Why Trump Matters

From a recent interview of Stephen F. Cohen by John Batchelor (beginning at about the 30 minute mark, and not a word-for-word transcript):

Cohen offers: Trump is the only one who has asked questions about American foreign policy.

1)      Why must the United States lead the world everywhere and play the role of the world’s policeman?

2)      NATO was founded to deter the Soviet Union.  The Soviet Union ended 25 years ago.  What is NATO’s mission?  Is it obsolete?

3)      Why does the United States always pursue regime changes, when the result is always “disaster”?

4)      Why do we treat Russia and Putin as an enemy, when they should be treated as a partner?

Good questions.

From Justin Raimondo, specifically focused on the issue of NATO:

A recent report published in Foreign Policy magazine illustrates quite neatly how the anti-interventionist cause is making big gains – and how to effect real change in American foreign policy….Why is that? Well, it’s because the Republican frontrunner, one Donald J. Trump, is making an issue of it….

Raimondo offers a message to libertarians:

This is what Trump’s many critics – including many anti-interventionists, and certainly most libertarians – fail to understand. No one would be talking about the costs of NATO if Trump hadn’t challenged the conventional wisdom, made it a campaign issue, and put it front and center.

It isn’t just NATO; no one would be talking about anything outside of the beltway’s mainstream view of foreign policy if not for Trump.

And surely no one would’ve ever imagined the Republican frontrunner calling out the second Bush administration for lying us into the Iraq war and disdaining the Bushian mantra that “he kept us safe.”

To ignore this is just sheer blindness – and to condemn it without deigning to acknowledge its many positive aspects is just plain stupid.

Critics of our interventionist foreign policy don’t have to support Donald Trump’s candidacy to acknowledge their debt to him.

The empire is a wounded animal of prey, failing at virtually every task chosen in the last fifteen years; the empire is economically weakened.  There is little that is more dangerous than a wounded animal of prey – especially when that wounded animal has Armageddon-type capabilities.

Trump may deliver little of what he offers, but he is the only one offering it; certainly, none of it will be discussed again nationally for at least four years if someone else is elected.

There is not a single political issue more important than these: war and the use of military power; nothing else comes close.  These are now being discussed.  If nothing else, we owe Trump thanks for this.