WASHINGTON ¨C U.S. Vice President JD Vance recently tried to cast President Donald Trump¡¯s strikes on Iran¡¯s nuclear infrastructure as a wildly successful example of the ¡°Trump Doctrine.¡±
According to Vance, the doctrine is simple: you identify a problem that threatens U.S. interests, which ¡°you try to aggressively diplomatically solve.¡± If diplomacy fails, ¡°you use overwhelming military power to solve it and then you get the hell out of there before it ever becomes a protracted conflict.¡±
If only it were that easy. What Vance describes is neither a doctrine nor unique to Trump. It is the same wishful thinking that produced many of the long, costly and unsuccessful U.S. military interventions that Vance himself has often decried.
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