Trump Should Pick Jim Webb As Secretary of State
Written by Brian Brady | Do you remember that outlier of the stage of the first couple of Democratic Presidential debates? Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) holds
views closest to President-Elect Trump's, especially on American intervention abroad. Webb understands that the neoconservatives have wrecked the concept of a Constitutional foreign policy and he thinks they are setting up America for failure abroad.
Webb outlines a seven-point plan for American foreign policy :1- identify national security objectives and American value systems2- develop partnerships with trustworthy actors abroad3- honor treaty obligations4- support on-treaty allies5- maintain superiority in strategic systems6- preserve the right to national self-defense7- restore the balance between Congress and the Executive BranchWebb has been criticial of the "humanitarian interventions" waged by the last four Adminstrations. He is adamant about no military actions abroad unless approved by Congress. Webb is, more aligned with Trump than potential cabinet members John Bolton or Rudy Giuliani.Senator Rand Paul explains that John Bolton is more aligned with Hillary Clinton than Trump:"Bolton is a longtime member of the failed Washington elite that Trump vowed to oppose, hell-bent on repeating virtually every foreign policy mistake the U.S. has made in the last 15 years — particularly those Trump promised to avoid as president." Giuliani isn't much better. He's been angling to go to war with Iran since 2007, was the neoconervatives pick in 2008, and has been tied up in a crony business relationship as a national security consultant:By 2004, Giuliani and Kerik were jointly running Giuliani-Kerik, a security consulting firm, when the former mayor personally recommended to President Bush that Kerik be nominated to head the Department of Homeland Security. However, Kerik’s nomination promptly came to an end in the wake of a raft of allegations of impropriety ranging from extramarital affairs to tax fraud to public corruption. “If Kerik had landed the job,” wonders Shnayerson, “would he not have been in the perfect position, on behalf of the federal government, to buy lots of the very security products and services that Giuliani Partners had been nursing along and investing in?Giuliani is the swamp Trump wants to drain and Bolton is the internationalist Trump criticizes. Both found reasons to avoid the Vietnam War while Jim Webb, a Naval Academy graduate, donned his Marine Corps officer bars and earned the Navy Cross fighting in Southeast Asia. Webb knows war and the finality which comes with it. He served as Reagan's Secrtary of Navy and as an Assitant Secretary of Defense.Webb is an independent thinker and an American patriot. Republicans would do well to break with the chicken hawk neoconservatives on foreign policy and align themselves with the string national defense crowd (the key word being on "defense"). Trump would not only gain bi-partisan credibility for nominating a Democrat as his Secretary of State, he would have a cabinet member whose world view is more aligned with his own.
Brian Brady
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