World
America First foreign policy ‘profoundly dangerous,' invites multi-front war, eminent historian warns
FIRST ON FOX – The United States needs to maintain its global focus and efforts to stymie the growing cooperation and ambition of “axis of evil states,” according to historian and journalist Andrew Roberts, Baron Roberts of Belgravia. Roberts sits in the British House of Lords.
“When it comes to the axis of evil states, frankly, it’s not the worst thing in the world to have a forever war, especially if you will not actually fight,” Roberts, a biographer of several British leaders, including Winston Churchill, told Fox News Digital. “It can be done for an amount which is a really very impressive return on investment.”
Roberts, along with retired Gen. David Petraeus, wrote “Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine,” an assessment of U.S. foreign conflict involvement examined through the lens of successful strategic leadership. Roberts is currently working on new chapters for the paperback release, which will focus on the war in Gaza and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitions for Taiwan.
He argued that the United States, as a global superpower, can and should “walk and chew gum” – so to speak – and that American isolationism would prove “a profoundly dangerous force… not just for the rest of the world but for America as well, ultimately.”
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“If the United States decides to essentially shrug off the responsibility of a great global superpower that you’ve been really since the Great White Fleet circumnavigated the world in 1909, a long time ago now… one can understand that any titan gets weary,” Roberts said. “However, if you were to embrace isolationism, the ultimate response would be from the alliance of anti-democratic nations that we are seeing is working closer and closer… ultimately it will rebound terribly on you.”
The desire for an “America First” policy has grown stronger as the U.S. faces down two significant conflicts – first from Russia, now in its third year of invading Ukraine, and from the bubbling tension between Iran and Israel.
Some Republicans particularly have opposed the continued funding of Ukraine without a clear plan as to how the conflict could end, raising fears of another “forever war” like those the U.S. maintained in the Middle East over the past two decades.
House Republicans have worked to condition aid for Ukraine, which has surpassed $113 billion as of March 2024. Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, R-Va., called for any funding to Ukraine to be balanced out by spending cuts elsewhere and for it to be paired with U.S. border policy changes. The House finally passed the $60 billion funding bill for Ukraine on Saturday.
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“We cannot continue to borrow and spend money we don’t have for wars overseas while failing to protect Americans from the Biden border invasion here at home,” Good told Fox News Digital earlier this month. “At a bare minimum, any package for military aid to Ukraine should be fully offset and must include H.R. 2 with performance metrics to secure our own border.”
Roberts argued that the U.S., as a “great superpower… some might argue the only superpower” can protect both itself and support allies in a conflict that has proven an “extremely impressive” return on investment.
“The Ukrainians have taken out well over half of the Russian tank fleet,” Roberts noted. “Now, at any stage in American post-war history, if you offer the president that deal, he’d have snapped it up.”
“You’ve got a $825 billion per annum defense budget to spend, [and] less than a 10th of that, take out your opponent’s tank fleet, essentially – at least, over half of it – is an amazing return on investment,” he added.
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“After 20 years of the forever war in Afghanistan before Biden’s, in my view, outrageous scuttle from that country, you’d got it down to the situation where no Americans had died for 18 months, and the whole American cost of this conflict was down to about 20 to $25 billion a year,” he said. “That’s an amazing thing, to be able to keep the Taliban out of power.”
However, Roberts stressed that there should remain limits to the U.S. ambitions overseas, dismissing the idea that Washington should seek Russian regime change as “not our duty, not our job, not our responsibility, and certainly not a very sensible thing.”
“The obvious reason is that it would just stoke anti-Western nationalism in Russia,” he explained. “No, they can do those things themselves, and I think the point at which they might do that is, as has happened so often in history, when Russian aggression has been shown not to succeed.”
Roberts lamented, though, that Russia has made strides in Ukraine’s easternmost territories, with a breakthrough on the front and potentially bigger gains to come “if the West doesn’t help Ukraine more.”
Indeed, more and more analysts and commentators have grown increasingly dismal about Ukraine’s potential successes: The BBC, Politico EU and other outlets in the last week have run articles discussing why and how Ukraine could face defeat this year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says any victory hinges on continued funding from allies to keep pace with Russia.
Roberts suggested that such doomsday prophecies may prove premature, stressing that “there’s no such thing as inevitability in history.”
