In 1979, as crowds gathered in the streets of Iran to topple the shah, the New York Timesran an editorial describing Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as an “enigma.” Bernard Lewis was then America’s leading scholar on the Islamic world. He had read Khomeini’s works, many of which had been translated into English and were easily accessible.
Far from an “enigma,” Lewis concluded that Khomeini possessed the virtue of candor (to put it mildly) and that in every respect he was a perfect lunatic. But Lewis had been largely discredited as a “racist,” so his offer to write a piece for the Timesfell on deaf ears. An editor at the paper said that Lewis was merely a Zionist agent spreading disinformation.
'Khomeini’s ambitions extended beyond Shiism. He wanted to be accepted as the leader of the Muslim world, period.'
Among other things, Khomeini had written that girls should be married off before puberty (“Do your best to ensure that your daughters do not see their first blood in your house”). His own father — who was stabbed to death when Khomeini was a baby — married his mother when she was just 9 years old. Khomeini himself took his wife when she was 10 years old and had her pregnant by the age of 11. Khomeini blamed poverty in Iran on foreigners and Jews and argued that the idea of nationalism and nation-states was nothing but a Western plot to weaken Islam.
At the heart of Khomeini’s program was conquest. In the words of Vali Nasr, one of the world’s leading authorities on Shia Islam:
Khomeini’s ambitions extended beyond Shiism. He wanted to be accepted as the leader of the Muslim world, period. At its core, his drive for power was yet another Shia challenge for leadership of the Islamic world. He saw the Islamic Republic of Iran as the base for a global Islamic movement, in much the same way that Lenin and Trotsky had seen Russia as the springboard country of what was meant to be a global communist revolution.
No price was too high to pay in the jihadist drive to create a Shiite caliphate. During the blood-soaked Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, an ayatollah named Mehdi Haeri Yazdi approached Khomeini, his mentor, while he was sitting alone on a rug in his garden facing a pool. The hopeless war was consuming hundreds of thousands of young lives, Yazdi said. Was there no way to stop the slaughter?
Khomeini replied reproachfully, “Do you also criticize God when he sends an earthquake?”
The economic costs of creating a caliphate were a secondary concern for Khomeini as well. He famously cried that “economics is for donkeys” and “the revolution was not about the price of watermelons.”
This ideology continued long after Khomeini’s death in 1989. In 2021, a former senior Syrian official named Firas Tlass told an interviewer, “The Iranians have an authoritative plan to take control over the entire region.”
Their strategy was as brilliant as it was simple. They went to any country that had Muslims and a political vacuum. There they set up a school system in which they indoctrinated children with their vision of violent, expansionist, radical Shiite Islam. Twelve short years later, they had legions of young fighters eager to do their bidding. The strategy was implemented in an arc of ruin that extended from Lebanon through the Levant and down to Yemen.
The Iranians even attempted to gain a toehold on the European continent in the 1990s, in Kosovo. Tlass added that in the mid-2000s, former Iranian President Muhammad Khatami predicted, in a private conversation between the two, that in 20 years Iran would be the counterweight to the United States.
This prophecy would be realized almost exactly 20 years later during the Gaza War, when the world got its first taste of the radical Shiite coalition. Tehran mobilized its multi-tenacle proxy army. Though Israel ultimately triumphed, as we have seen, the world got its first taste of the dangers of the would-be Shiite caliphate.
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There was unprecedented shelling by Hezbollah, which rendered an entire region of Northern Israel uninhabitable. There was disruption of international shipping by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. And at the very moment that Iraq’s prime minister was in Washington hoping to negotiate a much-needed economic package, a Shiite militia in his country joined Iran’s April 13, 2024, assault that launched hundreds of rockets into Israel. A senior member of Iraq’s security forces named Abdul Aziz al-Mohammedawi made no secret of his allegiance to Iran and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In the face of this challenge, American allies in the region, and particularly the Saudis, were dumbfounded by Washington’s foolishness. Under the banner of “human rights,” the Biden administration undermined Saudi Arabia’s war against the Iranian-backed Houthis of Yemen. As a senior Saudi journalist put it, “You wouldn’t let us fight the Houthis, so now you have to.”
Biden administration envoy Amos Hochstein reportedly offered Hezbollah an aid package to rebuild Southern Lebanon after the war, if the terror group agreed to stop firing into Israel. The administration should have slapped punishing sanctions on Lebanon’s battered economy the minute Hezbollah launched its first rocket.
