American foreign policy

Project 2025: Pro Authoritarian, Anti Democracy!

Project 2025, the 900 plus pages document from The Heritage Foundation, is a total disaster when it comes to foreign policy.

It promotes “warm” relations with the Russian Federation, despite its war with Ukraine; with China, despite the looming threat to Taiwan: and with North Korea, despite the looming threat to South Korea and Japan, and really all of Southeast Asia.

Trump would refuse to support Ukraine, a continuation of his view on that nation; and has been sharply critical of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), endangering the 32 nations in that alliance, which has promoted European stability and democracy in most of those nations.

Donald Trump is promoting isolationism, failing to understand that it endangers national security and undermines American intelligence agencies and the close relations our nation has, including cooperation between the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of State, and the Department of Defense with foreign governments.

The fact that he praises Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, and Kim Jong Un of North Korea on a continuing basis is alarming and dangerous!

Donald Trump And American Foreign Policy: Goodbye To Ukraine, NATO, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan!

It has become very clear that IF Donald Trump is returned to the White House for a second term this November, that American foreign policy will be totally obliterated from what it has been since 1945!

Trump will not support Ukraine, and is willing to let Russia and Vladimir Putin take it over!

Trump will not continue to support NATO, as he is an isolationist of the worst kind, more interested in gaining the support of authoritarian leaders, including Putin, but also the dictators of China, North Korea, Hungary and elsewhere!

So America will have no allies in Europe, endangering American national security!

It is also unlikely that Taiwan and South Korea and Japan would have confidence in a President, who would be more interested in collaborating with the tyrants of Asia!

Senator Bob Menendez MUST Resign: A Danger To American Foreign Policy!

New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez must resign from the Senate, as he is a clear and present danger to American foreign policy!

He has been Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and being engaged in alleged deals with Egypt is very worrisome at the least!

This has nothing to do with party politics, just simply for national security and safety!

Menendez has already once before been indicted, although the case did not lead to conviction, but he is the first US Senator to have been indicted twice in his career!

He will not be able to be reelected, and it is time for him to pursue his defense, and end his political career, for the sake of the Democratic Party!

Foreign Policy Of America In Danger From Donald Trump!

American foreign policy is in great danger from the threat of Donald Trump possibly being reelected to the Presidency in 2024.

His well known admiration for authoritarians in Russia, North Korea, and China; and his hostility toward the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are alarm bells in the night!

His willingness to abandon Ukraine, and allow Vladimir Putin to seize more of that nation, is an encouragement that will trigger World War III, as what would stop Putin from trying to restore the old Soviet Union, by attacking Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and more territory?

America’s relationship with Asian nations, which now are 60 percent of the world’s population are also in danger!

And our relationship with Canada and Latin America would be in disarray as well!

To imagine that Trump would be President again is like imagining that Charles Lindbergh or Henry Ford had been President in the 1930s and 1940s, cozying up to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy during World War II!

President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has worked very hard to promote and strengthen our alliances with nations around the world, and one must remember his vast experience in foreign policy, as a US Senator, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and eight years as Vice President under Barack Obama!

84th Anniversary Of World War II Beginning A Reminder Of Need To Support Ukraine Against Russia!

September 1, 1939 was the beginning of World War II, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

The threat of totalitarianism that Nazi Germany represented created a crisis in American foreign policy for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as isolationists strived to keep America out of World War II as not our war, since we had two great oceans that separated us from war elsewhere in the world.

Many of the isolationists were Republicans, but included naive people from all political persuasions and walks of life.

Americans did not want to get involved in the war, but eventually, it was forced upon us by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

If that had not happened, America might have faced a likely threat from European Fascism without allies.

This is important to keep in mind as the Russia-Ukraine war has ended 18 months and counting, and there is growing demand by isolationists and the right wing of the Republican Party in Congress to stop funding for Ukraine in its defense.

These critics include apologists for Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation, and they seem unperturbed at the reality that Russia, if successful in Ukraine, will put its sights next on NATO nations, including particularly, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, but with grand designs to recreate the old Soviet Union before 1989!

A Turning Point In International Relations: The French Presidential Election Today

Today’s French Presidential election pits Emmanuel Macron, who has been President for the past five years, against Far Right candidate Marine Le Pen, who is closely associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It seems clear that this is a turning point in international relations, as Le Pen would be likely to support Putin, and even, likely, take France out of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), fatally weakening that defense alliance, and affecting US foreign policy.

The Russia-Ukraine War and what NATO and the United States do about it, is hanging in the balance.

And if Le Pen won, it could be a sign of the danger of Donald Trump or someone of his stripe being a major challenge to Joe Biden or whoever the Democrats would run for President in 2024, along with the possible effect on the Midterm Congressional and Gubernatorial elections of 2022.

Emmanuel Macron is not perfect, but no one is, but we all need to hold our breath and hope he wins for the future of international relations and US foreign policy!

Loss Of A Great Woman In American Diplomacy: Madeleine Albright (1937-2022)

America yesterday lost one of its greatest ever women public servants–former United Nations Ambassador and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in the administration of President Bill Clinton.

Albright was brilliant, courageous, principled, and always spoke her mind as the first woman Secretary of State.

This author and blogger was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend a public lecture at Florida Atlantic University by Madeleine Albright a few years ago on the role of foreign policy in the American Presidency, and I was immensely impressed.

Being a refugee from both Nazi occupation of her homeland, Czecholovakia, and then again from Soviet takeover after World War II, Albright demonstrated the great value and contributions of refugees who emigrate to America, and is an excellent argument against the ever present nativism of hatemongers.

