Mr Trump and Foreign Policy

For John, BLUF:  The question is, can a President Trump settle down and make the system work?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From the web magazine War on the Rocks,♠ we have an "Open Letter on Donald Trump from GOP National Security Leads".

Yes, the authors of the letter and the 75 signers, don't think much of Mr Trump in terms of conducting foreign policy.  The statement was coordinated by Dr. Eliot A. Cohen, former Counselor of the Department of State (2007–8) and Bryan McGrath, Managing Director of The FerryBridge Group, a defense consultancy.

Their points are:

His vision of American influence and power in the world is wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle. He swings from isolationism to military adventurism within the space of one sentence.

His advocacy for aggressively waging trade wars is a recipe for economic disaster in a globally connected world.

His embrace of the expansive use of torture is inexcusable.

His hateful, anti-Muslim rhetoric undercuts the seriousness of combatting Islamic radicalism by alienating partners in the Islamic world making significant contributions to the effort.  Furthermore, it endangers the safety and Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of American Muslims.

Controlling our border and preventing illegal immigration is a serious issue, but his insistence that Mexico will fund a wall on the southern border inflames unhelpful passions, and rests on an utter misreading of, and contempt for, our southern neighbor.

Similarly, his insistence that close allies such as Japan must pay vast sums for protection is the sentiment of a racketeer, not the leader of the alliances that have served us so well since World War II.

His admiration for foreign dictators such as Vladimir Putin is unacceptable for the leader of the world’s greatest democracy.

And, the two principle authors "encourage other members of the Republican foreign policy and national security communities wishing to sign the declaration to contact them." A pretty thorough indictment and one that should give us pause.

On the other hand, the presumptive Democrat Nominee, Ms Hillary Clinton, a scofflaw,♥ had a pretty bad patch as Secretary of State.

Her effort with the Staples "Reset Button" was a failure.

She encouraged President Obama, who apparently knew better, to overthrow Libyan Dictator Muammar Gaddafi, with disastrous consequences.

Now no nation with a nuclear weapons program will consider giving it up, given what happened to Mr Gaddafi.

The never-ending chaos in Libya led to the Benghazi Imbroglio and the death of a US Ambassador.

One result of the Benghazi Imbroglio was then Secretary of State Clinton shredding the First Amendment to the US Constitution.♦

And now we are dealing with Daesh freely operating in Libya.♣

Syria.

Neglect of Latin America, except to allow for more illegal immigration.

Granted, some of the problems Ms Clinton passed on to Secretary of State John Kerry have not been solved by him either.

Hat tip to Memeorandum.★

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  As in ordering your Scotch (I am a neat man).  I recommend you bookmark the site or ask for the daily EMail notice.
♥  Forget the Rose Law Firm Billing Records, we are talking about her circumventing Federal laws with regard to preservation of records by operating her own private EMail Servers.  And that isn't even counting the need to protect classified information.
♦  She told people we would go after the videographer who made the video Innocence of Muslims, Mr Nakoula Basely Nakoula, a resident of California.
♣  Or ISIL or ISIS or IS.
★  This looks like a first for Memeorandum.  They seem to be broadening their search area.