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From @IgnatiusPost, for whom I have great respect. Is his criticism here a fair one? I have to say, it doesn’t seem to be.
2. I fault most Democrats in this year’s Presidential field for not thinking enough about foreign & national security policy — a long-standing complaint about the Party generally — and of assuming too much about America’s ability to inspire through...
3....(or, in the case of @ewarren’s trade policy proposal, impose) its example. Things that really bother me in this broad policy area — like Navy readiness, the future of the nuclear triad, & the necessity of rebuilding US public diplomacy — don’t seem to be...
4...on many Democrats’ radar screens. Finally, Democrats’ wholesale abandonment of the Obama administration’s Trans-Pacific Partnership was a terrible idea when Hillary Clinton adopted it four years ago, and is no better now.
5. There are others. Yet it is hardly fair to attribute Democrats’ impatience with America’s endless wars in Southwest Asia to a desire for disengagement. Indeed, our present geopolitical weakness in the Western Pacific owes much to...
6...two successive administrations’ preoccupation with Afghanistan and the Arab countries. Wars pursued for nearly two decades and frequently mismanaged during that time speak to a lack of accountability for policy and command failures. This should not be expected...
7...to inspire confidence. Moreover the Trump administration’s capricious conduct toward and general disregard of American allies represent ideas shared by no major Democratic candidate, not even Sanders. Neither do any of the Democrats — Gabbard excepted — appear eager to ...
8...adopt the views of hostile dictatorships as their own. My foreign policy views differ from those of every Democratic candidate, but I can see many more differences than similarities between their views and those of the ignorant, disengaged Trump. [end]
Addendum: here’s a good example of Democrats not thinking enough about foreign policy, in this case about China, by @PeterBeinart theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
I would add to what @PeterBeinart says only that we won’t get anywhere with climate change without extensive engagement with China. Maintaining geopolitical equilibrium in the Western Pacific and East Asia is a prerequisite for this. Candidates like @Inslee should take note.
