Originally Posted: February 11, 2016
Daniel Drezner says Donald Trump is the champion of foreign policy ‘realism.’ He’s wrong. It’s Barack Obama.
When President George W. Bush decided on war with Iraq in 2003, the ostensible goals were to depose the dictator Saddam Hussein and destroy his alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Lying just beneath the surface, however, was a deep and bipartisan enthusiasm for using military power to spread American values.
The war was backed by neoconservatives in the White House and liberal internationalists in Congress. Members of this coalition didn’t agree on everything, but they shared the belief that the United States would benefit from overthrowing illiberal regimes. READ MORE