Decency, Trump and Obama.

[Dill]

(03-06-2017, 12:27 PM)michaelsean Wrote: As far as debt goes, the last guy ran up a pretty good one.  International reputation?  I think it's time we rein it all in.  We will trade with other nations, but outside of that, let someone else try to run the world a while.  China would probably like the chance. We could save a fortune in military alone if we just had a defensive military.  spend saved military money on stronger measures to prevent terrorism here.  We've tried to police the world and it hasn't worked out that well.  Next man up.  Or maybe nobody up next.  

Oh no I doubt they will ever do any of that stuff, it's just what I would prefer.  and our reputation wouldn't really matter because people wouldn't be depending on us for anything.  If the leader is acting goofy, who cares?  

After WWII, the US helped set up a system of treaties (NATO, SEATO etc.) and economic measures (World Bank, IMF) designed to prevent the world from ever falling back into the cataclysm of a world war.  And so far that has worked, turning our former enemies into staunch allies.


The economies of many countries depend upon these treaties and measures for stability.  To say that they would no longer be depending upon us doesn't sound good for either them or the US. 

Bring military considerations into the discussion, a goofy leader becomes more troubling, for the US as well as those other countries.  Many committed Trumpsters love to hear Trump talk tough about existing or potential US enemies. But a large part of US power post WWII has come from its ability to gain consent and cooperation from many countries.  E.g. Bush 41 put together a coalition of 31 states to push Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in 1991. Obama got most of the world to buy in to Iran sanctions, and then a treaty to reduce their nuclear threat signed by France, Russia, China and Great Britain. The US brokered peace between Pakistan and India during the Kargil war in '99, insisting that Pakistan remove the Nukes it was positioning in Kashmir, likely averting a nuclear conflagration. That would have been bad for the world, including the US, not just Pakistan and India.

China is right now a surgent power, both economically and military, and challenging the US in the Pacific Rim. Would this be a good time to create a vacuum to enable their expansion?  And with a nuclear-capable North Korea on that rim, which also has a goofy leader?