MCCAIN 2.0: Dan Crenshaw Stands in the Way of Trump Bringing the Troops Home

Freshman Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) has emerged from relative obscurity to become a “conservative” rising star in the Trump era. The 34-year-old former Navy Seal who lost an eye serving his country fighting in Afghanistan, he rose as a national figure after appearing on NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ preaching unity after being trashed on the program the week prior.

“We can remember what brings us together as a country and still see the good in each other,” Crenshaw said at the time.

Now that he is a duly elected member of Congress, it is becoming clear what Crenshaw hopes to unify the country around: Endless War.

Crenshaw penned an op/ed on Sunday with neocon talk show host Mike Gallagher in the Wall Street Journal where he re-hashed many of the same tired tropes used by now deceased former Sen. John McCain to promote costly military interventions overseas.

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“These troops are not victims. They are volunteer soldiers, part of America’s warrior class, who believe in what they are fighting for. They have seen the true nature of this enemy and know it cannot be wooed into submission by simply leaving it alone,” Crenshaw wrote.

Crenshaw would go on to essentially endorse a US military empire permanently occupying the Middle East ad infinitum under the Bush-era rationale that we have to fight the terrorists over there to stop them from coming over here.

“In truth, mission success in the Middle East means preventing another 9/11. America’s troops risk everything to take the fight to the enemy so that the enemy cannot bring the fight here,” Crenshaw wrote.

While giving some credit to President Trump’s measured foreign policy that has hit the “right balance,” Crenshaw urged a continued troop presence in Syria – where ISIS has been all but defeated – and Afghanistan, the graveyard for empires where the US has already been fighting a bloody war for 17 years.

“We strongly urge the president to maintain an appropriate military presence in both Syria and Afghanistan. The disastrous consequences of a premature and precipitous withdrawal haunted the previous administration, and America cannot afford to make the same mistake again,” Crenshaw said.

The facts don’t seem to back up Crenshaw’s pro-war narrative. Trump’s predecessor Barack Hussein Obama added a US troop presence in Syria and launched a disastrous intervention in Libya. It was because of these foreign policy blunders that ISIS and other extremists gained so much ground. After Trump stopped Obama’s CIA program to arm Islamic radicals shortly after becoming President, the situation in Syria stabilized and peace is now achievable.

President Trump was elected after talking about the Iraq War being a nightmare on the campaign trail and rejecting the belligerent orthodoxy that had failed the GOP and America for so long.

I opposed going into Iraq. Hillary voted for it. As with everything else she's supported, it was a DISASTER. https://t.co/Um5WJXWfBZ

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2016

While patriots may be impressed by Crenshaw’s impeccable military record and his show of class after being heckled, his ideological underpinnings are much more similar to John McCain or George W. Bush than they are to Donald J. Trump. His foreign policy suggestions, if followed, would turn back the clock on much of the progress Trump has made toward peace abroad.