. Without naming names, the reporter implied that deploying the $4 trillion at home rather than in the Middle East is a concept that a liberal would say or advocate.
VOX’s reporter viewed the statement as a denunciation of the Iraq war saying that no one in polite debate would say that the soldiers died purposelessly. Another VOX reporter also mentioned Trump’s callous statement noting that no one on the dais questioned Trump on making such a thoughtless statement.
In reviewing the transcript, I found the phrase if they were there a key to help unravel Mr. Trump’s thinking. Could he have perhaps been referencing the history of U.S. backed governments whose policies and methods were less than pristine? A few examples come to mind such as Afghanistan, Cambodia, Chile, Columbia, Nicaragua, Iran, Panama, where in each case, the U.S. took the side of the dictator either to enforce order or maintain economic ties.
If so, this would imply that Mr. Trump has a much more finely tuned sense on the realities of geopolitics than he himself acknowledges.
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For more information about the author, visit sheryhamlin.com
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NOW, let’s analyze some aspects of Trumps statement. It seems we’ve gotten lost in what he “may have meant.” And this is just conjecture on my part.
Do we really expect this region of the world to become a Jeffersonian Democracy with their Religious/Government that persists no matter who’s in charge?
Should Tyrants in their own country, that haven’t challenged the United States, be removed only to open their country up to a terrorist regime?
With the blood and treasure that has been lost trying to make “regime change” been effective, or has it only made things worse?
We need to answer these questions honestly before we “get on our high horse.”