Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis for Defense Priorities, told the Washington Examiner she doesn’t “see these uses of military force, whether they’re successful or otherwise, as having any benefits, really, for Americans.”
“The question shouldn’t be, ‘Is the world a safer place?’ It should be, ‘Are these applications of force advancing U.S. interests? Are the things that he’s acting against actually hurting U.S. interests or making Americans less safe?’” she said in an interview. “The safety of America’s economic interests, of homeland, and of Americans living abroad, that’s what’s most important. It doesn’t seem to me that any of Trump’s uses of military force, so far, have been against threats that posed real security concerns, economic or otherwise, to the United States or to Americans. And so in that sense, I would say, no, it’s not an effective application of peace through strength.”
Kavanagh noted that Trump “has never been afraid to use military force when he thought he could do so in ways that wouldn’t have big negative consequences for the United States,” adding that the president frequently employed the idea of the “big red button” throughout his first term.
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