“So many times in history, you’ve seen one thing about to happen and then the opposite happens,” Roberts mused. “These breakthroughs the Russians are having in certain theaters… not major ones so far, but they are fighting with a shell advantage, and that’s because the United States and Europe are not providing the shells.”
“It’s certainly not inevitable that either the Ukrainians win or lose that war unless, of course, we stopped providing them with the wherewithal to continue to fight,” he warned. “It’s them that are putting up in the blood, huge amounts of it, but simply because Russia is a bigger country does not mean that it’s automatically going to win: If that was the case, you’d have won in Vietnam.”
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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World
North Korea propaganda song praising Kim Jong Un goes viral on TikTok
A song that praises North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has gone viral on TikTok.
“Let’s sing Kim Jong Un, the great leader,” the song called “Friendly Father” says, according to BBC News. “Let’s brag about Kim Jong Un, our friendly father.”
“Is this a single or where can I get the whole album,” one TikToker joked. Another said, “It’s so dystopian in the catchiest way.”
“I don’t really like Kim Jong Un but he was really cooking on this song,” another said.
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South Korean pop, or K-pop, and Western music are banned inside North Korea, and some defectors have cited illegally listening to outside music as a factor in their decision to defect.
“When you listen to North Korean music, you have no emotions,” North Korean defector Ryu Hee-Jin told The Washington Post in 2019. “But when you listen to American or South Korean music, it literally gives you the chills. The lyrics are so fresh, so relatable. When kids listen to this music, their facial expressions just change.”
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Of “Friendly Father,” Peter Moody, a North Korea expert at Korea University, told BBC News, “The song has Abba written all over it. It’s upbeat, it could not be more catchy and a rich set of orchestral-sounding sequences could not be more prominent.”
Alexandra Leonzini of Cambridge University told the outlet North Korean authorities would have sought to make an “earworm” song with simple lyrics that’s easy to sing.
“All artistic output in North Korea must serve the class education of citizens and more specifically educate them as to why they should feel a sense of gratitude, a sense of loyalty to the party,” she said.
Defectors have said the government plays propaganda songs every morning throughout the country, citizens are taught choreographed dances to the songs and the lyrics are printed in newspapers.
“By the time the song has sort of been taken into the body, it’s become part of the person,” Keith Howard, a professor at the London School of African and Oriental Studies, said. “So, they know the lyrics so well, even if they’re just doing the actions, even if they’re just listening to it. A good ideological song does that. It needs to embed the message.”
World
Spain and Argentina trade jibes in row before visit by President Milei
The spat began when Spain’s transport minister said Argentina’s Javier Milei took drugs during last year’s election.
Spain and Argentina have their diplomatic daggers drawn and have traded jibes over drug use and economic decline.
The spat began on Friday when Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente, during a panel discussion in Salamanca, suggested that Argentina’s President Javier Milei had ingested “substances” during last year’s election campaign.
“I saw Milei on television” during the campaign, Puente told a Socialist Party conference.
“I don’t know if it was before or after the consumption … of substances.”
He also listed Milei among some “very bad people” who have reached high office.
Milei’s office responded on Saturday in a statement condemning the remarks and also attacking Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
The statement accused Sanchez of “endangering Spanish women by allowing illegal immigration” and undermining Spain’s integrity by making deals with separatists, while his left-wing policies brought “death and poverty”.
— Oficina del Presidente (@OPRArgentina) May 3, 2024
Spain reacted with fury.
“The Spanish government categorically rejects the unfounded words … which do not reflect the relations between the two countries and their fraternal people,” the Spanish foreign ministry said.
“The government and the Spanish people will continue to maintain and strengthen their fraternal links and their relations of friendship and collaboration with the Argentine people, a desire shared by all of Spanish society,” the statement added.
The spat comes two weeks before a visit to Spain by Argentina’s “anarcho-capitalist” president.
Milei will attend an event of the far-right Vox party and will be avoiding meeting Spain’s socialist head of government, Sanchez.
The two have never had good relations.
Sanchez supported Milei’s rival Sergio Massa in the election that brought Milei to power in December and has also not contacted Milei since the victory.
Milei has meanwhile publicly supported Spain’s far-right anti-immigration Vox party. Vox leader Santiago Abascal also went to Buenos Aires for Milei’s investiture.
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