LAST WEEK, during his visit to Saudi Arabia, United States President Donald Trump delivered a speech attacking “nation building” and “neocon” foreign policy.
It is a strange reminder because the first time I had ever heard of neocon was in the early years of college, and I recall my college professor sarcastically explain that it meant: “New Conservative, obviously.”
Well, that was decades ago, and it is strange to look back to those times.
I grew up during the global war on terror. Former US President George W. Bush had initiated the wars to “Protect Democracy” by attacking “authoritarian” or “fundamentalist” societies and converting them into “Diverse” and “Vibrant” versions of San Francisco. That was the plan for Iraq. That was the plan for Afghanistan.
Had they succeeded, no doubt they would have tried the same for Syria, Iran and even North Korea. It wasn’t the exclusive motivation, but the underlying rationale for the United States’ crusade was to “Spread/Protect Democracy.”
But they failed, and the legacy of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) is one of bitter failure. The left hated it and eventually, so did the right. For the left, the GWOT was a series of imperialist wars that hurt brown people. For the right, it was a waste of blood and treasure.
For the Philippines at that time, the GWOT was a threat to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East and was a source of concern for the rise of local terrorist groups, but overall, it was something that only the US and its allies did. The rest of the world, from what I recall, was either ambivalent or opposed to it.
Overall, that entire period of history was a debacle that ultimately ended with Afghanistan reverting back to Taliban rule.
The Global War on Terror also led to the election of Barack Obama, which in turn led to the election of Donald Trump twice. And now, with Trump disavowing it, and proclaiming a new era of US foreign policy, will it last? We’ll see./PN
