On Friday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed former President Donald Trump, calling the Democrats “the party of war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech and big money.”
How did former President John F. Kennedy, RFK, the beatniks, the peace and love party turn into the party of war? (Related: RFK says he supports Trump)
Since the 1960s, American military superiority has lulled most politicians, left and right, into a false sense of security. No serious person worries that China might occupy Honolulu or that Canada has its sights set on Detroit. American sovereignty is more secure than any other country in history.
This is security-bred complacency.
“What's the point of having this great military that you always talk about if you can't use it?” Madeleine Albright, Bill Clinton's Secretary of State, said. Famous Question Colin Powell. How easy it has become for our government officials to blithely cede American power to far-flung countries where America has little or no interest.
The Democratic Party is stepping up its military adventurism by using soldiers in uniform to push social reforms in the United States. Social justice evangelists are trying to take over the largest bureaucracy in the country and turn it into a camouflaged Yale University, a tank-equipped Harvard University, a green-energy military vehicle, abortion on demand They see the Department of Defense (paid for by taxpayers) as a five-sided Petri dish for social modification, claiming that the military, with its socialist health care, socialist grocery stores, socialist rules and limited freedoms, is a perfect example for the rest of us civilians.
This photo was taken on December 26, 2011 of the Pentagon Building in Washington DC. Headquartered for the United States Department of Defense (DOD), the Pentagon is the world's largest office building by floor area, covering approximately 6.5 million square feet (600,000 square meters), of which 3.7 million square feet (340,000 square meters) are used for offices. The Pentagon is home to approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees and about 3,000 non-defense support personnel. AFP PHOTO (Photo by STAFF/AFP via Getty Images)
Nearly all politicians trade votes for money, and the fight over Pentagon funding each spring is as spectacular as the cherry blossoms blooming in Washington, with few people caring whether that money ever gets turned into anything productive for the Pentagon.
When I first started serving in Congress, I was struck by how few people asked questions like, “Is this in the best interest of national security?'' or “How does this benefit the American taxpayer?'' After asking these questions in every meeting I attended, I was often met with blank, bewildered looks.
Like a drunk passing through a bar, most of the swamp creatures seem impatient to sneak in and take command of America's ground troops, naval fleet, or air force. And since only 1% of Americans serve in the U.S. military, relatively few voters seem opposed. Richard Nixon thought that abolishing the draft would also end the protests against the Vietnam War. He was right. Americans stopped protesting the war when other people's sons and daughters were serving in combat. (Related article: Poll shows majority of Americans would not encourage family members to join the military)
American military adventurism comes with other costs. In 2010 and 2011, when I first went to Afghanistan, the United States was spending $2 billion a week trying to bring civilized order to the chaos of that backward, impoverished region of Central Asia. American taxpayers were paving roads, building schools, and running power plants from Kabul to Kandahar. At the same time, the United States was bogged down in Iraq, where direct spending totaled $1.2 billion between the two wars. $1.6 trillionThis does not reflect interest on borrowed money, long-term treatment for the wounded, and many other indirect costs, which means the US squandered its budget surplus on 20 years of pointless wars.
During the election campaign, former President Donald Trump vowed Major Reforms Trump promises to eradicate DEI in the US military. He promises to hold top generals and policymakers accountable for the collapse of Afghanistan. He wants to eliminate anyone who seeks to use military service as a means to undergo gender reassignment with taxpayer funds. Trump promises to eradicate DEI from the Department of Defense and refocus US servicemen on the rougher, more brutal job of deterring war. (Related article: Study finds military transformed into 'vast DEI bureaucracy' under Biden administration)
Friends and foes alike take him at his word. After all, Trump has done this before. During his first term, he increased defense spending, reduced U.S. troops overseas, avoided new foreign conflicts, and encouraged allies to spend more on their own defenses. All of these policies made average Americans safer. They're also common sense, qualities that are in short supply in Washington, DC.
In Afghanistan, I followed the directions of the National Security Advisors in Washington, DC. They had PhDs in “IR” (International Relations) but no idea how an M4 worked. The geniuses at Georgetown gave me and my compatriots the simple mission of eradicating the Taliban, which was about as unlikely as eradicating all the Baptists in Mississippi.
Today, those same advisers lament the resurgence of Trump’s foreign policy, saying,The dangers of isolationismTheir dichotomy seems to be between being in favor of unlimited use of American power or being an “isolationist.”
As RFK Jr. knows, Trump was no isolationist during his time in the White House: He negotiated with North Korea, calmed the Middle East, took a tough stance against Iran and reined in Vladimir Putin's Russia.
Trump was not a war hawk. He was not a pacifist. The ancient Greeks described men and women who learned from a lifetime of experience as “wise owls.”
Washington needs its flock of them.
Morgan Murphy is a former Pentagon spokesman, a former national security adviser to the U.S. Senate, and an Afghanistan veteran.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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