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What about Reagan?What exactly is the basis for this statement? What he said during the campaign -- the same campaign that was based almost entirely on lies?
Let's go through this: the last US president to start a war was W. Obama, Trump 1, and Biden did not start any wars. Obama got us out of Iraq. Trump basically made no effort to withdraw from Afghanistan until he capitulated to the Taliban in 2020. So this business about not starting wars -- it's ludicrous. One term without starting a war is the norm, not the exception.
And it's not as if he shied away from military solutions in his first term. He ripped up the peace deal with Iran, and then proceeded to assassinate a high-level Iranian official (I think it was an Iranian). That could have provoked a conflagration. It's certainly not something a peace-loving president would do. I don't care about it much either way, but it's hardly pacifism.
And now, in his fifth year, he is talking about starting military conflicts with absolutely no provocation. That hasn't happened in US history since . . . well, maybe Grenada? I guess it depends on how much knowledge about the bogus story about the USS Maine you would like to attribute to the administration at the time. But I can't remember a US president talking about using military force to take territory. Yes, he hasn't done that yet, but he's talking about it and nobody else ever has -- well, at least not since the campaigns against Native Americans ended. And merely talking about invading is destabilizing.
So by my reckoning, he's the second-most militaristic, war-loving president of my lifetime. Behind only W.
Do you have any facts to counter that? I'm not interested in hearing what the MAGA liars and flip-floppers ***say***. Their words mean nothing.
Trump is only anti-war in that he is aligned with our historical geopolitical adversaries and has ulterior motives for wanting to end current conflagrations. His primary war is against American democracy and the rule of law.Trump has been the most anti-war president we have had in awhile. His foreign policy is we are rich. We aren’t going to fight anyone. There’s a lot of bad things to say about him but getting into foreign wars isn’t one of them.
“… In essence, these military headquarters are sentries on the far battlements of the U.S.-led, post-World War II international order. From their vantage point, Washington’s military and security forces already find themselves stretched thin by intense combat operations, hybrid and proxy warfare, and tense military standoffs with an increasingly cohesive “axis of autocracies” that is spread out over six time zones that span the globe.
Listen closely to the warnings from these outposts, and you can detect the sound of alarms clanging while the United States continues listing even as geopolitical storm clouds darken. [My Aside - imagine that sentence read in the voice of the VH-1 Behind the Music host]
… China’s massive defense manufacturing base now churns out weapons systems at a pace estimated at five to six times as fast as its anemic U.S. counterpart. Beijing already boasts not only the world’s largest navy, but also a shipbuilding capacity roughly 230 times that of the United States, according to Office of Naval Intelligence estimates.
Not coincidentally, in the past year alone, China’s armed forces have held live-fire exercisesbracketing Taiwan, a democratic country that the Chinese Communist Party considers a breakaway province. Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army also regularly attacks the ships of the Philippines—a U.S. treaty ally—near contested islands.
Accordingto the Pentagon, since the fall of 2021 there have been more than 180 incidents of Chinese warplanes performing “coercive and risky” maneuvers targeting U.S. military aircraft in international airspace.
In congressional testimony in May 2024, Aquilino, then the head of Indo-Pacific Command, said that “all indications point to” the Chinese military meeting leader Xi Jinping’s deadline of being ready for a potential invasion of Taiwan by 2027. …”
“…Secret Pentagon memo on China, homeland has Heritage fingerprints
An internal guidance memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth focuses on deterring China’s seizure of Taiwan and shoring up homeland defense. In some instances, the document is nearly a word-for-word facsimile of a report from the conservative think tank behind Project 2025.
GIFT LINK—> https://wapo.st/3Y3I0sf
“… The document, known as the Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance and marked “secret/no foreign national” in most passages, was distributed throughout the Defense Department in mid-March and signed by Hegseth. It outlines, in broad and sometimes partisan detail, the execution of President Donald Trump’s vision to prepare for and win a potential war against Beijing and defend the United States from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama Canal.
The document — setting out a prioritization framework for senior defense officials and a vision to execute that work — also instructs the military to take a more direct role in countering illegal migration and drug trafficking.
