Comments by "Louis Giokas" (@louisgiokas2206) on "Peter Zeihan's Favorite US President of All Time Is..." video.
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For once I completely agree with Peter.
I would add that Bush was also a Navy Aviator in WWII and Ambassador to the UN.
Another thing to understand is that Clinton's campaign had a tag line which went "It's the economy, stupid." That is generally the determinant of US elections, not foreign policy. Even in 1980 and 1984 Regan, while strong on foreign policy was primarily running on economic issues. He was all about a strong military and deterrence (Trump has made similar statements) but it really was about the economy. I have seen surveys from this election of the reasons people voted and the top three never included foreign policy (Ukraine) or climate change.
The thing is that I would not be too certain that the world order ever could have "fixed". In fact, Bush was impressive not because he was talking about how to cement the world order of the time, but that he wanted to discuss it. His approach gave people, as we would say in today's parlance, "agency". I think he was smart enough, experienced enough and honest enough to know that this was a whole new era. It was a situation that had never happened before. That just adds to his stature in my opinion.
Just to enhance Bush's stature a little more, it was under him that the "Powell Doctrine" was put forward. He was talking about military action by the US assuming that diplomacy, etc. had failed.
The following list I copied from Wikipedia:
1. Is a vital national security interest threatened?
2. Do we have a clear attainable objective?
3. Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
4. Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
5. Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?
6. Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
7. Is the action supported by the American people?
8. Do we have genuine broad international support?
Now, just think about this in light of the Ukraine War. We don't have troops there (I think) but we have committed military assets.
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