NewsMax
But we learned turning the Muslim World into a Constitutional republic has been a non-starter. TD
"President Donald Trump's quick, bold moves on trade deals, hostage returns, and peace talks in the Middle East this week have even staunch Biden administration Democrats in awe.
"Gosh, I wish I could work for an administration that could move that quickly," a Bidenadministration official admitted to Axios on Thursday as Trump is wrapping up day three of his tour through Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
"Former Biden State Department spokesman Ned Price was willing to go on record with a caveat to those in awe: Claiming the quick, bold moves only come because Trump is unchained by political forces unlike anyone before — ostensibly admitting former President Joe Biden was beholden to Democrat influence during his administration.
" 'He does all this, and it's kind of silence, it's met with a shrug," Price told Axios of Trump. "He has the ability to do things politically that previous presidents did not because he has complete unquestioned authority over the Republican caucus."
"While Trump says he is close to a new Iran nuclear deal, former President Barack Obama's Iran nuclear deal negotiator Rob Malley calls the move "damage."
"It's hard not to be simultaneously terrified at the thought of the damage he can cause with such power and awed by his willingness to brazenly shatter so many harmful taboos," Malley said to Axios.
"There are even some Biden administration goals that Trump met quickly, including the lifting of sanctions on Syria after the new leader — even if a former al-Qaida terrorist — attempts to rebuild his country." . . .
Trump’s Riyadh Speech Heralds The End Of Failed Neocon Foreign Policy
"Truly looking out for American interests means refraining from trying to remake foreign countries in our own image."
One fear: Muslim areas in Western nations that seek to belong Sharia-dominated must be opposed. When that happens, Muslim resistance tends to become violent and we are faced not with remaking culture into Western-style principles, but preserving them. TD"In what was probably the most important presidential speech in decades, President Donald Trump repudiated decades of failed interventionist U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East during an official visit to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday.
"Not only did Trump lambast neocon “nation-building” in the region, he more or less vowed never to pursue the kinds of neocon misadventures that spilt American blood and treasure over the past 25 years in the insane pursuit of creating western liberal democracies in the Middle East.
"In stark and unmistakable terms, the president reminded the world of the abject failure of decades of neocon and liberal interventionist U.S. foreign policy under both Democrat and Republican leadership. He specifically called out the trillions of U.S. tax dollars wasted in a totally unsuccessful attempt to turn Iraq and Afghanistan into western-style democracies as part of the global war on terror.
“ 'In the end, the so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built — and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves,” Trump said. “The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation-builders, neocons, or liberal non-profits like those who spent trillions failing to develop Kabul and Baghdad.”
"His speech, which came after a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the signing of economic agreements totaling $600 billion in new trade deals, heralds a new approach not just to Mideast politics but to American foreign policy generally. By disavowing the nation-building ideology of the neocons and liberal interventionists that dominated U.S. foreign policy under the Bush, Obama, and Biden presidencies, Trump articulated a vision of American engagement with the world that is both more tolerant, more transactional, and less concerned with the internal affairs of other nations.
"In other words, Trump’s vision of American foreign policy isn’t driven by a zeal to remake the world into some version of a liberal western democracy. In Riyadh, he was saying that Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states can just be Islamic monarchies, and as long as they present no threat to American interests, and as long as they promote peace and stability, then we can do business with them." . . .