Even over 130 attacks on U.S. troops by Iranian proxies drew little or no response. On January 28, 2024, Iranian-backed militias killed three American troops stationed in Jordan. The Biden administration carried out a measured response in Iraq and Syria but left Iran out of the fray, even lifting sanctions to permit Tehran to raise oil exports from 300,000 barrels a day to 2 million.
And then there was the Iran nuclear deal. Experts still debate how long it would have delayed Iran obtaining a bomb — the deal, by its very terms, only placed restrictions on Iran for 15 years — but all agree that it gave Tehran access to over $100 billion. To this President Obama said, “Our best analysts expect the bulk of this revenue to go into spending that improves the economy and benefits the lives of the Iranian people.” This statement showed a fundamental misunderstanding of Iranian priorities — a mistake the current Trump administration seems determined not to repeat.
Editor’s note: This article has been adapted from Uri Kaufman’s latest book, “American Intifada: Israel, the Gaza War, and the New Antisemitism.”
I’m a strong supporter of President Trump. I respect his drive to secure our borders, restore national sovereignty, and bring real vitality back to the American economy.
But the Department of Homeland Security’s latest move — limiting workplace enforcement and putting a stop to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on agricultural employers — cuts against the very heart of the America First agenda. It protects the same corporate giants that are bleeding rural communities dry.
If DHS and USDA want to fix agriculture, they need to stop hiding behind the word ‘farmer’ when they’re really talking about corporate middlemen.
Let’s not kid ourselves: This policy isn’t about helping “farmers.” It’s a gift to foreign-owned industrial agriculture giants like JBS and other multinationals that built their business models on cheap labor, government handouts, and total control over every link in the supply chain.
These are the corporations responsible for wiping out independent family farms across the country.
The Biden administration let Big Ag off the hook. Is Trump really about to follow suit?
You don’t need to hire illegal workers to run a successful farm or ranch. In fact, some of the best in the business don’t.
Look at White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia. Or Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. Or Meriwether Farms out in Wyoming. These aren’t fantasy models. They’re real, thriving operations built on legal labor, strong local roots, and, when needed, carefully managed visa programs.
They don’t rely on mass illegal labor. They don’t need to.
What they do is create real jobs. They pay honest wages. They bring life back to rural towns.
Will Harris is the biggest employer in Bluffton — not because he cuts corners on labor, but because he heals the land, strengthens his community, and delivers food independence.
This is what Trump’s golden age of American farming should look like: self-reliance, real prosperity, and pride in a job well done.
With this new policy, DHS basically gave corporate amnesty to the likes of Tyson, Smithfield, JBS, Cargill — you name it. These are companies that depend on cheap, illegal labor to keep their bloated, centralized model afloat.
We’ve been down this road before. Remember Ronald Reagan’s 1986 amnesty? Legalization now, enforcement later — except “later” never came.
And now, we’re repeating the same mistake.
This policy protects a broken system built on:
What we’re left with is what journalist Christopher Leonard called “chickenization” — a corporate takeover of the food system that treats farmers like serfs and workers like machines.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s loyalty to these monopolies has already hollowed out towns, forced families off their land, and turned our food supply into a global pipeline where cartel-linked produce replaces homegrown independence.
This doesn’t serve America. It serves the bottom lines of a few mega-firms that like open borders and look the other way on enforcement.
And whether it admits it or not, this is how the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals get implemented — quietly, through broken farms, outsourced jobs, and illegal hires.
This isn’t just about agriculture. It’s about national security.
A nation that can’t feed itself without breaking its own laws isn’t sovereign. And one that lets multinationals run roughshod over the heartland while outsourcing production to places run by cartels is heading for trouble.
If DHS and USDA want to fix agriculture, they need to stop hiding behind the word “farmer” when they’re really talking about corporate middlemen.
Trump has a chance to change course — one that truly puts Americans first. That means backing the producers who follow the law, hiring citizens or legal workers, and building food systems that support independence, not dependence.
Independent farmers and ranchers are ready to help. They’ve already shown what works: strong property rights, legal labor, fair water access, and a commitment to community.
This isn’t some policy wish list. It’s already happening.
And it’s winning.
Let’s not give our food, our land, or our future back to the monopolies that wrecked the past.
I’ve often wondered what our Founding Fathers would think of their great American experiment. Imagine George Washington strolling down the Las Vegas Strip, Thomas Jefferson riding the Tennessee Tornado at Dollywood, or John Adams catching a “throwed roll” at Lamberts in Missouri.
