Republican candidates at the debate in Simi Valley, California, United States, September 16, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
Eli Lake, Bloomberg: Republicans and the Limits to American Power
On the stage at the Reagan library Wednesday night, even the most hawkish candidates chirped only modest ambitions. The Republican Party is no longer the party of regime change, no longer the party of wars of liberation.
The front-runner's vision for American power, in fact, was right out of Barack Obama's 2008 campaign. Back then, Obama distinguished himself from Hillary Clinton and the Republican field by reciting an old chestnut from John F. Kennedy: "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." Obama said his willingness to forge relationships with adversaries would restore America's standing in the world. But this was also a recognition of the limits of U.S. power. America cannot just change every regime that is evil.
This time around it was Donald Trump making this kind of promise. "I would get along with a lot of the world leaders that this country is not getting along with," Trump said. He specifically boasted that he would get along with Russia's president, Vladimir Putin. "We won't have the kind of problems our country has right now with Russia and many other nations," Trump said.
WNU Editor: The political landscape has definitely changed in the past generation, but this is because U.S. public opinion itself has changed dramatically in the past few years and the politicians are reflecting this. The U.S. under President Obama has pursued a policy of disengagement, and while it is still involved in numerous wars and conflicts, the heavy footprint of the U.S. military is now being replaced with special operations, intelligence contractors, and the need to assemble a coalition of multiple allies. I expect this policy and approach to foreign affairs will continue for the next President, and regardless from what political party.
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