Wars launched under Democrats are often lauded by many liberals as great patriotic exercises, vindicating our nation’s commitment to human rights. When those same wars are prosecuted by Republicans, they ipso facto lack congressional oversight and authorization, and the connecting lines between U.S. action and the suffering of poor non-white innocents around the globe suddenly reveal themselves to the bleeding hearted.
In less than two weeks, Trump will assume the office of the presidency. He will inherit from Obama a U.S. military engaged in conflicts across the Islamic world. Will Democrats who either cheered or ignored these patriotic exercises of American power suddenly find it in themselves to oppose these wars as racist, imperialist actions of an arrogant unilateral superpower gone rogue?…
Obama will avoid some of the judgment of history by passing these endless, festering conflicts onto his successor. Trump will have the unenviable choice of ending them in humiliation, passing the results on to triumphant and opportunist rivals, or trying a version of George W. Bush’s and Obama’s “surge to withdraw with a scrap of dignity” strategies. Any and every alteration to the current policy will surely stir up Democratic partisans to attack Trump, either as a pathetic weakling withdrawing America from the world as Russia surges, or as a warmongering megalomaniac.
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