… Hegseth’s guidance is extraordinary in its description of the potential invasion of Taiwan as the exclusive animating scenario that must be prioritized over other potential dangers — reorienting the vast U.S. military architecture toward the Indo-Pacific region beyond its homeland defense mission. …”
“… Senior U.S. military officials have directly tied Heritage’s vision [Project 2025] to Hegseth’s guidance.“…
“China is the Department’s sole pacing threat, and denial of a Chinese fait accompli seizure of Taiwan — while simultaneously defending the U.S. homeland is the Department’s sole pacing scenario,” Hegseth wrote.
Its force planning construct — a concept of how the Pentagon will build and resource the armed services to take on perceived threats — will consider conflict only with Beijing when planning contingencies for a major power war, it says, leaving the threat from Moscow largely attended by European allies.
Where the Biden administration’s 2022 National Defense Strategy emphasized alliances in countering Russia’s aggression, calling “mutually-beneficial Alliances and allies … our greatest global strategic advantage,” the Hegseth interim guidance says NATO must take on “far greater” burden sharing because the U.S. will be reluctant to provide forces with its priorities focused elsewhere.
… The guidance was provided to congressional national security committees, where Republicans and Democrats have described it as confusing, according to a congressional aide who reviewed the document.
It calls for withdrawing from a presence in most of the world, including the Middle East, but the administration has focused on demonstrating firepower and deterrence against the Houthis in Yemen and pressuring Iran, the aide noted.
“There’s tension between ‘We want American strength and military dominance in the world, and we want to be everywhere, but also nowhere,’” the aide said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive documents.
“And that’s inconsistent and going to be difficult for them to design a strategy around.” …”
BUT“… Senior U.S. military officials have directly tied Heritage’s vision [Project 2025] to Hegseth’s guidance.
. Gen. Garrick Harmon, the head of strategy and plans at Africa Command, recommended to staff that they read the Heritage report as part of a discussion of how to align their priorities with the new Pentagon guidance, according to a command staff member who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Another official within the command distributed a copy of the Heritage report, the staff member said.
The recommendation did not appear partisan in nature, the staff member said, adding that the similarities suggest the Pentagon’s document was partly inspired by the Heritage report and that the information could be complementary to understanding Hegseth’s guidance. …”
Probably because while Project 2025 and The Heritage Foundation has a long-term plan, Trump never does. It's all impulse and feeding his ego 24/7, just like a spoiled child. He's gone along with Project 2025 because much of it coincides with what he believes and wants, and because they no doubt are taking care of all the grubby details that he doesn't care about. But I have no doubt that Trump on many things tends to verbally waver back on forth depending upon his mood of the moment and whatever rambling thoughts are passing through his addled brain at the time. Whether he would actually defend Taiwan if it was attacked by China is anybody's guess.BUT
“… Two people familiar with Taiwan’s official discussions said the government in Taipei has struggled to make inroads with the new U.S. administration, amid growing doubts about Washington’s support — concerns that intensified after February’s disastrous Oval Office meeting of Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In a message of reassurance to Washington, President Lai Ching-te said last week that Taiwan will boost its defense spending to over 3 percent of its GDP — up from around 2.5 percent — as part of an ongoing overhaul of its military infrastructure. China responded by launching a wave of fighter jets and ships near the island, warning that “those who play with fire will get burned.” …”
——
There are plenty of signs that Trump intends to sell out Taiwan much like Ukraine … it is confusing.
Excellent point.Probably because while Project 2025 and The Heritage Foundation has a long-term plan, Trump never does. It's all impulse and feeding his ego 24/7, just like a spoiled child. He's gone along with Project 2025 because much of it coincides with what he believes and wants, and because they no doubt are taking care of all the grubby details that he doesn't care about. But I have no doubt that Trump on many things tends to verbally waver back on forth depending upon his mood of the moment and whatever rambling thoughts are passing through his addled brain at the time. Whether he would actually defend Taiwan if it was attacked by China is anybody's guess.