Making America Alone Again: History Offers Few Parallels for Washington’s Repudiation of Its Own Alliances

6 comments

1. >Trump has called the United States’ closest allies cheaters and freeloaders.

   Is he wrong? After footing the bill for NATO and a long, generous history of things like Lend Lease and the Marshall Plan, is it really too much to ask for fairer trade and military partners to foot the bill they agreed to?

   If “[t]rust among individuals or nations is hard to measure, but lasting and productive relations cannot exist without it” why has the rest of the world long taken the US for granted? Even the mentioned tariffs against South Korea and Japan, while perhaps misguided, look less shocking when you consider the long history of trade between those nations and the US.

   Perhaps “the United States is no longer a dependable ally” but have the nations mentioned in the articles been so? Maybe that’s why they are stuck dealing with Trump now.

2. In a lot of way, I think history will be kinder to trump. He will be like gorbachev, who thru a mix of myopia and selfishness showed the world the true nature of their empires.

   If this leads to a more equal and multipolar world where none can unilaterally set the discourse, I would consider it a win in the end.

3. I don’t think Americans understand the depth of the rupture with Canada. The loss of trust is not just psychological, it is institutional. There is a turning away where and when it is possible, constrained by geography and legacy ties.

4. I wonder if this will neceserially translate to long term transitions towards China; at least for now most countries seem hesitant in turning completely away from the USA, and I get the vibe that some of them are seeing if they can just wait out trump for another couple years (or just one, depending on how the midterms go for him). The consensus I get is that China will be the dominant economic force, on par or even exceeding the US this generation, but a combination of years of heavy handed diplomacy from them, natural opposition (from western nations a least) towards an authoritarian state, as well as a general lack of transparency kind of left China not being able to capitalise fully on Trump’s dementia riddled mistakes. Especially if China actually intends to invade Taiwan in the near future, I would think that would only worsen their position on the global stage and especially regionally.
   Feel like with an unreliable America we’ll see more smaller regional alliance structures popping up instead, with Europe at the very least seeming to have woken up and starting to decouple from being totally reliant on the US.

5. “Alliances” is a curious word for rent-seeking. Realigning the US relationship with its “partners” to be equitable, fair, and sustainable is in support of an alliance structure.

   Allowing “partners” to extract endless revenue and concessions from the US just drowns the US while they sink themselves (EU, Canada, NZ, etc).

   The US needs its partners to stand up for themselves and contribute to an alliance for their to be an alliance – otherwise it’s just the US carrying 20 invalids on its back.

6. He’s a saboteur.

   He’s destroying America to benefit its enemies.

   Nothing he has done is defensible without accepting his lies, and even with his lies he has zero moral standing against practically anyone else alive.

   Any power America has in the world has been destroyed, tainted or twisted to this man’s image of lunacy and hate.

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