Today, Republicans are the Peaceniks

When I was young, the peaceniks were all Democrats. Thus, President Carter in a 1977 speech assured us “we are now free of that inordinate fear of communism which once led us to embrace any dictator who joined us[.]” Republicans were the warmongers.

Then, after the two Bushes led us into useless wars against Middle-East dictators, conservatives were all agreed that it was the “neo-cons” who were the warmongers.

But in our time experts might agree — if they dared — that it is our lefty friends who seem to have developed an inordinate fear of Putinism and are determined to make war on him: warmongers all. And so the Democrats encouraged Zelensky to sabotage the deal with Trump, resulting in the late great Pissing Match in the Oval Office last week. Republicans — including Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) — have all come out supporting President Trump’s Ukraine peace plan and the Democrats are all united in horror that President Trump has thrown open the east European plain for the Russian hordes to sweep into Europe. And doubtless plunder it.

Nothing new here, of course. Tsar Alexander I got as far west as Paris in 1815, and Tsar Stalin got as far west as Berlin in 1945. I predict that Tsar Putin won’t get any further west than Lviv in western Ukraine, although that is personal to me because Ludwig von Mises was born there in 1881 when Lviv was Lemberg in Galicia, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

What changed? What we know is that, some time in the new century, the intelligence community got reprogrammed to do Arab Springs and Color Revolutions, and Maidans, and Ukraine election assistance, and then a jolly old war on the frontier of Russia and careless talk about World War III.

Since everyone who is anyone is not just riled up about Russia but also all riled up about China, I give you Lord Montgomery in the House of Lords in 1962:

Rule 1… is: ‘Do not march on Moscow’…[Rule 2] is: ‘Do not go fighting with your land armies in China.’

Good old Monty. Funny thing about World War II generals like Monty and Ike. After their world-conquering exploits they seemed to develop a real aversion to world wars.

Public Domain” class=”post-image-right” src=”https://images.americanthinker.com/uo/uol5zhxqiohzhggitu0r_640.png” />I suppose that if I were a genuine scholar, I would scan 20 years of Foreign Policy magazine to get to the bottom of all this and trace the trajectory of the conventional foreign-policy establishment since the end of the Cold War. Instead, I asked Google Gemini “when did U.S. leaders start to regard Russia as a threat after the end of the Cold War?” Its response (bulleted by me):

• “Initially there was a period of optimism”
• NATO’s eastward expansion was seen as a threat by Russia.
• Putin’s “assertive” foreign policy and war in Georgia
• Russian annexation in 2014 of Crimea.
• Russian interference in US elections.
• Invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Gee. NATO’s eastward expansion. Odd, isn’t it, that Google Gemini doesn’t mention all the Arab Springs and Color Revolutions! You would think that all-conquering AI, that will probably make the entire foreign-policy establishment obsolete in short order, would have dove down like a condor on the noble exploits of the intelligence community in its analysis of the Russian Question.

Hey! I never thought of that. Everyone talks of ordinary corporate flunkies and learn-to-coders getting the boot from AI. But whatabout the foreign policy silk-breeches set, the intellectual heirs of Metternich and Castlereagh? What happens when AI can Grok out a couple-dozen Foreign Policy think pieces six ways from Sunday — all before Sunday breakfast — as political philosopher Charles Schumer of New York might put it?

All I can say is that after a century of world wars and inflation and income taxes and regulations and class war and race cards and quotas, I’m done. So if President Trump and white trash JD Vance can combine to deep-six our liberal warmonger friends and stop World War III before the Keystone Kops get us into a land war in Asia, I’m in.

Here’s a thought. It arises from the Democrat accusation that Russia Russia Russia was interfering in the 2016 election and that Trump was and is Putin’s puppet and from Nancy Pelosi’s accusation that the Tea Party was AstroTurf. I wonder if the Sixties peace protesters were all funded and backed by the Soviet Union and/or Maoist China. Of course, it is ridiculous to suggest that the pro-Hamas keffiyeh-clad campus protesters of the last year or two were funded by Iran or Qatar. Nobody would ever suggest that devoted liberal protesters ever had any connection with foreign actors. All progressive protesting, experts agree, is and always has been purely organic, a heartfelt and universal human response to injustice and inequality.

Meanwhile, in between all the mostly peaceful protests and attacks on Tesla dealerships, the Republican Party has become the party of peace.

Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill blogs at The Commoner Manifesto and runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also get his American Manifesto and his Road to the Middle Class.

Image: Public Domain