Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid,” convinced enough voters to oust incumbent George H.W. Bush, even though the economy was as not a bad as Clinton depicted. But it was the perception that the economy was in the dumps that propelled him to victory in spite of President Bush having a 90% approval rating after the Gulf War that commenced in January 1991 that drove Iraq out of Kuwait.
The US led coalition to oust Saddam Hussein and the stationing of US troops in Saudi Arabia set into the motion the reactions—the first World Trade Center bombing, in February 1993, and then the horrific events on September 11, 2001. The Bush II administration reaction to the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon was the US invasion of Iraq (March 2004) after the incursion into Afghanistan to capture Osama bin Laden.
The massacre today in Orlando is another example of blowback. The architects of our bipartisan foreign policy will never admit that it has been US intervention in the Middle East that is triggering these mass shootings. In other words, we will have additional mass shootings because of the Bush/Obama/Clinton foreign policy.
Will Donald embrace an interventionist policy in the Middle East as the way to deal with ISIS? Or will he realize the chaos of the Middle East and the inevitable blowback from the Middle East is the direct result of US foreign policy?
David Stockman spells out in great detail how and why blowback occurs. Until the architects of our foreign policy come to their senses, the blood of innocent Americans will be on their hands together with that of the murderers.