Thread by @AlexandraErin

"Trump is skeptical of going to war"/"Trump is dovish" takes flying fast and furious today.

He's not skeptical of war.

He's dubious about the benefits of doing it when you're not allowed to keep what you conquer.

All the arguing about whether he was really for or against the war in Iraq ignores the fact that what he's really said is we were stupid not to take the oil and that he'd like another crack at it if there was a way to do that.

He can't say one thing about peace in Afghanistan without mentioning as an aside that we could just nuke the entire country into a glowing crater but apparently that's not politically correct.

He's against endless war because what he wants is instant overwhelming victory.

Is it dovish when he wants to relax the rules of engagement to increase civilian casualties? Is it dovish when he asks how they can make drones quieter so the targets have no warning?

Oh, wait, I forgot. Drone warfare is basically treated as politics by the pundit class.

If Donald Trump has a disagreement with his advisers about whether we should be incidentally slaughtering civilians with hellfire missiles or deliberately doing it, that's just politics.

Hawkish or dovish is about whether he seeks a declaration of war only.