Would they be awestruck by the Independence Day fireworks in New York City? Or cheer at the Super Bowl? Would they marvel at the soaring Gateway Arch in St. Louis? Or the majesty of the Rocky Mountains? Would Betsy Ross wash down a Moon Pie with an R.C. Cola?
‘The greatness of America doesn’t begin in Washington,’ Ronald Reagan said. ‘It begins with each of you — in the mighty spirit of free people under God.’
On the last day of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked if we had a republic or a monarchy?
“A republic, if you can keep it,” he was said to reply.
Without a doubt, America is the most exceptional nation in the world. In the face of great adversity and insurmountable odds, we have overcome. And we have been blessed.
And that’s why I set out on a mission with my friend Michelle Cox to write “Star-Spangled Blessings: Devotions for Patriots.”
It’s a collection of stories about how God has lavished our country with a bounty of star-spangled blessings.
That’s not to say that our great nation has not been through some squabbles. We’ve had more than a few — and some were doozies. We’ve made lots of mistakes, but we’ve also righted many wrongs.
Perseverance is a word that has defined us over the years. Franklin Roosevelt announcing to the nation about a date that would live in infamy. Walter Cronkite relaying to the nation a shocking bulletin from Dallas. President George W. Bush standing on a pile of rubble at Ground Zero with a bullhorn.
Yet, amid great tragedy, our nation has always found strength in almighty God — our defender and our protector.
President Trump knows of that strength, that divine intervention. He survived not one but two assassination attempts.
“Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason. And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness, and now we are going to fulfill that mission together,” he said during a speech in 2024.
I vividly recall watching as the shots rang out in Butler County, Pennsylvania. My heart stopped as Trump dropped to the stage. But then, he rose up, and with blood streaming down his face, he thrust his fist into the air and shouted, “Fight, fight, fight!”
President Trump would then urge Americans to read their Bibles, to get back to church, and to pray.
“Let’s make America pray again,” he said.
The president caught quite a bit of grief from the atheists and the Democrats for that altar call.
“Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country, and I truly believe that we need to bring them back, and we have to bring them back fast,” the president said at the time. “I think it's one of the biggest problems we have. That’s why our country is going haywire. We've lost religion in our country. All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It's my favorite book. It's a lot of people's favorite book.”
Now, that’ll preach, as we say back home in Tennessee.
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Sure, we have lost our way in this country. We’ve been so focused on taking back Congress and the White House that we forgot to take care of our homes and our communities.
Ronald Reagan said it best in 1984 when he told the nation that “the greatness of America doesn’t begin in Washington. It begins with each of you — in the mighty spirit of free people under God, in the bedrock values you live by each day in your families, neighborhoods, and workplaces.”
As I write in “Star-Spangled Blessings,” we must return to the faith of our founders. A faith that compelled George Washington to pray on bended knee at Valley Forge.
A faith that compelled John Adams to petition the almighty to bless those who resided in the White House. A faith that compelled Franklin Roosevelt to ask Americans to pray for a spiritual awakening.
It’s that sort of American spirit that has resonated with people across the fruited plain. These are moments that define us as a nation.
Lee Greenwood, the singer-songwriter who penned “God Bless the USA,” is a friend of mine, and his anthem to the land of the free and the home of the brave still brings a tear to my eye as I write these words from the hills of Tennessee.
And I suspect that if America’s founders were here today, they would love this land from sea to shining sea. And they would join their fellow countrymen in asking God to bless the USA.
Monday night the grill cools, the flag comes down, and you crash on that “half-off” mattress you never planned to buy. By Tuesday morning, America is already scrolling to the next thing. But the moms in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery aren’t scrolling — and neither should we.
Treating Memorial Day like a red, white, and blue props department proves a sad stat from a poll conducted by the National World War II Museum a few years ago: Barely one in five Americans could explain what the holiday is actually for.
We must teach the next generation to remember on purpose. If your kids can quote Marvel but not MacArthur, that’s on us.
So let’s talk about Tuesday morning in America and the 364 days that follow. What does it look like to honor our war dead all year long?
We must price-check freedom — every day. Scripture is always an appropriate place to start. In John 15:13 the Bible teaches us, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” This verse is memorialized on headstones form sea to shining sea.
President Reagan reminded the nation at Arlington in 1982 that “freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden.” That burden extends beyond military service. It demands vigilance. It requires raising children who understand why our flag is folded 13 times — not just how many “likes” a TikTok dance racks up.
