Let’s get one thing straight. All other countries hate the US – to varying degrees but yes we are hated. Why? Because it is human nature. For too damn long we have done it better, outproduced, accumulated wealth and simply lived better as a society than everyone in the world. We have left all totalitarian countries in the dust and pretty much most socialist countries as well. We are greedy capitalists in a democratic society. Not everyone is wealthy, but everyone has the opportunity to get wealthy. Not everyone lives well but anyone can live well. So, what is exactly the point of an appeasement policy towards any country? Why would we send money to Iran and assume they will be our friend? Why would we go and try to rescue and reform Iraq at enormous expense?
The scattered US foreign policy over the past decades has made us weak in an era when dictators have found a way to survive and become stronger. Is this the fast lane to inevitable military confrontation? When China and Russia grab land and ocean that wasn’t theirs does that force our hand to fight back? Well, I think yes. The US needs to protect its interests abroad just like everyone else – because those interests are constantly under fire from all directions. We absorb constant figurative and literal assaults militarily, economically and ideologically. Yet protectionism and nationalism seem to be dirty words if you listen to the media, Of course listening to the media is now vastly overrated and the voters spoke in 2016 to favor nationalism and protectionism, whatever that might mean.
Among other things it means controlling immigration, controlling our budget, creating favorable trade and generally enhancing the lives of American citizens rather than trying to enhance the rest of the world, an impossible feat anyway. It doesn’t mean massive giveaways to terrorist countries, fighting foreign wars to protect citizens of other countries or weakening the US in the name of saving the world.
We have done a fantastic job of giving away the resources of our nation since the 70s. We send money all over the world without a thought of repayment. We have allowed foreign countries to enter our country and own our land and businesses without oversight. We spend massive amounts of money to fight wars in other countries. So when Trump says “let’s take the oil from Iraq” he means it. If Putin had taken Iraq, do we really think he would have left the oil in the ground?
We have sold or given away our natural resources abroad including our uranium. We have allowed other countries to run up huge trade surpluses against our deficits, dumping countless goods into our country. We have allowed those countries to protect their own businesses from our exports. So three cheers for tariffs.
The point is when we finally have someone in office who doesn’t want to give away the store, the media throws fits. Get real folks, you are being run over by third world countries and you want hire back Obama so he apologize for not giving them more stuff.At some point we have to stop worrying about diversity and identity politics and start winning our country back from the rest of the world.