Albright learned of her Jewish heritage in recent years, as her parents converted to Catholicism to promote protection of their family, and she appreciated greatly learning of her heritage, which sadly included Nazi murder of three of her grandparents.

Albright opened up avenues of opportunity for women with her amazing performance in high pressure diplomacy, and she warned us in a recent book about the danger of the rise again of Fascism, condemning Donald Trump as a threat to America’s future.

Her warning of the danger of Donald Trump must be part of a massive effort to insure that neither Trump or anyone of his ilk makes it to the White House and beyond!

Right Wing Propaganda Attempts To Portray Joe Biden And Kamala Harris As Disasters, When Much Has Been Accomplished!

Right Wing propaganda, whether the Republican Party, Fox News Channel, OANN, Newsmax, or various interest groups that promote domestic terrorism and white supremacy, is working incessantly to portray President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as disasters.

This is all designed to advance the cause of a Republican Congress and state government domination by partisan gerrymandering, as well as whitewash and avoiding responsibility for support of the “Big Lie” of Donald Trump and his criminal backers who incited the January 6, 2021 Insurrection on the US Capitol!

One would think that Donald Trump and Mike Pence accomplished so much in office that was positive for the American people and nation, when exactly the opposite is the truth!

Trump did great harm in so many areas of domestic and foreign policy, and the only “winner” was the extremely wealthy, who gained a massive tax cut which added greatly to the national debt, without improving the daily lives of the American people!

Mike Pence proved how much of a sycophant he was, a person supposedly “religious”, “devout”, “moral and ethical”, when he was simply a total hypocrite, with his promotion of hatred, division, and narrow mindedness. He had to be convinced by, of all people, former Vice President Dan Quayle, to follow the Constitution on January 6, 2021, and uphold the Electoral College vote that Joe Biden had won the Presidency.

Pence will go down in history as one of the absolutely worst, most disgraceful Vice Presidents in American history!

Meanwhile, Joe Biden has accomplished a great deal, including providing relief to the American economy through the American Rescue Plan, a total of $1.9 trillion in the spring of 2021. The Physical Infrastructure legislation, providing $1.2 trillion to rebuild roads, bridges, airports rail systems, broadband, environmental cleanup, and electric vehicle, is being signed into law today by President Biden.

Also, Biden has changed the harsh policy toward refugees promoted by Trump, and cracked down on the abuses of Immigration and Customs Enforcement toward innocent children.

Additionally, Biden returned America to the Paris Climate Accords, and reversed the action of Trump cutting down the Bears Ear National Monument and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and he restored protection of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

Biden has taken strong action on vaccinations and masking, and brought about a commitment to combating the COVID 19 Pandemic, after Trump minimized the crisis and promoted false solutions. And Biden has not allowed renegade governors Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott to stop necessary action to protect the American people during this pandemic!

The “Build Back Better” Social Infrastructure legislation, held up by moderate Democrats, hopefully will be accomplished soon, as it should be, but with Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema or Arizona, and some in the House of Representatives causing problems, no certainty at this moment, but important for the future of both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and the nation at large.

Biden withdrew US military forces from Afghanistan, an action that was promoted by Donald Trump, who wanted to remove them in May 2021, rather than the actual time frame of August 2021. It was a tough decision, but America had been in Afghanistan for 20 years, and most Americans knew it was time to leave.

The NATO nations and others have seen a massive change in American foreign policy by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, restoring our good relations with our allies.

Kamala Harris has been more in the background, but Vice Presidents historically have not been in the forefront so early in an administration, and if one looks back at Mike Pence, for instance, who recalls him playing a leading role in the first year of Donald Trump’s Presidency, or really ever?

This negative portrayal of Harris simply is the reaction of having a mixed race woman a heartbeat away from the Presidency, when she has excellent credentials, were she to have to assume the Presidency!

America Became Part Of The World This Week In 1917!

America became part of the world this week in 1917, when President Woodrow Wilson went to Congress on April 2, 1917, and asked for a Congressional Declaration of War against Imperial Germany, the Austro Hungarian Empire, and the Turkish Empire, putting us into “the Great War”, later called the World War, and after entrance into World War II, termed World War I.

Although America went back into isolationism in the 1920s and 1930s, the nation learned that it was a false decision, and since World War II, we have recognized that we are part of the world, and cannot ignore what is going on outside America, as it can and has threatened American national security.

President Joe Biden faces many foreign policy challenges, most significantly with China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, but with many other authoritarian nations that also undermine America’s basic values.

While Biden wishes to deal with the many domestic challenges, he will not be able to ignore the many problems other nations pose for the United States!

Foreign Policy Rears Its Ugly Head For Joe Biden

Every President enters office wishing to deal with domestic policy and change.

But invariably, foreign policy rears its ugly head much too often!

Woodrow Wilson came to office in 1913, not expecting the First World War I to break out in 1914, and bring us into that war in 1917.

Franklin D. Roosevelt came to office in 1933, wishing to deal with the Great Depression, but also had to deal with the growing Fascist threat of Japan, Nazi Germany, and Fascist Italy, and eventually, entrance into World War II!

Harry Truman came to office in 1945 to end World War II, but had to deal with the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and send troops to Korea.

John F. Kennedy came to office in 1961, and had to deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Lyndon B. Johnson came to office in 1963, wanting to promote the Great Society, but also had to deal with the Vietnam War.

Every other President in modern times has had to face similar issues, and now, Joe Biden must deal with China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran as major headaches, as he tries to resolve the COVID 19 Pandemic Crisis!