by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Ricochet<\/a><\/p>\n I\u00a0don’t often agree with Pat Buchanan and am an occasional target of his magazine, but\u00a0his ideas<\/a>\u00a0(which Peter\u00a0highlighted in an earlier post<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Ricochet<\/em>) are at least always provocative and he is right that we need a debate on what we can afford and what not, and why we do the things we do abroad.<\/p>\n On basing, ostensibly Buchanan is making sense; there is no real reason to deploy American troops on the soil of wealthy allies who for a variety of reasons apparently think they cannot defend themselves. That said, the original logic was not just “America in, Russia out,” but also “Germany (or Japan) down” \u2014 an effort never again to have an isolationist America faced with a two-front war with Asian and European powerhouses. If we were to leave, we must be prepared for the vacuum to be filled by someone, and calibrate in advance the consequences of that.<\/p>\n An American presence was once thought to be a moderating influence to avoid the sort of nationalism seen in 1870, 1914, and 1939. Whether the current financial supremacy of Germany and its pique at its clients is reason to worry, I don’t quite know. So it may well be time to get out and let Germany be Germany \u2014 again.<\/p>\n In the case of South Korea, the troops serve symbolic purposes as well (such things matter as the English realized when they removed a single ship from the Falklands or in the case of April Glaspie who made an offhanded remark about supposed American uninterest in the status of the Kuwaiti border, or Dean Acheson who suggested that South Korea was outside the American sphere of defense). But perhaps it is time to revisit that issue as well, and offer South Korea mostly air support in times of crises from carriers or Japanese bases \u2014 which also raises the question of Japan (there is a domino effect in pulling out from overseas). As I understand it, there is also the nuclear issue as well. Germany, Japan, and South Korea in months could make reliable nuclear weapons as they do BMWs, Hondas, and Kias. That they don’t may well be due to American security guarantees based on our physical presence on their soils. But ultimately finance will decide. If we are borrowing now in one month almost as much as we just recently used to borrow in one year (e.g., 2007), then everything will soon be on the table, and if it is a question of mothballing two or three carrier groups or pruning forces stationed in wealthy allied lands, then I’d prefer to keep our own assets.<\/p>\n So Buchanan is right to raise the issue, as was Gates on the Middle East.<\/p>\n With regards to Gates’ Libya comments: The problem in our current Middle East commentary is that it is inconsistent, erratic, and loud with a small stick.<\/p>\n Is there a connection with a presidential threat and reality; did Mubarak step down because we asked him to, or, rather, because the size of the resistance simply reached a tipping point and we wanted to get in on the removal?<\/p>\n Timing is key: does President Obama ask a Mubarak or Gaddafi to step down because they are innately savage and he wishes to preempt inevitable popular unrest and violence, or does he do so only in reaction to preexisting growing unrest and wishes to piggy-back on apparently successful indigenous efforts to remove a dictator? Two weeks ago we were lectured that Gaddafi would be gone within hours, tomorrow, within days, within a week; today we are lectured of an upcoming Somalia-like civil war in Libya and serial chaos. And tomorrow, we will be told what?<\/p>\n If we sound bellicose while behind the curve, as in the case of Egypt and perhaps Libya, the US seems opportunistic, predicating its principles on the apparent ebb and flow of crowds in the street.<\/p>\n And what conditions earn these frequent presidential put-downs? A million people in the streets of Teheran demonstrating against fascist theocracy? The subversion of Lebanese democracy, serial assassination abroad, and overt support for terrorist killers as in the case of the Syrian dictatorship? Why was Iran different from Tunisia and Egypt? I do not think that we have a consistent policy that governs the level of expressed American anguish \u2014 e.g., the degree of violence used against the people, the degree of anti-American hostility, the degree of support for international terrorism and unrest, the degree a regime is likely to fall soon?<\/p>\n At some point, we had better be consistent in the application of threats, and calibrate our rhetoric with our willingness and ability to use force if called upon to put up, or else shut up; otherwise the more frequent the proclamations, the more empty they sound, and the more irrelevant the US is seen. Bottom line, we should either shut up or be prepared for a third intervention which would be tantamount to a war \u2014 something impossible without allied bases, which is I suppose Buchanan’s point.<\/p>\n \u00a92011 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson Ricochet I\u00a0don’t often agree with Pat Buchanan and am an occasional target of his magazine, but\u00a0his ideas\u00a0(which Peter\u00a0highlighted in an earlier post\u00a0on\u00a0Ricochet) are at least always provocative and he is right that we need a debate on what we can afford and what not, and why we do the things we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[196],"tags":[12,1035,1055,1028,114,1048,1072,1068],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-Tq","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4106,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-us-foreign-policy-marked-by-competence-and-strength\/","url_meta":{"origin":3436,"position":0},"title":"A US Foreign Policy Marked by Competence and Strength","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Ricochet.com I would like to know if Victor sees any merit in the president's attempt to appeal to ordinary Muslims via his bully pulpit? Does celebrating Ramadan in the White House or wishing Persians Happy New Year accomplish anything that can aid our efforts in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Foreign Policy"","block_context":{"text":"Foreign Policy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/foreign-policy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9790,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/victor-davis-hanson-on-ricochet\/","url_meta":{"origin":3436,"position":1},"title":"Victor Davis Hanson on Ricochet","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/trump-inauguration-500x333.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11149,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trump-seeks-middle-ground-in-foreign-policy-balancing-act\/","url_meta":{"origin":3436,"position":2},"title":"Trump Seeks Middle Ground in Foreign-Policy Balancing Act","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review The best course is to use overwhelming military force only when the interests or credibility of America and its allies are on the line. Was the latest round of airstrikes in Syria a one-time hit to restore deterrence and stop the future use of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Donald Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3320,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/humanitarian-beheading\/","url_meta":{"origin":3436,"position":3},"title":"Humanitarian Beheading","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Ricochet There are a number of videos circulating about from \"free Libya\" showing grotesque head-loppings, executions, torture and desecration of bodies, of African mercenaries who apparently were captured or killed by the rebels in Libya. No doubt, the mercenaries were quite brutal thugs whom Qaddafi employed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Libya"","block_context":{"text":"Libya","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/libya\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10483,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/is-there-still-a-conservative-foreign-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":3436,"position":4},"title":"Is There Still a Conservative Foreign Policy?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Trump did not create the divide in the GOP policy world \u2014 he exposed it. The Trump victory and the Republican establishment\u2019s mostly negative reaction to it have in matters of foreign policy called into question who is conservative, who not \u2014 and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Republicans"","block_context":{"text":"Republicans","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/republicans\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7521,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-future-is-1979\/","url_meta":{"origin":3436,"position":5},"title":"Our Future Is 1979","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Obama\u2019s foreign-policy weakness encourages our enemies and disheartens our allies.\u00a0 by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online The final acts of the Obama foreign policy will play out in the next two years. 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