Jim Mattis: Hopefully Biden Will Put “America First” Out to Pasture

In an op-ed for Foreign Affairs this week, former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that he’s optimistic that incoming President Joe Biden will put all of that nasty “America First” business behind us and get back to conducting U.S. foreign affairs the old way. You know, the way that involves aligning ourselves with our enemies, making a complete mess out of situations that don’t need to involve us, carrying countries that can’t pay their debts, and sending our military into wars that never end. It sure will be great the have The Establishment back in charge, huh?

Together with American Enterprise Institute’s Kori Schake and the Hoover Institution’s Jim Ellis and Joe Felter, Mattis wrote, “In January, when President Joe Biden and his national security team begin to reevaluate U.S. foreign policy, we hope they will quickly revise the national security strategy to eliminate ‘America first’ from its contents, restoring in its place the commitment to cooperative security that has served the United States so well for decades.

“The best strategy for ensuring safety and prosperity is to buttress American military strength with enhanced civilian tools and a restored network of solid alliances – both necessary to achieving defense in depth,” they claimed.

Yeah. NOT Trump’s approach, which only gave us the first four-year period in modern history that the U.S. didn’t get itself involved in any new foreign wars. Not Trump’s approach, which finally convinced our NATO allies to buy in on their own national defense. Not Trump’s approach, which put a decisive end to ISIS in Syria and sent Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to his eternal reward. Not Trump’s approach, which has led to unprecedented Middle Eastern peace deals and a weakened Iran.

“In practice, ‘America first’ has meant ‘America alone.’ That has damaged the country’s ability to address problems before they reach U.S. territory and has thus compounded the danger emergent threats pose,” they claimed without evidence. “Not even the United States is strong enough to protect itself on its own. Cooperating with like-minded nations to sustain an international order of mutual security and prosperity is a cost-effective way of securing that help.”

Oh, do tell us about “cost-effective” national security. How much has Iraq and Afghanistan cost our nation again?

All this op-ed tells us is that, with Trump out of the way, the neocons in both the Democratic and Republican parties are ready to jump back into the mix and pick up like nothing ever happened. Hooray…