Firebrand: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the MAGA Revolution

by Matt Gaetz

  We have spent $6 trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan—a staggering sum. That is more than the market cap of Facebook, Apple, Google, and Microsoft combined. Plus our entire nation’s credit card debt and student loan debt combined. We’ve indebted our own people while pouring money into the hands of some who have hated us for hundreds of years and will probably still hate us for hundreds more. They have long memories in the Middle East. We have long accounts receivable notes that will only convert to regrettable debt.

  Despite the loss of American lives and treasure, I don’t know that we can honestly claim that our efforts have deprived terrorists of the means and the land to plan future attacks. Today, the Afghan government is divided in chaos and in corruption—just as it always was and may always be. We spent nineteen years trading the same villages back and forth with the Taliban. The Washington Post’s Afghan Papers proved that we never knew what we were doing, and we let warfighting heroes die as their clueless leaders in the Pentagon, and the Bush/Obama White Houses, continued to believe that fortitude over function could deliver victory which we couldn’t define, much less achieve.

  Treasonous bullshit, if you ask me, to keep letting Americans die because armchair retired generals needed paying contracts and defense contractors needed stock dividends.

  Strong borders. Energy dominance. Building a resilient homeland and bringing investment back to our country. These things do more for our national interest than ill-fated interventionist regime-change wars. As President Trump reminds us, economic security is national security. It means better trade deals, a strong manufacturing base, and capital investment returning from foreign bank accounts to invest in our people. Personnel is policy, and our policy has been to neglect training up our personnel. We have also failed to let people keep what they earn. Let them be rewarded, and allow the creativity of our great nation to lead the world. Bush’s military “coalition of the willing” wasn’t leadership. It didn’t inspire our allies. It was more like dragging people on a forced visit to your in-laws…if they lived in a cave in Afghanistan!

  I’m grateful that President Trump is the first president since Ronald Reagan who has not started a new, extended war. He has functionally ended our involvement in the Syrian Civil War, and almost every time we talk he is trying to bring more home.

  Securing the homeland does not require America to invade every nation where terrorists huddle, and it certainly does not require staying there and becoming the Neighborhood Watch program. President Trump knows how to deal with bullies. You punch them in the face and give them a reason to think twice before messing with you again. You don’t move into the bully’s home for twenty years in a quixotic effort to have them unlearn their wicked ways. Forty-six missiles landing on a Syrian airbase, launched from far away, sends a message—to Iran, Russia, and China. Killing Iranian military leader Soleimani with a drone guided from the homeland resets deterrence. Decades clinging to the frozen mountains of the Hindu Kush, by contrast, have been exhausting. What would winning look like if we won there anyway? An Afghanistan stable enough for multinational corporations to export our jobs to?

  I am proud to stand for our troops, our flag, and our national anthem—and this son of Northwest Florida is equally proud to stand against stupid wars managed by stupid men, and Hillary.

  One would think the cautionary tales of Afghanistan and Iraq would make the war lobby and so-called “national security experts” more cautious about U.S. involvement. Instead, Hillary Clinton, with the support of hawks in the Republican Party, launched a regime-change operation in Libya, removing the strongman dictator Qaddafi.

  More recently, my Republican colleague Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming has picked up the neoconservative pantsuit Hillary Clinton left behind, in contrast to the more effective, realistic Trump Doctrine. Liz has supported ten of the last three wars. When President Trump correctly removed tens of Americans from the Turkey/Syria border, Liz was among his loudest critics. She joined with a majority of House Republicans in rebuking the Trump Doctrine in Syria. Have the lives of Americans suffered because our troops aren’t as involved as Liz would like in Syria? Did she want a new war with Turkey, an on-paper ally? As I said on the floor of the House in October 2019:

  If Turkey is not acting like a NATO ally, perhaps the sensible solution is to remove Turkey from NATO rather than keeping the United States inserted in Syria, presumably forever…. I’ve heard my colleagues say we should not leave Syria without a strategy. Perhaps it is equally logical that we should not stay in Syria without a strategy…. In Syria, we have tens of Americans stuck between armies of tens of thousands who have been fighting for hundreds of years and will likely be fighting hundreds of years from now. Our mission, to deprive ISIS of Caliphate land, has largely been accomplished—with the help of the Kurds and with over $9 billion being paid to the Kurds. The Kurds have been fighting bravely where they live…. They have been trained, funded, and equipped by the United States…. We cannot accept the proposition that if we support a group of people because our interests align in one case, this somehow morally binds our country to every conflict they have—past, present, or future. To do this would constrain the utility of America’s future alliances, not strengthen them.

  “We have to fight them over there so we don’t fight them over here,” the neocon chant goes. Even if you insist that this rule is true in the Middle East, I think we can all agree that it doesn’t apply to Germany. Well, maybe not all of us.

  When President Trump announced the withdrawal of one-third of U.S. troops from Germany in June 2020, Liz Cheney called the president “dangerously misguided.” We had “abandoned allies” and “retreated” from the “cause of freedom” itself, she tweeted. In Germany?!

