Is this really a bottom ten? You make the call. I was offline this weekend so I don't know if anyone has a great analysis of the NSS. Since I had to read it to answer some questions on the radio, I have some thoughts, and the easiest way to approach this on a Sunday night is to come up with a top ten list. From least to oh my these guys are the absolute worst.
Bottom line up front: the writers of this doc (not Elbridge Colby, the Undersecretary for Defense Policy, since he is most focused on war with China) are ignorant, arrogant, racist panderers.
Honorable mention: Didn't make the top/bottom ten, but:
References to Trump ending a bunch of wars. Nope, didn't happen; Peace through strength yet gutting many of the things that provided the US with strength--its educational system, USAID, its competent civil servants who being driven out, the nonpartisan military, etc. The US is much weaker now that it was on January 19th; the notion of being pro-worker while gutting regulations and undermining unions; its definition of fairness which is anything but fair. The idea that competence and merit matter as Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and others have the highest positions despite being both dis and unqualified. Indeed, there are a lot of projection and bad faith in this document, but that should not surprise anyone.
10. The complete blindness to the reality that most international institutions and international law were designed by Americans to perpetuate the American interest.
9. The assertion of sovereignty while seeking to deny the sovereignty of others--that countries in the Western Hemisphere can't trade with whom they want, that European countries must give their far right more access to power, etc.
8. The whole first paragraph of principles is enough to make any IR scholar puke: "
President Trump’s foreign policy is pragmatic without being “pragmatist,” realistic without being “realist,” principled without being “idealistic,” muscular without being “hawkish,” and restrained without being “dovish.”
It is meaningless without having any meaning. And, no, the only principles driving Trump's foreign policy are racism, greed, resentment, and racism.
7. The whole concept of reindustrialization. Who is going to work in deregulated dangerous factories if not new immigrants?
6. The focus on oil and gas and coal energy and not wind and solar--not a surprise, but still appalling.
5. The repeated references to Soft Power completely misunderstand the concept and shows a tremendous lack of self-awareness. Soft power refers to the ability to influence others to do things they might otherwise not do (the classic definition of power) because of the popularity and power of one's example, of one's system, culture, values. During the Cold War, the US had a huge soft power advantage as many people around the world wanted to wear jeans, listen to rock music, watch movies made in Hollywood, shop in markets like those in the US, and the like.
4. The civilizational bullshit aimed at West Europe. I talked about this in yesterday's Guns and Butter. Just out and out white supremacy and fascism as the Trump Regime wants its kin in Europe to gain power.
3. The document is super contradictory as I have already enumerated, but also includes the whole crap on Europe, ask Europe to do US's bidding. I talked about this in today's Guns and Butter. You can't expect allies to respond well to your demands if you are seeking to have them overthrown by their far right.
2. Sure, wanting a stable Western Hemisphere makes sense and is no "Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine." The Trump fixation on the Western Hemisphere is actually the greatest threat to destabilize the hemisphere from Greenland to Venezuela.
1. Fucked up priority #1. Not only is migration not the most important issue facing the US, but it also helps to amplify this administration's racism, xenophobia, and Great Replacement Bullshit.™.
I am just thankful it came out after my US foreign policy class was over. Yuck.
