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The Epic Hillary Clinton Biography

In the Beginning… God Made Hillary

A hard and pragmatic leader, outspoken advocate for social justice and women’s rights, and resilient and clever politician, Hillary Rodham Clinton has accomplished numerous “firsts” in her roles as very first Lady of the United States, U.S. Senator, presidential applicant, and Secretary of State. As she put it in her 2003 memoir Dwelling Background,

“My mom and my grandmothers could never have lived my lifestyle my father and my grandfathers could never have imagined it. But they bestowed on me the guarantee of America, which made my existence and my options feasible.”

She has also produced several enemies and grew to become one of the most extremely polarizing figures in modern political history.

A Normal Textbook Suburban Up-bringing

The eldest daughter of Hugh and Dorothy Rodham’s a few youngsters, Hillary Diane Rodham was born in Chicago on October 26, 1947. Her father, operator of a tiny material fabric organization, was a staunch Republican from Pennsylvania. Her mom, a closet Democrat who still left her personal dysfunctional property at 14 to function as a nanny, was affectionate and levelheaded. From her dad and mom, Hillary discovered thrift, tough function, self-reliance, support to others, and a enjoy of God and place. Her mom inculcated a deep respect for finding out and coached her younger daughter to struggle back towards bullies: “You have to stand up for your self,” she advised Hillary. “There’s no place in this home for cowards” (Hillary Rodham Clinton, Living Historical past, Simon & Schuster, 2003,twelve). In a discussion during her 2008 campaign, Hillary Clinton would credit history her mother as her defining inspiration, a girl “who by no means received a possibility to go to college, who had a very difficult childhood, but who gave me a perception that I could do no matter what I established my thoughts [to].”

When Hillary was a few a long time aged, the Rodham family moved into a two-story brick property in Park Ridge, Illinois. Hillary participated actively in her Methodist church, excelled in the town’s initial-charge community colleges, and shown an early desire in politics.

Hillary’s Dawning of Political Age in the 1960s

By means of her teenage a long time, Hillary mirrored her father’s political leanings. At thirteen, she canvassed the South Side of Chicago right after Richard Nixon’s defeat by John F. Kennedy, and she volunteered for Barry Goldwater’s marketing campaign in 1964. In 1965, she enrolled as a political science main at Wellesley School, the place she became the president of the Young Republicans Club her freshman calendar year.

But the tumultuous many years of the sixties opened Hillary’s brain to new political views. After listening to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. converse in 1962, Hillary commenced to develop sturdy thoughts about civil legal rights, social justice, and the Vietnam War. By 1968, she was exploring the political landscape and working for politicians of both events.She supported Eugene McCarthy’s (D-Minn) presidential marketing campaign, served as a summertime intern for the Home Republican Conference (attending the Republican National Conference as a volunteer to draft Nelson Rockefeller), and witnessed the protests at the Democratic Nationwide Convention in Chicago. Before the conclude of that yr, she determined to depart the Republican Celebration — or as she afterwards put it, “it left her.”

Pragmatic Activist

As president of the student authorities at Wellesley, Hillary grew to become an activist dedicated to working within the method. Looking for to ward off violence in the wake of King’s assassination, she assisted manage a disciplined two-day strike on campus and labored as a liaison to channel constructive dialogue and significant action. Her commencement address garnered nationwide consideration in Daily life journal.

Hillary Clinton Education: As a scholar at Yale Legislation College, Hillary ongoing to pursue her passions in social justice, kids and family members, and politics. She was on the board of the Yale Overview of Regulation and Social Motion, worked at the Yale Kid Research Center, took on circumstances of youngster abuse, volunteered at New Haven Legal Providers, and investigated the troubles of migrant workers for Walter Mondale’s Subcommittee on Migrant Labor. In her submit-graduate calendar year, she ongoing her function researching kids and medicine and served as personnel lawyer for the Children’s Protection Fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

An Absolute Force of Nature

In the spring of 1971, Hillary introduced herself to Invoice Clinton, whom she experienced witnessed around the Yale campus. Bill had “a vitality that appeared to shoot out of his pores,” (Residing History, 52) she reflected. They shared a frequent desire in social justice and politics, and started what would be a lifelong relationship.

In 1974, when Invoice returned to Arkansas to go after his political occupation, Hillary moved to Washington to function as a member of the impeachment inquiry employees advising the Property Committee on the Judiciary throughout the Watergate scandal investigation. When President Richard Nixon resigned later on that 12 months, it brought Hillary’s task to an end, and she made the life-defining decision to go to Fayetteville, Arkansas to be with Monthly bill. The following 12 months they wed in a modest ceremony at their property.

