FRED WYSOCKI

Republican running for US House RI-1 in 2022

INTERNATIONAL

RECENT HISTORY

Most Americans want a similar world. Politicians make much of their slight differences in vision. But the real difference is in the competency of leadership to create that world.

Ronald Reagan made a famous speech about tearing down the Berlin Wall. But George H. W. Bush was the guy in charge when the wall fell. With tons of international experience, the elder Bush acted like a traffic cop, ushering in the forces of democracy. He helped free East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, with East and West Germany unified. You could arguably add to the list. Reagan made the speech, but Bush did the work, and it couldn’t have been done any better.

Bill Clinton failed to stop the Rwandan genocide, but coordinated with NATO to stop another one in the disintegrating Yugoslavia.

George W. Bush wasn’t a wit on international affairs, so he trusted his top advisors. Unfortunately, they weren’t wits either. W invaded Iraq, set up a government, and brought troops home on a set time scale. But W was on a quicker time frame than Iraq, with the resulting power vacuum causing the Sunni Uprising.

Obama, also witless, repeated W’s error, bringing American troops home on a set time frame. His power vacuum coaxed the emergence of ISIS. France almost smashed the Arab Spring, but, realizing the error of its ways, stepped away from Tunisia, and a new democracy was born. But, after the first Arab Spring revolution in Egypt, Obama steered power to the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Egyptians had to hold a second revolution to get rid of them. The net result is that Egypt is ruled by a general again, though this one being more popular.

Trump pushed NATO to pay its agreed upon share of military expenses. Trump, you meanie! Biden will fix that. And Trump tried to prevent Iran from getting nukes. How rude. And now Israel's neighbors are mending relations. China is strongly hinting that it will do a Tibetan style invasion if North Korea gets too chummy with the West. But that's OK. Under Biden, China would have to fight the wokest military on the planet.

This is a new website as of 7/2021. I make many comments about international news on my blog. I'm starting it empty, so you won't read stale posts. It'll look interesting within a few weeks.