A war president: Ensuring that the war with Iran doesn’t turn into Iraq War II

HE RAN for office bashing members of the Republican Party’s neoconservative wing for drawing the US into costly military quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan, and vowing not to involve America in “endless wars” in the Middle East and elsewhere.

As President Donald Trump insisted before and after taking office, his America-First foreign policy agenda would preclude embroiling the American people in military crusades aimed at “regime change” and “democracy promotion”, and would focus instead on pursuing a prudent non-interventionist policy that reflects core US national interests.

Those pledges not only helped Trump get elected, but also energised his political base and members of his Maga (Make America Great Again) movement, who were assured that under a president committed to the America-First doctrine there would not be reruns of the Iraq War. No more US military interventions that would turn into slippery slopes to quagmires and disasters whether in Ukraine or, for that matter, in Iran.