Thank you so much for taking time to respond to my post.
I have finally reached the conclusion that the politicians who have hurt the country the most on fiscal issues are the neocons. Trillions spent in (Vietnam+Kuwait+Iraq+Syria) and what do we have in return? More Trillions in national debt,
no viable democracies created from any of those wars.
Well to be fair neocons didn’t exist when Vietnam was in play and the issue wasn’t nation building or spreading democracy. Our foreign policy at the time was a bipartisan liberal internationalism and the main goal was to defend the Free World from Communist expansion.
Our commitment to Vietnam began in the mid ‘50s under President Eisenhower when the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu and the Vietnam was partitioned into a Communist North and a free South.
The goal was to keep South Vietnam free in order to halt the Communist advance in Southeast Asia. Eisenhower used the image of falling dominoes to make his case. Ultimately we bought time for the countries surrounding the war zone to strengthen themselves and only Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos fell, but to many Americans the war seemed both neverending and pointless. No need to rehash that right now.
I’d date neocon influence on our foreign policy with the Balkans War under Bill Clinton. But it really flowered under Dubya with Iraq being the main example. A think tank called the Project for a New American Century had been spoiling for us to invade Iraq in the late Clinton presidency and many of the people associated with PNAC went on to staff Dubya’s administration, bringing with them their fantasies of remaking the Arab world. Bush evidently bought into it.
Obama took that policy and used it to spread the power of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups, maybe including ISIS in Libya and Syria. It’s hard to tell just who he has been boosting.
Rubio and Lindsey Graham have been singing that same neocon song in the primary but with a let’s fight Russia twist. Unlike Iraq, Russia can and will hit back hard if we were try a stunt like that.