President Donald Trump today called for a new strategy for a new era of competition, a "great reawakening" of an "America first" policy that would use "peace through strength" to ensure U.S. dominance in the world.
Each phrase echoed strategies used by other leaders to justify plans to win, no matter the issue, whether it be commerce, diplomacy or war.
The phrase, "peace through strength" was first used by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the First Century and echoed by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Critics have called it a short step from there to the practice of "peace through war."
The call for a "great reawakening" revives the emphasis on the religious evangelicalism of the 19th Century in Europe and America, similar to what many say is happening in America today.
And the "America first" slogan echoes that used by isolationists in the 1930s.
The president's speech led with a litany of what he felt were "failures of the past administrations," who had "lost sight of America's destiny," and he said he was "reasserting" a "domestic truth that a nation without borders is not a nation."
Trump stressed the need to secure America's southern border, but he made no mention of the nation's northern border. Mexicans and Canadians may make of that what they will.
And he spoke of the need for new alliances "with those who share our goals." But what of those who don't? Is this a threat, a case of saying, "do things my way, or else"?
In all, the speech on national security echoed his history of wanting to win, anything, always, and it brought to mind his business strategy of wielding a big stick, bullying and threatening others to get his own way.
In short, it blends isolationism with a policy of dominating other nations, threatening them to follow his orders or suffer consequences.
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