Vice President J.D. Vance criticized the American foreign policy establishment for abandoning “clearly stated strategic goals for lofty, often incoherent abstractions” in a speech to the graduating class of the U.S. Naval Academy on Friday. “No more undefined missions, no more open ended conflicts,” Vance said, promising a return to “a strategy grounded in realism and protecting our core national interests.”
In the speech, Vance argued that U.S. leadership has been careless with the lives of American soldiers. “Past leaders sent our service members on mission after mission with no exit strategy, no end in sight, and with little articulation for the American people or for the war fighters about what we were doing,” he said. In contrast, “when we send you to war, we do it with a very specific set of goals in mind.”
Vance’s speech marks a continued public repudiation of neoconservatism by the Trump administration. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump made a landmark speech in Riyadh, where he sharply criticized the conduct of previous presidents in the Middle East. “In the end, the so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built—and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves,” Trump said.
Vance, himself a veteran of the War on Terror, ended the speech by congratulating the graduates on their decision to serve their country. “I know today I speak for a grateful nation when I say ‘We are rooting for you, Naval Academy Class of 2025, we are proud of you and we depend on you. Congratulations. Godspeed.’”
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