by Troy Olson and Gavin Wax
Voters should remember that a President’s role is primarily foreign affairs, which includes trade and border security. In 2016, and today, President Trump is the only candidate that has consistently focused on what the actual job of the president is, rather than what those with outsized influence want it to be.
President Trump is the first president to start no new wars since Jimmy Carter. Like Carter, he also affected a Middle East peace deal with Israel – not just one of them, but four. Arguably the first realist president since Richard Nixon, Trump’s combination of unpredictability enforced by blunt and brutal talk, credible military deterrence reinforced through a more robust military that was less used and overstretched, and a genuine and authentic desire to be a peace-maker created a moment in time for cooperation and peace through strength. Unfortunately, under Biden, the promise of peace has become a Shakespearean tragedy when considering our present dilemma in Europe and East Asia.
When President Biden ordered 3,000 troops pulled from the Selected Reserve and Individual Ready Reserve systems the other week, a collective “here we go” and “I told you so” went up throughout the post-9/11 veteran community. After two years of missed recruitment goals, a stream of stories about the “woke-ification” of the military, and nearly as much annual funding going to the war in Ukraine as the VA receives to care for our veterans, it’s not surprising that more and more military families are telling the next generation to opt-out.
From the failure of credible deterrence in Ukraine to the disastrous and shameful events of the last days of America’s longest war in Afghanistan, the Biden regime has executed one foreign policy disaster after another, apologizing for our values and projecting weakness onto the world stage. The same failed foreign policy establishment that brought you the Iraq War, the Iran Deal, and the integration of climate hawkishness added onto the chicken-hawk policies of the last few decades no doubt will trot out poll after poll showing how much our allies do not want President Trump back in office. It is worth remembering that President Trump humiliated those same allies on the world stage when he told them exactly what would happen, given their energy dependence on Russian gas in combination with their John Kerry-esque climate policies.
President Trump also criticized our European NATO allies for failing to contribute their fair share to the organization, which only eight have. So while the media floats ridiculous statements about the “adults” being back in charge, the reality on the ground tells another story, and the record of President Trump, if attached to a Democrat, would be Nobel Prize-worthy. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a society where Republicans can win the Nobel Peace Prize anymore, no matter what the record shows. And the record on foreign affairs from 2017 to 2021 was imposing.
After thousands of American casualties under Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic President Barack Obama across an array of countries under the overly broad Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001, President Trump’s four years in office were a welcome respite for America’s military, which is one of the last institutions our society that consistently has over 50 percent approval from the American people. Under President Trump, there were just 131 troops killed, and it could have been even less if Deep State bureaucrats hadn’t tried to thwart his every move.
The threat of impending war that liberal media pundits warned about during Trump’s 2016 election has, in fact, taken place under Biden. Such sentiments always spoke to the fundamental disconnect and disregard between the public and America’s military, between those who set the foreign policy agenda and those with the increasingly impossible task of implementing it. The troops had been at war for years already, and reading the coastal elites’ reactions to the most significant political upset and shakeup of our lives – one military and veterans voted for in large majorities – was confirmation of this divide.
Under Biden, America, and the world have become a more dangerous place, and if this situation continues, even two decades’ worth of courageous post-9/11 veterans recalled back into service won’t be enough to deal with the disastrous consequences of the worst Commander-in-Chief since Lyndon Johnson. President Biden, long a windbag and gaffe machine, has twice incompetently given away the farm in the Ukraine conflict: first around the initial incursion-welcoming statement from Biden during the press conference that preceded the outbreak of hostilities, and again this past week, with the admission that America is running low on ammunition. For all the proclamations of “decency” being back in the White House from America’s full-court press, this is now an administration that one year ago reiterated the jus in bello standard that over one hundred countries hold regarding the usage of cluster munitions but now is sending cluster munitions to the most significant land war in Europe since the Second World War. Unless you live under a rock and want to remain there, you must acknowledge that we’re in a very tough situation.
Trump promises to extradite America from this blank-check war spending situation and potential escalation within 24 hours. It won’t happen that fast, but if it occurred in 25, that would be the corporate media headline. Still, Trump’s remarkable resilience and strength in the wake of impossible odds, and his much-ignored philosophy of realism and restraint in foreign affairs are badly needed in the White House.
The choice is clear, and the path to peace over war is still open if we, the people, want it.
– – –
Troy Olson is an Army Veteran, a lawyer by training, and the co-author of the forthcoming book ‘The Emerging Populist Majority.’ He lives in New York City with his wife and son.
Gavin M. Wax is a New York-based conservative political activist, commentator, columnist, operative, and strategist. He is the Executive Director of the National Constitutional Law Union. He also serves as the 76th President of the New York Young Republican Club and as an Ambassador for both Turning Point USA & Live Action. He is co-authoring an upcoming book entitled ‘The Emerging Populist Majority.’ You can follow him on Twitter at @GavinWax.
