In his weekly opinion column at The Washington Post, conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer outlines the foreign policies of the "Final Four" presidential candidates, summarizing them down to a single word for each: "pacifist, internationalist, unilateralist and mercantilist."
First up on Krauthammer's list -- the pacifist, Bernie Sanders. Sanders' record has him voting against both the Iraq War and the Gulf War before it. But his war is really against the infinitesimal number of billionaires in America. His bottom line, according to Krauthammer: "Stay away, but if we must get involved, let others lead." Otherwise, he adds, Sanders is all about "foreign-policy-as-social-work do-goodism, most especially undoing the work of U.S. imperialism."
A President Sanders would quickly hand over Guantanamo Bay over to the Castros, he adds.
Krauthammer pegs Hillary Clinton an internationalist. He doesn't spend much time analyzing her, just enough to remind us of the "demonstrable failure" of the "Clinton/Obama" foreign policy mess that peaked with Benghazi. A President Clinton would be a continuation of the President Clinton of the 1990s:
Her worldview is traditional, post-Vietnam liberal internationalism — America as the indispensable nation, but consciously restraining its exercise of power through multilateralism and near-obsessive legalism.
Now onto the Republicans; first up, Ted Cruz, the unilateralist. Krauthammer sees Cruz as "the most aggressive of the three" so far; one who desires "post-Cold War U.S. leadership restored." He believes that a President Cruz would most likely resemble a Ronald Reagan as far as foreign policy is concerned:
He’s of the school that will not delay action while waiting on feckless allies or farcical entities like the U.N.
Last up -- mercantilist Donald Trump. President Trump would treat "countries like companies," Krauthammer states, in hopes that it would make America rich and therefore strong:
It’s all about money. He sees no particular purpose for allies or foreign bases. They are simply a financial drain.
As Krauthammer notes, he believes the worldviews of Sanders, Clinton, and Cruz are easily recognizable across the ideological spectrum, but it's not as black and white with Trump because he "lacks any geopolitical coherence." His summary:
Thus, if Japan and South Korea don’t pony up more money for our troops stationed there, we go home. The possible effects on the balance of power in the Pacific Rim or on Chinese hegemonic designs don’t enter into the equation.
Same for NATO. If those free-riding European leeches don’t give us more money too, why stick around? Concerns about tempting Russian ambitions and/or aggression are nowhere in sight.
As for ISIS, though, Krauthammer reminds of the words that sends tingles through all Trump supporters: "bomb the sh** out of them" and then keep their oil. Krauthammer names President Trump a modern day King Philip II of Spain.
January 20th is arriving fast and one of these four, barring some miracle from John Kasich, will become the next President of the United States: a pacifist, an internationalist, a unilateralist, or a mercantilist.
"Don’t say you weren’t warned," Krauthammer closes.
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