  A Cheney supporting the Cheney Doctrine over the Trump Doctrine isn’t surprising. Liz wants Trump to lose, hoping that a reset of republicanism will quell the unruly populists and reempower the establishment. We were elected together and entered Congress together. On one of our first meetings, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers had purchased each new Republican member a “Make America Great Again” hat for an inaugural “class photo.” Liz was the only incoming GOP member who refused to don the hat and join the rest of us. Abandoning allies indeed.

  Most recently, Rep. Cheney has teamed up with Democrat Rep. Jason Crowe to draft and introduce legislative barriers to a Trump-led Afghanistan troop drawdown. They want to stay forever.

  Many in Washington can think of literally no place in the world they wouldn’t want more troops, more spending, and more problems to justify more troops and more spending. If we are so scared that Russia is going to roll tanks through Germany, why isn’t Germany scared enough to stop buying Russian oil? On military spending, we have been the fool of the world for too long, and we have been played accordingly. Trump doesn’t tolerate it. He sees that it is grotesque, particularly when the pro-war forces place the veneer of freedom and humanitarianism over their lust for power.

  There is nothing humanitarian about the slave markets thriving in Libya, or the migrant crisis wreaking havoc across Europe. We had a deal with Qaddafi. He turned over his nukes and we turned over a new leaf in our relationship with his country—that is, until the Clinton-Boltonistas decided that they needed to look tough or something (it was never quite explained). So much for the Libya model! On to the next one! There should be a rule that neocons must live in the countries they invade—not just rape the government contracting process on the rebuilding of the country, as they did in Iraq.

  The same “thought leaders”—or is it trend followers?—were equally desperate for regime change in Syria and the removal of Bashar al-Assad. Like Qaddafi, there was no question he was a brutal dictator. The problem with the misguided calls for regime change is the lack of a credible, superior alternative to the dictator—the main beneficiaries of such an intervention in Syria would be ISIS and the related terrorist groups fighting Assad and benefiting from chaos.


  Luckily, the forever war lobby never got its desired intervention in Syria, largely thanks to Donald Trump—the only major presidential candidate who spoke against the folly. The so-called “experts” behind our failed foreign policies have not learned from their mistakes because they have never been asked to explain them or even acknowledge them. And so today the saber-rattling persists, with bigger, brighter bombs and bombast, and is directed now toward Venezuela, Yemen, and, most disturbingly, Iran.

  As we look to these countries, it is our task to ensure that we don’t just repeat the mistakes of yesteryear’s decision-makers but that we learn from them. We must resolve not to start unwise wars or place our military in unwinnable and endless conflicts. We know from tragic experience that oppressors like Maduro, Rouhani, and even Kim Jong-un will use military conflict with the United States as a scapegoat for their own considerable failures, then export violence and undermine the organic desire of their people to seek freedom.

  In Yemen, Syria, Libya, and beyond, we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that unwilling or unreliable local fighters necessitate the involvement of American troops. The examples of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya—just to name a few—teach us that it is wrong to presume that just beyond the lifespan of every dictator lies a peaceful, Jeffersonian democracy, rather than generations of anarchy, violence, terrorism, and chaos. Things can and frequently do get worse. The number of failed states is growing, not declining, and we cannot stop that number’s growth any more than we can stop the tides from coming in or hurricanes from making landfall. We must endure them and see to it that their misery doesn’t become our misery. This is achievable absent multi-decade land wars and occupations.

  If our enemies mistook a more precise American focus as a disengaged, disinterested, or recoiled America—an “isolationist” America—and tested our resolve or capability by attacking us, they would find us recoiled like a viper: ready to strike instantly, lethally. Military action, including intervention, is always on the table—but only as a last resort, and only when there is a direct, concrete, and grave threat to the security of the United States or to one of our allies. Just as the threat must be clear, concrete, and well defined, so must be the objectives of military operations. We must know what victory looks like in order to achieve it. It must be seen first in the mind before it can be won on the field of battle.

  Freedom is the most precious thing in the world—and it is for that very reason that freedom must be fought for and won by those who yearn to live it most. Freedom cannot be America’s gift to the world, purchased with the blood of U.S. service members alone. Nothing given has value, only that which is earned.

  The neocons believe freedom can be bought on the cheap, and in so thinking they take too low a view of what makes us great. For oppressed people to live any lasting liberty, they must make it happen themselves. They must fight and die for it, bury their relatives over it, and tell timeless stories of national heroes who showed the bravery to win. They must teach their children that it matters and that there is nowhere to run should they fail. Only then will any people cherish freedom so much that they will not allow a strongman to take it away ever again. It is true that some of them will die, but they’ll have something worth living for. This attitude is less likely to produce gratuitous, pointless military deployments than would aimless, global patrolling and policing operations.

  Plenty of D.C. pundits and Beltway hawks talk in terms of “toughness” to support American military action. They say America has a “moral obligation” to intervene everywhere. Real morality and real toughness is standing up to the pro-war special interests, who never tire of tiring out America. Real morality is affirming forever that the blood of American troops is not for sale, not at any price, not at any time.

