Regardless of certain individuals’ desires, MAGA isn’t a suicidal pacifist movement. Trump gets it, Congressman Thomas Massie doesn’t. This extends far beyond Massie’s opposition to a fetid continuous funding resolution, triggering Trump’s call for his ouster. Massie’s isolationism, the shallow pretension America can safely cower behind its borders, is dangerously naive. He means well, but roads paved with good intentions inevitably prove disastrous. He aligns with Democrats short-circuiting because they didn’t get their government shutdown.
Those cluing in include reformed former Democrat, freshman Senator Jim Justice. Trump won Justice’s West Virginia with 70% of the vote. Justice considers his role as supporting Trump. Politics is a team sport. Winning requires trusting the coach. The stopgap funding resolution buys Trump time to attempt to right the economy, avoids Republican blame for a government shutdown, and assists GOP midterms gains.
“America Alone” is not “America First.” In fact, I would argue “America Alone” could be called “China First. …If America steps back, another foreign nation, not necessarily an ally, is likely to step forward to fill the void. The question isn’t whether a vacuum will form. The real question is: who benefits? China? Russia? …Remember ISIS?
Smug, self-congratulatory isolationists display half-baked logic, ignoring malevolent actors seeking power vacuums. Either America assumes the mantle of empire or we will eventually either face Mecca to pray or pay taxes and “donate” organs to Beijing. Which option perhaps depends on which side of the Mississippi we reside. Donors to the west; converts to the east.
Islam has killed and enslaved Americans since before Washington’s inauguration. Barbary pirates (self-described “naval mujahideen”) captured almost 700 Americans, beginning in 1784. Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson negotiated a 1787 treaty to pay tribute. Jefferson eventually refused to continue payments and built a navy to send to the shores of Tripoli in 1803. Madison, the Constitution’s father, finally concluded hostilities in 1815. It’s mythology that our Founders were isolationists. Reality precluded this.
Iran murdered 241 Americans under Reagan and hundreds more in Iraq, one-sixth of our Iraq war combat fatalities. Iran orchestrated the October 7 attack which killed or abducted dozens of Americans. Iran’s Houthi proxies menace American shipping. Iran is to Houthis as the Ottomans were to Barbary pirates who supplied European and African shackled galley slaves to Ottoman fleets for centuries. Trump didn’t kill Soleimani on a lark but because Iran killed Americans.
China, Iran, and Russia quickly reacted to Biden’s power vacuum post-Afghanistan. China romanced the Taliban and within six months Russia invaded Ukraine, followed by Iran’s Hamas proteges attacking Israel. Did isolationists distill any lessons from this?
The European death cult funds Syria’s leaders (graphic warning) busy systematically eradicating Christians, Alawites, Druze, and Kurds. Crickets from isolationists. Only Israel is coming to their aid. Once Little Satan (Israel) is eliminated, its enemies will concentrate on Big Satan. Iran’s Houthi proxies make this explicit on their flag: “Allah is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, A Curse Upon the Jews, Victory to Islam.” The three middle lines are blood-red for emphasis. What don’t isolationists understand?
Deporting Hamas supporters represents self-preservation. Far too many pundits, influencers, and podcasters fall into the anti-Israel, isolationist camp. Christian morality’s self-appointed arbiter and reflexive isolationist Tucker Carlson occupies the same space as Massie:
Fox News is wall to wall with dead-eyed politicians telling you that Iran is a dangerous “sponsor of terror.” Softening up the base for a war. But what exactly does that phrase mean, and how does it apply to the United States? Here’s one measure: over the past twenty years, how many Americans have been killed by Iran on American soil? Try to find that number, and then compare it to the number of Americans killed by drug ODs. Or suicide. Or illegal aliens… Still think Iran is the greatest threat? How about we focus on our own country for a minute.
Where Iran kills Americans matters? Carlson’s ridiculous false equivalency is that policy, not funding issue. Whether Israel’s a contractor (e.g., Blackwater) or ally (e.g. El Salvador), assisting it against common enemies constitutes a bargain, unlike NATO. It’s called imperial administration, civilization. We can’t bury our heads in the sand, hiding behind our borders, because neocons concocted bogus wars 20+ years ago.
Isolationists ignore dozens of Americans captured and killed on October 7. Isolationism means the Taliban controlling Afghanistan, and ISIS 2.0 running Syria, would be free to expand outward, including sending jihadists into America. They’re already here. As one example, last June eight ISIS-K affiliates were nabbed. Probably hundreds more have entered. Biden’s FBI couldn’t shut down the January 1 New Orleans ISIS-linked attack investigation fast enough. Fourteen Americans died. Iran (through Hezb’ allah proxies) began laying Western Hemisphere groundwork 40 years ago. Recall the Saudi ambassador assassination plot. American isolationism means the Middle East, long cleansed of Jews, would see remaining Christians, et al. eradicated. Houthi extortionate piracy would only grow, encouraging additional rogue nations to adopt their profitable business model. Left isolated, Israel would be overrun. Not to mention China seizing Taiwan.
Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal proved that absent American dominance, nations will align with China for self-preservation, while warfare breaks out. Dozens of countries are bad news. That number grows if America abandons its role.
Imperial timidity is ancient. Cicero bemoaned Roman generals content “to carry off tokens of victory, rather than actual victory.” Rome, as America is today, experienced a subsequent restoration of military prowess. Trump’s demonstrative strikes avoid full-blown wars. Peace through theatricality. Similar logic underlies his trade war approach. Trump proposes America, China, and Russia slash defense spending 50%. This makes too much sense. Fiscal realities may force all three to the table.
During Trump 45 hundreds of Russian mercenaries were eliminated in Syria, placing Putin on notice. Soleimani’s martyrdom served the same purpose. Rather than directly confronting Iran, Trump incinerated their top general. No Americans were killed during Trump’s final 18 months in Afghanistan, thanks to threatening to vaporize the Taliban leader. Trump 47 just erased ISIS’s #2, sending a message early in this administration. Houthis are his current demonstrative punching bag. Massie is opposed.
Isolationists must answer: what purpose does the world’s strongest military serve? Pacing nervously along Cape Cod to surveil enemies appearing over the horizon? Douglas Murray notes: “People who found the era of American power burdensome will miss it deeply in any world that comes after.” Massie (along with numerous others) opposes funding Israel, America’s frontline ally opposing jihadists. While Massie possesses appealing attributes, national security requires that idealists and isolationists be sidelined.
Isolationism historically manifests in a repetitive sequence of counter-reactions against gratuitous militarism, then surprise attacks. WWI overreach, isolationism, Pearl Harbor. Vietnam overreach, isolationism, 9/11. Militarism and isolationism constitute opposing deadly sins. Trump seeks an inevitably imperfect, goldilocks middle ground. Having defeated our internal communist insurgency, he is freed to remake global order. He’s a realist, not an isolationist. Another coordinated Pearl Harbor or 9/11-style ambush would silence isolationists for a generation.
Douglas Schwartz blogs on history and gaslighting at The Great Class War.
Image: Jadejanandraja
Jesus Christ is King
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