We must finish the unfinished work.Abraham Lincoln’s address at Gettysburg was delivered five months after that battlefield fell silent, long after the trending topic had shifted. He challenged the living “to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”
Our unfinished work today is cultural: defending truth in classrooms, fostering marriages that can withstand deployment, protecting girls’ sports from idealogues who would erase biological reality, and pushing back when elites sneer at patriotism as passe.
We must guard the souls who come home. The Department of Veterans Affairs’ most recent suicide-prevention report still lands with a thud: An average of 17.6 veterans take their own lives each day. We flunk Remembrance 101.
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We cannot claim to honor the fallen if we abandon the brothers- and sisters-in-arms who made it home only to fight invisible wars. That means supporting faith-based counseling (which bureaucrats keep trying to sideline), turning the VA paperwork morass into a mission, helping veterans find meaningful and rewarding post-service careers, and checking on the veteran down the street instead of waiting for Washington to do it.
We must restore the faith they fought for.According to Pew Research, eight in ten Americans now believe religion is losing influence in public life, and roughly half say that’s a bad thing.
The men and women we memorialize took an oath to defend a nation “under God.” When pastors self-censor, when corporate America flies a Pride flag over Old Glory, and when our schools swap the Bible for the 1619 Project, we’re torching the spiritual scaffolding those soldiers died to protect. God bless America.
We must teach the next generation to remember on purpose.If your kids can quote Marvel but not MacArthur (“No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation”), that’s on us. Take them to a war memorial in July, not just on the last Monday in May. Tell them why “Taps” is 24 notes of holy silence. Ask a Gold Star family to dinner and let the conversation run long. The goal isn’t to glorify war; it’s to glorify virtue — courage, duty, sacrifice — so that when the recruiters call, our sons and daughters know what they’re signing up to defend.
We must live gratefully and live out loud.Gratitude is not a Hallmark feeling; it’s a muscle you flex in public. Fly the flag correctly (sunrise to sunset, illuminated at night). Stand for the anthem even when the stadium lump next to you kneels or leaves his hat on. Support companies that still believe in America like Blaze Media and my podcast, “We the People with Gates Garcia.” And pray for our leaders — yes, even the ones making it hard.
We must trade hashtag for habits. Hashtags flicker; habit forges character. Start small: Write a letter to a deployed Marine, sign up for a volunteer shift at the VA hospital, make a family pledge to read one military biography a year; and if you are blessed with means, cut a check to a veterans’ nonprofit organization. Imagine 20 million American households stepping up to do that. The culture would shift faster than Congress could rename the next great American holiday.
The 365-day test: I love a good cookout more than anyone. That’s part of the freedom they bought us. But the measure of our gratitude isn’t how loudly we celebrate on one Monday — it’s how deliberately we lie on all the rest. Reagan’s challenge, Lincoln’s unfinished work, and Christ’s supreme definition of love converge on a single question the fallen silently ask us every dawn: Are you living a life worthy of my sacrifice?
One day a year it’s fine to say, “Happy Memorial Day.” But on those other 364, make sure you live like you’re worth that sacrifice.
The life of an unheeded prophet rarely ends in comfort and often courts danger. Pat Buchanan endured both with the resolve of a warrior. As the most prominent paleoconservative in American politics, Buchanan stood so far ahead of his time that today’s MAGA agenda looks like a photocopy of his 1992 presidential campaign platform. From the culture war to working-class economics and immigration, Buchanan served as the American Cassandra — right about nearly every major question yet scorned by Republican elites.
Republican pundits and politicians dismissed him as a bigot, a racist, an anti-Semite — even likening him to a Nazi. Many of the loudest voices came from within his own party. But Buchanan never bent. He held the line. Decades later, nearly all his predictions have come true. He kept the torch of paleoconservatism burning when no one else would — and that torch lit the fire of the MAGA movement.
Buchanan took on the thankless task of warning his party and his country about the real dangers ahead, long before anyone in power was ready to listen.
Born in 1938 in Washington, D.C., Buchanan rose to prominence as a newspaper columnist and editor before joining President Richard Nixon’s White House as a speechwriter and political strategist. He later became a fixture on TV with shows like “Crossfire” and “The McLaughlin Group” and did a second tour at the White House as Ronald Reagan’s communications director from 1985 to 1987.
