After the unfortunate choice of Mike Pence as his running mate, it was nice to find this interview of Trump’s foreign policy advisor, Mike Flynn, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
While not Ron Paulian, Flynn (to the extent he is to be believed and to the extent, he represents Trump’s views) offers a few statements that would never come out of Clinton’s mouth. Unfortunately, for the most part, there is a little meat on the bones of these statements.
Regarding Trump’s statements on NATO and US military leadership around the world:
[Trump] has no intention to step away without examining all relationships that we have. …I would say that NATO as a political alliance does need to be relooked at in terms of everything — resourcing, capabilities.
We have to look at the cost of resourcing the US military around the world. …The Chinese get over 40 percent of their oil from the Middle East through the Persian Gulf, but have you ever seen a Chinese aircraft carrier sitting inside the Persian Gulf?
Flynn makes many similar statements in the interview. The only issue for Trump about NATO and US global intervention seems to be one of who will pay for it; a good conservative position, but not necessarily beneficial toward reducing conflict.
If Trump can’t get others to pay, does this mean he will support less foreign interventionism? Because for sure others will not be able to pay.
…the United States should not have to intervene in every single problem around the world. The voters of this country are reacting in a very big, broad way to Mr. Trump.
“Should not have to intervene” does not really say much of anything about commitment.
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Regarding Trump’s statement that Merkel was too soft during the refugee crisis…
I think all of Europe has been too soft on the refugee crisis. …But the point was the really incredibly poor decisions when it comes to allowing this unbelievable, unprecedented refugee crisis that’s going on in Europe.
A great statement.
Why are these people rushing to the beauty and strength of Europe and to the United States and not rushing to their own capitals or the capitals of the Muslim world?
Because the enemy of the elite is the (nominally) Christian, white male. Well, that, and the US (and some other Muslim countries) blew up their capitals in the Muslim world.
Regarding Trump’s “fascination for strong leaders like Vladimir Putin or Saddam Hussein”:
He respects people who are selfish about their country. Putin is a guy who is very selfish about Russia and about the Russian federation….
Nationalism and decentralization are growing in popularity throughout the west, and will continue to grow as the solutions offered by the centralizers continue to crumble.
Regarding Putin as a reliable partner:
Putin will be a reliable partner for certain things for the United States, yes. Absolutely. We need to have a relationship from the top to the bottom, same with China.
If the only good thing Trump does as president is to follow through on this and other similar statements about Russia and China (dialogue, let’s make a deal), he will be the best president since perhaps Reagan (for making nice with the USSR) or Nixon (for making nice with China). Look, I already said Trump was no Ron Paul, what more do you want from me?
Flynn danced around answering the question regarding Trump’s call for Saudi Arabia and Japan to become nuclear powers. I say the fewer the better on this topic.
Regarding Trump’s overall view on foreign policy:
Foreign policy is about US national security, it is definitely not non-intervention. It is definitely not isolationist. That’s where people want to hear what they want to hear and not listen to what he says.
“…hear what they want to hear…” I believe Flynn is referring to neocons who describe Trump as isolationist; unfortunately, he seems to be suggesting to them that they need not worry. I don’t believe Flynn is referring to many of Trump’s supporters, who support him precisely because they believe Trump offers – if not non-intervention – at least much less intervention.
Regarding the legacy of Bush and Obama:
We’re speaking about three incredibly stupid decisions. The first one was the invasion in Iraq. They said there was a nuclear weapons thing, but we were actually responding to the attack of 9/11. All of a sudden, somebody threw in this other, like, “Hey, maybe we can use this as an excuse.”
This is a great statement.
Obama’s decision to leave, to not sustain the victory that resulted after eight years of fighting, from 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, was another incredibly stupid decision. It was totally based on politics, not based on any notion of national security. It’s a nightmare for our national security.
This is a terrible statement.
And then you have the Libya intervention. …You look at Libya, and you go, “Jesus, why the hell did we do that?” That’s beyond stupid. That’s so irresponsible and dangerous for our national security and frankly for the national security of Europe…
This is another great statement.
Regarding America’s decades-long push for exporting democracy and human rights: “Will that come to an end if Trump becomes president?”
Yes, because it’s wrong.
One last great statement.
Conclusion
A mixed bag, but compared to the disaster that Hillary will certainly bring to the world Trump (via Flynn) isn’t bad. Again, I say nothing about how trustworthy he will be on any of the good statements – but at least he has some good statements.
In any case, now that Trump has chosen his VP candidate, none of this will likely matter: he will either lose the election (as even Trump does not seem to understand why he had such popular support) or he will have his own Reagan / Hinckley moment.
Reprinted with permission from Bionic Mosquito.
