Two Wars No More

In the latest New Statesman, Mehdi Hasan castigates Barack Obama for governing as a moderate Republican.

Quite so. And a good thing, too.

Obama is the heir of Republican calls for Europe to revert to pre-1914 borders and thus end the First World War. Of those Republicans who resisted entry into the Second World War until America was actually attacked by either side. Of Eisenhower’s ending of the Korean War, his even-handed approach to Israel and the Palestinians, his non-intervention in Indo-China, and his denunciation of the military-industrial complex. And of Nixon’s suspension of the draft, his pursuit of détente with China, and the ending of the Vietnam War by him and by Ford, an old stalwart of the America First Committee.

Obama is the heir of Reagan’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 1983, and of his initiation of nuclear arms reduction in Europe. Of James Baker’s call to “lay aside, once and for all, the unrealistic vision of a Greater Israel” and to “foreswear annexation, stop settlement activity”. Of Republican opposition to the global trigger-happiness of the Clinton Administration. And of Bush the Younger’s removal of American troops from Saudi Arabia after 11th September 2001, thus ensuring that there has been no further attack on American soil.

This carry on in Asia wants watching. But the second Obama term offers the serious possibility of the restoration of the republic envisaged by the Founding Fathers, “not seeking for monsters to destroy”. Especially if the Republican nominee whom Obama must see and raise this year is Ron Paul. Make it happen.