Buchanan could have coasted on that résumé. He didn’t. Instead, he broke with the GOP’s managerial, globalist consensus and challenged it head-on. In 1992, he ran against George H.W. Bush in the Republican primary, furious over the president’s betrayal of his “no new taxes” pledge. But Buchanan’s campaign wasn’t just about tax policy. He warned against endless foreign wars, the abandonment of Christianity, the hollowing out of American industry, and the long-term consequences of mass migration.
In his famous “culture war” speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention, Buchanan didn’t just warn Republicans. He challenged the entire direction of the American ruling class.
“My friends, this election is about more than who gets what. It is about who we are,” he said. “It is about what we believe and what we stand for as Americans. There is a religious war going on in this country. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as was the Cold War itself, for this war is for the soul of America.”
After two more failed presidential bids, Buchanan returned to writing and commentary. He published several influential books, including “The Death of the West” and “Suicide of a Superpower,” launched the American Conservative, and penned columns for VDARE. At every turn, he tackled controversial topics — foreign intervention, demographic transformation, and the destruction of the American middle class. While neoconservatives dominated Republican politics, Buchanan stood firm, laying the groundwork for the civil war now raging inside the GOP.
Most voters aren’t driven by ideology. They want a politics that serves their families, communities, and country. Conservatism shouldn’t revolve around abstractions but should exist to preserve a way of life. Despite the “conservative” label, Republican leadership made clear it cared only about cutting taxes and waging endless wars.
Then came Donald Trump, who bulldozed the GOP establishment by campaigning to secure the border, protect American workers, and end the forever wars. Trump won on Buchanan’s platform.
As Millennial and Gen Z conservatives came of age under Trump, many sought intellectual roots for the movement. They found them in the paleoconservatives: Paul Gottfried, Samuel Francis, and, most of all, Pat Buchanan. Clips of Buchanan’s speeches and passages from his books now go viral across social media, revealing a man who diagnosed America’s decline with uncanny foresight. He has become, retroactively, the elder statesman of the New Right — an inspiration to a generation of conservatives eager to challenge the party line and reclaim their country.
Buchanan’s return to prominence hasn’t gone unnoticed by establishment conservatives or the legacy press. Neoconservatives have taken to calling Trump supporters the “Buchanan right” — a clumsy insult aimed at discrediting the movement by association. The Atlantic recently ran a hit piece titled “The Godfather of the Woke Right,” recycling the slur peddled by James Lindsay. The article begrudgingly acknowledged “Suicide of a Superpower” as a formative text for the MAGA right but framed this influence as toxic — an engine of xenophobia and racism.
In a time when the GOP sold out to neoconservative globalism, Buchanan held the line. He took on the thankless task of warning his party and his country about the real dangers ahead — mass migration, national decline, foreign entanglements — long before anyone in power was ready to listen. For his efforts, he was ridiculed, condemned, and cast aside.
That must never happen again. We won’t let it happen again. The term “Buchanan right” shouldn’t be a smear — it should be a badge of honor.
While the left tears down statues of America’s founders, the right should start building. We must erect monuments to the men who stood firm when it mattered most. The first should be Pat Buchanan. We can no longer elect him president — but we can honor him now, while he’s still here to see it. Let’s build the monument he deserves — one that pays tribute to the man who carried the torch through the wilderness and lit the way for the movement that would Make America Great Again.
In the first major shake-up of Trump’s second term, Michael Waltz has been removed as national security adviser. The White House gave no explanation, but sources say Waltz drew fire for adding Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of the Atlantic, to a Signal chat with other national security officials about a recent U.S. strike on Houthi targets in Yemen.
But Waltz’s ouster likely runs deeper. It reflects a growing internal struggle over the direction of national security policy — a familiar pattern in American politics. From Hamilton’s Federalists to Jefferson’s Old Republicans, the fight over foreign policy priorities has shaped administrations since the founding.
Good strategy requires focus and discipline. The United States must prioritize its goals, not squander its power on open-ended crusades.
In a recent American Enterprise Institute essay, Hal Brands identified five competing foreign policy factions jockeying for influence under Trump. The two most influential camps are the “global hawks” and the “come home, America” bloc.
The Global Hawks — often dismissed as neocons — include Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. They insist on maintaining U.S. primacy to preserve global security and stability. This faction champions aggressive containment of adversaries like Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea. It also defends long-standing U.S. alliances, though now under pressure to renegotiate the terms.
