Republicans war mongering back in poll campaigns

Mr Marco Rubio speaks during the prime time Republican presidential primary debate on August 6, 2015 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. PHOTO | AFP

What you need to know:

  • During last week’s Republican presidential debates, 17 candidates tripped over themselves to declare President Barack Obama weak and to vow a more robust approach to foreign policy.
  • Seeking to sweep aside the anti-war mood that ushered Mr Obama to the White House, Senator Lindsey Graham insisted US troops were needed in Iraq and Syria to fight the IS.
  • Washington’s highly politicised civil service means that for the last seven years, many have been parked at think-tanks and in the private sector waiting to get back into the game.

Once thought dead and buried on the battlefields of Iraq, a muscular and militaristic neoconservative approach to US foreign policy is making a comeback.

For most of the last decade, the neocons — personified by former vice-president Dick Cheney and ex-Pentagon boss Donald Rumsfeld — have been out of office and fashion.

But the 2016 presidential race has seen Republican candidates embrace ideas and advisers once ostracised for the catastrophes of George W Bush’s pre-emptive war in Iraq.

During last week’s Republican presidential debates, 17 candidates tripped over themselves to declare President Barack Obama weak and to vow a more robust approach to foreign policy.

What Mr Obama aides see as caution, pragmatism and a realism about US power, Republicans painted as a lack of US leadership that had left a power vacuum allowing Russia, Iran, China and jihadist terror groups to run the show.

“We need a new commander in chief that will stand up to our enemies,” said Senator Ted Cruz.

Seeking to sweep aside the anti-war mood that ushered Mr Obama to the White House, Senator Lindsey Graham insisted US troops were needed in Iraq and Syria to fight the IS.

If the rhetoric sounds familiar, so do some of the faces.

Mr Paul Wolfowitz, an early and vociferous champion of invading Iraq as a senior aide to Mr Rumsfeld, has been advising former governor Jeb Bush.

Senator Marco Rubio is aided by Mr Jamie Fly, who worked on president George W Bush’s national security team.

In 2012, Mr Fly argued that the US should pursue a policy of regime change in Iran, with a bombing campaign against government targets.

It was always likely that Republican candidates would look to personnel from the two previous Bush administrations for foreign policy experience.

Washington’s highly politicised civil service means that for the last seven years, many have been parked at think-tanks and in the private sector waiting to get back into the game.

But Republicans like Lawrence Wilkerson see more reasons for reaching into the past. He believes politics and an unwillingness to accept a decline of US power has led to the embracing of neocon ideas.