"While he has been more reluctant than some presidents to put US troops in harm's way, Trump has dismissed checks on his use of military force, saying, "We're just gonna kill people." As US forces continue to engage in illegal attacks on boats in the Caribbean and with the growing threat of direct US military intervention in Venezuela, you might be wondering, "What happened to Trump's promises to avoid foreign military entanglements?""
"In reality, Trump was never the anti-interventionist he claimed to be. When running for president in 2016, Trump gained support from swing voters, possibly in sufficient numbers to win the Electoral College, by claiming he had opposed the disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq and 2011 intervention in Libya backed by his opponent, portraying Hillary Clinton as a reckless militarist who would pursue "forever wars.""
"Trump actually supported both military operations. While Trump has been more reluctant than some politicians to place American troops in harm's way, he has been very much a militarist president. He has supported dramatic increases in the already bloated Pentagon budget. He has shown little interest in real diplomacy of any kind, instead using threats and bluster and dismissing human rights and international law in favor of a purely transactional approach to foreign relations."
Trump presented himself as opposed to foreign military entanglements but supported past interventions like the 2003 Iraq invasion and the 2011 Libya intervention. He has been more reluctant than some to place US troops in harm's way while dismissing checks on force. His presidency expanded Pentagon budgets, prioritized threats and transactional diplomacy over real diplomacy, and downgraded human rights and international law. He appointed hawkish figures such as Marco Rubio to top foreign policy posts. In his second term's first ten months he ordered hundreds of air strikes across the Middle East, notably in Houthi-held Yemen, causing significant civilian casualties.
Read at The Nation
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