Bernie Sanders Should Push for a New Realism in Foreign Policy

[eridani]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bernie-sanders-should-push-for-a-new-realism-in-foreign-policy/2016/05/03/50864bee-1092-11e6-8967-7ac733c56f12_story.html

But putting aside the partisan lies about Obama, Trump issued a direct and clear hit on the establishment foreign policy consensus that has failed dramatically over the years. Trump argued that after the end of the Cold War, “our foreign policy veered badly off course.” He criticized the “chaos” we’ve created in the Middle East — Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Syria. He indicted the rush to a new Cold War with China and Russia. He condemned our trade policy for running unprecedented deficits and weakening our country. He promises to get out of the “nation-building business.”

Most of all, Trump, after all the bluster, urged surprising sobriety in the use of military force. “War and aggression will not be my first instinct,” he said. “A superpower understands that caution and restraint are signs of strength.” Revealingly, Trump’s establishment critics, virtually without exception, dismiss his views without displaying the slightest awareness of the serial catastrophes wrought by their policies. Kristol concluded that if Trump leads Republicans, there will be “two parties committed to an agenda of national decline.”

Yet, neither Kristol nor his neocon comrades offer any recognition that the policies they have championed rank among the most costly debacles in U.S. history. This blindness to their record of failure renders their critiques risible. Trump’s speech reflects his canny understanding of establishment failure. His alternative — a stronger military that is used less, a balanced trade policy — fits well with the mood of the American people.

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This debate has begun to break out in the faceoff between Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries. Clinton champions our current course, while sporting a more interventionist and bellicose policy than that of the president she served as secretary of state. Not surprisingly, neoconservatives and the indispensable-nation crowd alike increasingly embrace her.

Sanders has fitfully begun to challenge the orthodoxies that she represents. He has questioned her record of regime change from Iraq to Libya to Syria. He has been a skeptic of the push for a new Cold War and arms race with Russia. He’s been courageous in speaking common sense about the Middle East, arguing that true security for Israel requires treating the Palestinian people with “respect and dignity.” He has indicted a trade policy that has run unprecedented deficits and undermined wages and security at home.