old salt wrote:=
Ask & you shall receive :
Fell for the bait. You just listed his puff pieces on Trump. I had read 'em all. Well, almost all. But I have now.
18 articles. Cite one single negative sentence. Good luck. I already read these. 18 articles, not one negative word, while
every single one contains criticisms of Obama. I'll even break down how ridiculous his claims are.
The first cite is the best one. VDH claims that all our problems with china----intellectual property, one-sided deals----magically started exactly in 2009, and lasted until 2017. Wow. That's amazing. So Bush had it all figured out, and Obama ruined everything, and now just 2 years into Trump, everything is fixed and awesome again. Whew. Deep insight there.
Can you find one negative sentence about R POTUS in the piece? Or a phrase? Nope. All glowing. No mistakes, just flawless foreign policy with China. Neat-o, right?
From 2009 to 2017, U.S. leadership rationalized that China would soon not just be an Asian and Pacific superpower, but eventually would eclipse America itself—as if its eventual supremacy was destiny rather than being due to U.S. indifference.
What followed was systematic and unchecked Chinese commercial and intellectual-property cheating. Beijing stole U.S. technology, ran up huge trade surpluses and warped the entire world trading system. Such one-sided Chinese mercantilism was excused as “free trade.”
Puff piece on Mattis. Mattis may be all that and a box of crackers, but since we can't find one ill word about a R anywhere in years of essays, how would we know?
I want what VDH is smoking on this one. Allies would find no better friend than Trump?
Whew. That's a good one. Any other flat out lies VDH would like to tell? As for our enemies having no worse enemy? Who the heck is he talking about here? Who are the two guys he's friendliest with? Putin and Kim. Meanwhile, shall we list all the insults Trump has thrown at allies?
Again, not one word of criticism. Shocker.
Trump adopted the of spirit of the Roman general Sulla: allies would find in the U.S. “no better friend”, as enemies learned there was “no worse enemy”. Both trade and war would be now adjudicated through bilateral relations, not international organizations.
Citations from VDH? Doesn't count, my friend. Pass.
Again, no criticism of Trump policy. Unless you want to play VDH's now trademarked setup game of "sure Trump's crude, but let me tell you how awesome he's really doing". To wit:
Trump, of course, was loud. He was crude, mercurial, and at times petty. He was often boisterous. He had no prior military or political experience, and relied on cunning and intuition rather than research, preparation, and reflection.
Yet paradoxically Trump showed real empathy for “our” (as he says) vets, soldiers, workers, and farmers. He cared about increasing jobs for inner-city youths. He had genuine respect for the working classes and was deeply suspicious of the New York–Washington establishment. Trump also was savvy in ensuring the finest national-security team in recent memory, along with appointing a stable of bright, professional, and conservative federal judges.
Again, zero policy analysis or criticism. It's all good. Moving on.
Zero criticism/discussion of Trump's choices. Basically a discussion about what every other country save the US should do.
https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine ... ent-falls/
Ooooh, we're off to a great start here "According to Pew International polls, Trump is now intensely disliked in Europe."
Do you think VDH is going to follow that with "and with good reason"?? Nope. Awwww. Bummer. Shocker, nothing is Trump's fault,
and this is an essay about how "Europe is doing it wrong".
Well, let's take a breath. We're about halfway through and there's literally not one single ill word about Trump's policies. Of course, Obama is
mentioned multiple times to illustrate how horrible his policies were, but I'm still waiting to hear about one.....just one wrong move Trump has
made overseas.
This is a blurb about procedural stuff with Putin/Mueller. There's nothing here to discuss.
Another "it's all NATO's fault, not Trump's/US" piece. Nothing here.
This one, oddly, criticizes VDH himself....a dude working for the Federal government at a University on the coast...the trifecta. Not one word about Trump's policies regarding globalism.
The winners of globalization—the universities, financial powerhouses, the federal government, big tech, and the marquee media and entertainment outlets—were mostly located on the two coasts.
This one is hitting at Obama, while lauding Trump's super neat-o toughness. Wanna bet that VDH won't talk about the Chinese ship that buzzed 40 yards from ours, or the Saudis cutting up an American journalist? "That's different".
Do you picture VDH running his fingers through Trump's chest hair with this fawning?:
For the next two-and-a-half years, Iran is stuck with Donald Trump. If it tries to hijack another U.S. boat or sends another missile near an American carrier, Trump and defense secretary James Mattis will not react the same way Barack Obama did. Rather, they are likely to take military steps to preclude the Iranian ability ever again to replicate the aggression — a fact known to Iran, to the delight of its enemies and to the worry of its few friends.
Another piece on how Obama did it wrong. Any mention of Trump? Nope. What year was this written again? Oh, right----2018. So where is the discussion of what Trump is doing? Oh, right, can't do that. So what does VDH do? Punches Obama. Again. Neat-o
Another piece about how our NATO allies are wrong, and Trump is awesome.
In this VDH piece of jingoism, I picture Trump in a cape saluting an American flag. Do you?
The European furor over Donald Trump is not, as alleged, because he and the nation that elected him are crude, but that he and his country are needed more than ever by a continent that has lost its way.
Another hit piece on Europeans. Was this guy turned down at Oxford or the Sorbonne or something? Our allies suck apparently. Who knew? And yep, another swipe at Obama....good to know VDH can indeed criticize....so is this FINALLY a piece where he takes Trump to task for something? Anything?
Nope. Of course not. Although I do give VDH points for discussing Tolkien. Although he left out why Gondor actually fell into disrepair. It's Steward was ensnared by Sauron when he tried to use the Palantir---basically a crystal ball. So VDH didn't even get that right.
Do I even need to read past the piece's title "post-war-order-over-not-caused-by-trump-foreign-policy"? Nope. This must be a series. "Everything bad is someone else's fault, and Trump's foreign policy is super-awesome-fer-shure."
And again with the Europe blame....
No clue why you included this love letter to America. Nice piece. No policy discussion.
This last one is a dandy. Implying that Trump's crazy will save the day, and lists the Gordian knots of Chinese Trade, Mexico's porous border, and N Korea's nukes.
And sometimes knots can only be cut — even as we recoil at the brash Alexanders who won’t play by traditional rules and instead dare to pull out their swords.
So now VDH's beloved Trump is a brash sword-brandishing Alexander. It's like he has a crush on the man. Trly comical
Written in Apr. of 2018, will VDH revisit these Gordian knots and point out that nope, Trump did nothing about these problems? What do you think? Nope.
So there we have it. 18 freaking pieces and not one single word of criticism that isn't put forth as a feature not a flaw (e.g., Trump's crudeness).
Now can you finally agree that I have a point with this VDH guy? There's more freaking criticism of a guy who left office two years ago than there is of the guy who's actually running the show. How much more transparently partisan can one get?