  Today’s wiser, more cautious Trump Doctrine will rile some so-called “experts” in Washington, but it is supported by an overwhelming share of Americans. And President Trump’s measured approach in Venezuela, Syria, and Iran will make our nation stronger. We must continue to build upon Trump’s achievements in developing a twenty-first-century foreign policy. Elected officeholders of both parties have sworn an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, which requires specific declarations of war from Congress, not just endless enemy hunting. Will the members of Congress keep their oath?

  This means not sending the next generation of patriots to fight unwinnable wars, for unknowable gain. There are always places we could invade, peoples we could rescue, nations we could build. A clear-eyed look at the threats we face proves that peace through strength should also mean strength through peace.

  Our doctrine means continuing to rebuild our military and maintaining its dominance and hegemony. It means listening to the American people, not the siren song of beltway pundits and armchair generals in fancy air-conditioned studios. It means taking a clear-eyed look at America’s interests, always focusing on the well-being of our own great nation before we volunteer our brave soldiers to the world. It means knowing that, sometimes, the fight is just, and worth fighting—and knowing that when America fights, America will win and win quickly. A great people don’t make the next generation go to war to settle scores from the last. We cannot send Generation Z to die in Afghanistan. Our heroic servicemen deserve better, and the enduring prosperity of our nation depends on it.

  If we must fight some nation purely because of its size and potential hostility, let’s get to the fight that really matters—China. But that doesn’t mean mindlessly launching missiles. We must be smarter to win the fights that matter most.

  February 10, 2020

  4:00 PM, Air Force One. Manifested to Manchester, New Hampshire, for “Make America Great Again” rally.

  The loudspeaker voice was familiar by now: “The president has boarded the aircraft.” The commander in chief then bounded to the conference room where his political team gathered.

  “The soldiers are at Dover [New Hampshire]. We should go to Dover. Does anybody mind if we cut the rally short and head back to make it?” No time was permitted for a response. He had already made the call and given the order. “We are going to Dover.” He returned to his office not having heard a word from the rest of us. The manifest was updated to Dover.

  They weren’t just any fallen heroes. They were mine. The 7th Special Forces Group calls my district home. They go deep into the fight and take heavy casualties. I’ve buried too many. They were all in their prime. The last two were twenty-eight years old.

  9:45 PM, Dover Air Force Base. Dignified transfer of Sgt. Javier “Jaguar” Gutierrez and Sgt. Antonio Rodriguez.

  “We have to do this to show everyone the cost of these wars, Matt,” said President Trump. We hadn’t stepped off Air Force One yet. The tears were already welling in my eyes. Did I mention I cry?

  I can still hear her screams. I will never forget them. Spanish words, raw emotions. “Estoy aquí, Jaguar! Estoy aquí!” She didn’t believe he was dead and was shouting, “I’m here.” She sprinted to the back of the C-130, calling for him at the top of her lungs. When she saw the casket, knees buckled, hearts sank, and reality set in. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to watch in my life.

  Vice President Pence handed each and every family member a card, saying, “If you need anything large or small, you call this number. We will help you.”

  As we loaded back onto the presidential aircraft, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said of Trump, “He’s exactly where we are, Matt. We have to keep helping him. And them.”

  And I will.

  CHAPTER NINE

  China Is Not Our Friend

  There is a story we tell ourselves that China will behave just like us. We just need to invite them in, show them more of the Western world, bring them closer. This is a lie. Exposing the truth will help us see China—and our leaders who indulge them—clearly.

  When we think of great power politics, we often obscure it in the niceties and
sophistries of diplomacy. Gentle words smooth over the harsh reality of Swiss bank accounts and Panama Papers bribe records. It’s easy to talk abstractly, hard to have a real talk. But there is a kind of power that comes with telling the truth, a natural hierarchy that separates who is serious from who is seriously wrong, sometimes identifying good and branding evil. It just so happens Donald Trump is the best brander in the world.

  Our first obligation is to tell the truth about China without the clutter of old trade deals and riches that never quite materialized (except for the elites, of course). To be candid, we must know who we are and who they are. We must be as aware of our own weakness as they are of ours. After all, they’ve had centuries of reading The Art of War and we have a president who has written The Art of the Deal. President Trump knows when to use sticks and carrots to get a negotiation moving. But the time may have passed for carrots. Carrots are for rabbits and horses, not dragons. While other generations have sold out to China, our generation must see that the Chimerica dream is actually a nightmare—and we are living it.

  This China fiction is spread by our supposed business elites, who imagine untold riches if only we love China a little more. They tell us that China is good for business, but their multinational business successes come at the expense of American workers. The United States Chamber of Commerce seems to fight for everything other than the United States and her commerce. They even criticized President Trump for working to redomesticate critical medical manufacturing in the wake of the COVID pandemic. I was surprised to learn that over 90 percent of ibuprofen is made outside our country. Can we not even have an America First headache anymore?