From Afghanistan to infrastructure, the climate crisis to defending democracy, China policy to inequality, today America is having a major debate about its priorities going forward. In many ways we have squandered the first decades of this century. It is time to rethink that.
President Biden has argued that rather than investing $3 trillion in wars--the vast majority of which goes to a handful of major U.S. defense contractors--we should invest it in the real sources of our security and strength: our people, our infrastructure, R&D, health, education.
He has argued that rather than focusing on wars that cannot be won, we should prepare for the challenges of the coming century, great power rivalries, competitiveness, and addressing urgent needs like the climate crisis.
He has emphasized that after neglecting infrastructure for half a century, not hardening our assets against next generation threats, not preparing our students properly, not upgrading our health care systems, we must meet those challenges now or lose our ability to lead.
He has argued that it is high time to reverse forty years of growing inequality in America because in so doing we not only can make the richest pay their fair share but we give everyone a chance to contribute to and benefit from our nation's success.
The decision to withdraw from Afghanistan must be seen in this context. It is directly linked to reimagining our foreign policy so it is better suited to 21st Century challenges. Yes, it is also about an end to failed approaches, to the folly of American exceptionalism.
Yes, it is about being a better ally and not seeing the military as the solution to every problem. But it is also about shifting our focus to investing in ourselves. Ending the foreign policy mistakes of the past is directly linked therefore to building back better.
Instead of spending trillions on those wars, he seeks to invest it in the real sources of our leadership and strength. This is not isolationism reimagined. It is completely consistent with the post-World War II ideal of the US as a superpower that leads by example.
President Biden and his team are offering not just decisions but a strategy, one in which foreign and domestic policies are two halves of a whole. If we recognize this, we can see the merits in the approach and the urgency that we embrace it.

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More from @djrothkopf

11 Sep
A couple of years before 9/11, I participated in a scenario exercise about terror threats that Wall Street might face. It was on the top floor of the World Trade Center. It was sponsored in part by Cantor Fitzgerald.
Tragically, a number of those who attended from that firm died in the attack. Not too long after the attack, I recall running into Howard Lutnick, the chairman of the firm, and I will never forget the look in his eyes, how haunted he was by the losses on that day.
On the day itself, I was on the phone with a friend whose apartment had a view of the World Trade Center. He stopped talking and just started repeating "oh my God, oh my God" and then he told me to turn on my television because a plane had flown into one of the twin towers.
Read 24 tweets
8 Sep
Another failed NY Times oped by Bret Stephens. Is it a bigger failure for Stephens (who is consistently bad...but seldom this bad) or the editors at The NY Times (who chose to give this kind of fact-ignoring, reality twisting sophistry a platform)?
nytimes.com/2021/09/07/opi…
Biden has presided over a logistical miracle w/the vaccine distribution, an unprecedented economic recovery, more job creation than any other in his first 6 months, undoing of Trumpian damage done by executive order, record appointment of judges (& w/unprecedented diversity)...
...reentering the Paris Accord and the WTO, leading the world in vaccine diplomacy, ending a 20 year disaster of a conflict, getting 125,000 people out of Afghanistan in a matter of weeks in the face of huge challenges, making combatting the climate crisis a priority,...
Read 7 tweets
6 Sep
And now, the latest Biden report from the Conventional News Network...

It's been a rough summer for the president folks because...
--Job growth slowing slightly (although yes, Biden has created more jobs in his first six months than any president in history)
--COVID spiking (although yes, the admin performed a miracle getting the vaccine out & the GOP has systematically undermine admin efforts to save lives)
--Afghanistan exit chat (although yes, the president ended a futile 20 year war and the administration managed to evacuate 125,000 people so far in one of the biggest humanitarian airlifts every and ending wars is chaotic by nature)
Read 13 tweets
31 Aug
In the months & years ahead we need to do a deep accounting, not just within the government but on the national level, of the flaws in our system, our politics & our society that lead us to make mistakes on the scale of the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War & the "War on Terror."
While the war in Afghanistan began with a natural impulse to seek justice in the wake of 9/11, the policy process guiding it quickly was hijacked by opportunists with personal agendas that were ideological or industry-driven. Lies became the foundations for massive national endea
But they were not effectively challenges. The Iraq War was an indecent and indefensible distraction from the mission to get Al Qaeda and Bin Laden, but the majority of the foreign policy establishment supported it and accepted many lies without questioning them.
Read 25 tweets
26 Aug
I largely agree with Dan's view here. The idea that "the blob" is after @jakejsullivan is nuts. The sources cited in the article ranged from not credible to just wrong. But I would go further. Jake is precisely the national security advisor we need.
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/0…
And look, I say that as a certified member of the original blob. Also as someone who has written two books on the NSC, countless articles, and met with every national security advisor who was alive in my lifetime.
Jake has the right experience, temperament, relationship with @POTUS and respect for process. He is brilliant, creative, widely respected and has a clear vision for where US foreign policy should be headed.
Read 4 tweets
25 Aug
The intellectual dishonesty that we have seen in critiques of Biden's handling of the exit from Afghanistan has been spectacular.
That's not to say some critiques are not warranted. They certainly are. But, some of the arguments being used are so indefensible they require us to question the critics' motives or expertise. Here are some of the worst ones.
1. Biden owns this. (No. The authors of 20 yrs of war own this. The corrupt Afghan govt & the Afghan military who stood down own this. The Trump Admin that set the deadlines, drew down the troops, left behind the materiel & released 5000 Taliban own this.)
Read 17 tweets

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