|
Trending Topics
|
Israel Is the Most Reliable Partner the U.S. Has in Matters of Global Security
(Wall Street Journal) Walter Russell Mead interviewed by Tunku Varadarajan - "Just when the conventional wisdom that America was in terminal decline had congealed into place, the airstrikes suggest that American power remains unique in world affairs," said Walter Russell Mead, 73, among the most original thinkers on foreign policy in this country. He says the U.S. faces a real threat from "the axis of revisionists" - China, Russia, North Korea and, at least "until quite recently," Iran. Complacency in the face of this threat would be fatal. As events in Iran have shown, Israel - a small non-NATO ally - is in many ways the most reliable partner the U.S. has in matters of global security. The Israeli prime minister is "the only leader, really, to have been able to throw back the revisionist axis in a very serious way. And Trump has given him some critical support." "Israel is a fantastic ally. It's an ally that spends a higher percentage of its GDP on defense than we do. And it's an ally that America is trying to hold back, rather than whip on. It's more eager for the fight than we are." Israel's strategic interest, while not identical to America's, is "broadly enough aligned with ours, so that we're usually on the same side on the big issues."