Keep quiet and carry a club!

Did you know that there are 800 U.S. military facilities in 70 countries abroad? Victor Davis Hanson tells us that fact and much more at American Greatness.

Clearly, no one wants another Libyan debacle during an era of $1 trillion annual budget deficits, or the expenditure of blood and treasure in long-term efforts to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan into Westernized nations.

Reagan’s apparent aim was to show the world, and especially the Soviet Union, that it was dangerous to provoke the United States or its friends. But he did so without having to fight a messy and disadvantageous full-scale war in the streets of Beirut or Tripoli to prove it.

We know that tough talk alone does not necessarily convince North Korea, China, and Iran to abandon their past strategies of aggression, which were often honed during the Obama administration’s “lead from behind” recessionals.

The best course is to use overwhelming military force only when the interests of America and its allies—or the credibility and strategic deterrence of the United States—are on the line, and only in landscapes that are to America’s advantage and will not result in inordinate costs.

For now, Trump should keep quiet, stop tweeting his intentions, and give no indication of what he might do next. If he decides to act again in the future, then he should do it unexpectedly, with overwhelming force and with the intention that he won’t have to do it again very often.

Barack Obama lectured loudly and carried a small stick. So far, Trump has blustered loudly and carried a sizable stick.

But it would be better to follow Teddy Roosevelt’s maxim to speak softly and carry a big stick—or, wiser yet, to keep quiet altogether and carry a club.

Read more here.