The following warnings occurred:
Warning [2] count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable - Line: 864 - File: showthread.php PHP 7.4.33 (Linux)
File Line Function
/showthread.php 864 errorHandler->error




Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Is Trump embracing aggressive withdrawal?
#1
Back in the early 1980’s when I was a deficit hawk and a foreign policy realist, I favored something I called aggressive withdrawal.*  The idea was the US would begin a phased withdrawal from Europe and a full pullout from Japan and S. Korea, which would include a withdrawal of naval forces from the Western Pacific and redeployment in the Indian Ocean. The idea was that Western Europe and Japan were now strong powers and they could easily afford to the conventional forces in Europe and the Far East necessary to keep the Soviets in check.  The US would focus on making sure the oil routes would stay open and deter any Soviet intrusion into the Middle East or South Asia that had been made more likely by the loss of the Shah and the Soviet intrusion into Afghanistan, both relatively recent events at the time.  It was simply a more cost-effective (for us) way to continue the US containment strategy.

In the wake of Trump’s phone conversation with the Australian leader, his friendliness with Putin and his comments about NATO and Japanese nukes, I have started to wonder if Trump may be pursuing a modern version of aggressive withdrawal.  Russia is objectively weak.  The Europeans can easily deter them, so Trump would get in a huff, started a tweet war with the Europeans order the US to pull out—fuck them!  If Russia then overruns Ukraine and the Baltics, this should serve as a wake-up call to them.
As for Japan, they need to be nudged.  So stir up trouble with China, then pick fights with our allies in the region, which gives you an excuse to take or ball and go home and let them deal with a resurgent China. 
This of course is a ridiculously reckless policy.  But when I thought along these lines I was a twenty-something, “young and dumb and full cum” as the guys in the plant put it.  But I note that Trump seems to take pains to present himself as just as young, dumb, and full of cum as any twenty-something.  Who knows, maybe he’s not pretending.

*The aggressive part comes from coupling the strategic withdrawal with uber-hawkish rhetoric.  Sort of how Reagan was able to turn tail and run like a scared girl from Lebanon leaving hundreds of American’s killed by terrorists unavenged, while maintaining his image as this super aggressive hawk that you do not fuck with.
Reply


Messages In This Thread
Is Trump embracing aggressive withdrawal? - by Mikebert - 02-03-2017, 02:44 PM
MIC spending is way too high - by Ragnarök_62 - 04-01-2017, 07:52 PM
RE: MIC spending is way too high - by Warren Dew - 04-02-2017, 01:09 AM
RE: MIC spending is way too high - by pbrower2a - 04-02-2017, 02:46 PM
RE: MIC spending is way too high - by Warren Dew - 04-02-2017, 06:15 PM
RE: MIC spending is way too high - by pbrower2a - 04-02-2017, 07:16 PM
RE: MIC spending is way too high - by Warren Dew - 04-16-2017, 02:09 PM

Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Trump's real German analog Donald Trump takes office on Friday, and the world hol pbrower2a 2 2,905 02-09-2017, 05:52 PM
Last Post: freivolk

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 2 Guest(s)