The other faction, often called the “disengagers,” frames U.S. strategy through the lens of “forever wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their primary goal is to avoid further entanglements in the Middle East by scaling back U.S. military involvement. They also oppose military aid to Ukraine, citing the risk of escalation with Russia. Vice President JD Vance and Tulsi Gabbard stand out as leading figures in this camp.
Brands identifies three additional factions: the “Asia firsters,” the “economic nationalists,” and the “MAGA hardliners.” The most consequential alliance may be the one forming between the “come home, America” bloc and the “MAGA hardliners.” That coalition threatens to upend decades of Republican foreign policy — to the country’s detriment.
Since the Vietnam War, the GOP has generally stood for national security: strong defense, reliable alliances, and a forward-leaning military posture. President Trump largely embraced that tradition during his first term. His national security strategy took a clear stance, particularly on South Asia, replacing President Obama’s unfocused approach to Afghanistan with a more coherent plan.
Yet, as H.R. McMaster notes in his memoir “At War with Ourselves,” Trump often strayed from those principles. While many of his instincts were sound, he frequently abandoned them when challenged — or simply deferred to whoever had his ear last.
Some observers see Waltz’s ouster as a sign that the “come home, America” faction is gaining influence within the White House. That remains uncertain. But one thing is clear: Abandoning the traditional Republican defense posture would be a mistake.
The core issue isn’t military force itself — it’s the use of force without a coherent strategy rooted in defending U.S. interests. Too many in Washington treat national security as a tool for serving some imagined “international community.” That’s how the Obama-Biden team, and even George W. Bush, stumbled: They lacked prudence.
Prudence, as Aristotle defined it, is the political virtue essential to statesmanship. It’s the ability to match means to ends — to pursue what’s right with what works. In foreign policy, that means setting clear objectives and taking deliberate action to apply power, influence, and, when needed, force.
Since the 1990s, U.S. foreign policy has often shown hubris rather than prudence. Clinton, Obama, and now Biden have placed their faith in global institutions, believing U.S. power exists to uphold abstract international norms. Their goal has been to build a “global good” — a corporatist globalism detached from national interest and patriotism.
These Democratic administrations have repeatedly failed to distinguish allies from adversaries. Nowhere was this clearer than in Obama’s tilt toward Iran, which came at the expense of both Israel and Sunni Arab states. Biden has doubled down with his disgraceful treatment of Israel, undermining one of our closest allies while appeasing their enemies.
Meanwhile, George W. Bush pursued his own misguided vision — an effort to remake the Middle East in America’s liberal image through force. That project collapsed under the weight of religious conflict and tribalism in Iraq and Afghanistan. And while Washington obsessed over exporting democracy, China quietly rose — unfazed, unchecked, and happy to let us believe it would someday play by our rules.
The best way to secure America’s liberty, safety, and prosperity is to return to a strategy that resembles the one that won the Cold War — one that brought the Soviet Union to collapse and elevated the United States to unmatched global power.
Ronald Reagan summed it up in three words: peace through strength.
I call it prudent American realism. This approach blends principle with power. It recognizes that the internal nature of regimes matters. Thucydides understood this over 2,000 years ago. In “The Peloponnesian War,” he noted that both Athens and Sparta sought to promote regimes that mirrored their own values — democracies for Athens, oligarchies for Sparta.
The lesson? A nation is safer and more stable when it is surrounded by allies that share its principles and interests.
Prudence also demands restraint. While regime type matters, trying to spread democracy everywhere is a fool’s errand — one the Bush administration disastrously pursued after 9/11.
Resources are limited. Good strategy requires focus and discipline. The United States must prioritize its goals, not squander its power on open-ended crusades abroad.
Reagan’s foreign policy understood a timeless truth: Diplomacy and force go hand in hand. Too often, American policymakers — steeped in the fantasies of liberal internationalism — act as if diplomacy alone can achieve strategic goals. But as Frederick the Great put it, “Diplomacy without force is like music without instruments.”
A sound U.S. strategy treats diplomacy and force as two sides of the same coin.
President Trump should follow Reagan’s lead. That means maintaining a forward defense posture with the support of reliable allies, projecting strength through presence, and defending freedom of navigation around the globe.
Strategically, the goal must be clear: Preserve the U.S. maritime alliance that defends the “rimlands” of Eurasia — a term coined by Nicholas Spykman. This system exists to contain any aspiring hegemon, whether it’s Russia or China.
This approach has served the nation well before. Trump should carry its lessons forward.
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