Career Woman, Mother, and First Lady of Arkansas

Hillary commenced out as a school member at the University of Arkansas Law School, exactly where Bill was teaching when he ran unsuccessfully for Congress. In 1976, Invoice won his 1st elected position as Legal professional Basic of Arkansas and the couple moved to the money metropolis of Little Rock. There, Hillary started working at the effectively-recognized and politically linked Rose Regulation Firm, where, inside a few a long time, she became the initial girl to be named a complete spouse. She served on the boards of several non-revenue companies and big firms, including as the first feminine board member of Wal-Mart, and was the major breadwinner for the Clinton family members. She also continued functioning on behalf of people, co-founding Arkansas Advocates for Youngsters & Households in 1977, and on political campaigns, serving as Jimmy Carter’s Indiana director of field operations in 1976.
In 1979, Bill turned governor of Arkansas, and in February of 1980, Hillary gave start off to their daughter Chelsea Clinton. As Bill’s career sophisticated, common general public thing to consider centered on Hillary. Viewing her as an mental feminist from Chicago with a productive occupation, a unique previous title from her husband’s (she experienced held her maiden discover when they married), and a fashion a lot of regarded of as bohemian, many associates of the community thought she did not match the mildew of the conventional politician’s spouse and she grew to turn into a concentrate on for criticism. When Monthly monthly bill misplaced his gubernatorial re-election bid in 1981, Hillary took her critics’ comments to coronary coronary heart, adopting the Clinton last identify and creating previously mentioned her personal style to be a whole lot a lot more in making an attempt to hold with group anticipations. She was also instrumental in organizing his comeback campaign of 1983.

The Hillary Clinton Education Reforms in Arkansas

Hillary performed an unusually distinguished position as Arkansas’ 1st girl in the course of Bill’s whole of 5 terms as governor (1979-eighty one and 1983-ninety two). She chaired the Rural Overall health Advisory Committee, doing work to grow health care facilities for the inadequate, and she accomplished hard-fought reforms in general public education and learning as chair of the Arkansas Educational Specifications Committee. In 1983 she was regarded as Arkansas Woman of the Yr, and Arkansas Youthful Mom of the 12 months in 1984 in 1988 and ’91 she attained a location on the Nationwide Legislation Journal’s record of the one hundred most influential legal professionals in The usa. Her perform on education also aided the general public take into account Bill as the “education governor,” and aided elevate his nationwide profile.

Return to Washington and Tough Lessons

In 1993, when Bill was elected America’s 42nd president, the few moved back to Washington. Hillary was the initial 1st Girl to have a postgraduate degree, her personal specialist profession, and her personal place of work in the West Wing of the White Home. And she was the first since Eleanor Roosevelt to take on a prominent function in plan-generating. Her high profile in the administration once again manufactured her a concentrate on for political opposition.

The first week of his presidency, Bill appointed Hillary to head up the Task Pressure on Countrywide Wellness Care Reform — what he hoped would be a cornerstone initiative of his administration. As she had done with schooling reform in Arkansas, Hillary worked with energy and dedication, touring the nation and listening to constituents’ stories and issues. Even so, after back in Washington, she surrounded herself with a near team of advisers and went behind shut doors to draft the program. It was a disastrous approach — a single she would later blame on her political inexperience — that ultimately failed to interpret what the vast majority wanted, and unsuccessful to get potent stakeholders on board.

Derisively referred to as “Hillarycare,” the controversial Clinton healthcare reform program was besieged by a groundswell of opposition, and by September of 1994 the administration deserted it. It was a significant blow to the administration and to Hillary’s ratings as Initial Woman. “She’d been caught out making an attempt to be a co-President,” mentioned Gail Sheehy, author of Hillary’s Choice, in a latest job interview. Hillary had once more uncovered a lesson about balancing her ambitions with the public’s anticipations of their Very first Woman.
Accomplishments as First Lady

For the duration of Bill’s second expression, Hillary cultivated a far more classic profile. She continued to concentrate on well being and welfare issues, specifically people involving young children, and in 1997, supported the passage and rollout of the Condition Children’s Health Insurance System (SCHIP), which expanded health insurance for kids in reduce-income households. She was instrumental in the enactment of the Adoption and Risk-free People Act, legislation that eased the elimination of young children from abusive circumstances.

Hillary aided produce the Office of Justice’s Office on Violence In opposition to Women in 1994, and throughout her travels to more than eighty countries she was a forceful advocate for women’s legal rights. In 1995, throughout an unparalleled tackle in Beijing to the United Nations Fourth Planet Meeting on Women, Hillary recounted globally abuses and declared:

“It is time for us to say listed here in Beijing, and for the planet to listen to, that it is no longer acceptable to go over women’s legal rights as independent from human rights.”

Growing Controversy and Personal Adversity

During her tenure as 1st woman, Hillary contended with a sequence of investigations into the Clintons’ individual affairs, such as in depth inquiries related to the Clintons’ 1979 expense in the failed Whitewater land offer in Arkansas. The Clintons repeatedly refused to turn above private information to media investigators, a strategy Hillary championed. “Hillary’s perspective toward the push,” Gail Sheehy recounted, “was to pull again, to reveal nothing… to preserve the media or anyone else who’s asked queries about their inside of lifestyle at bay.” But this program of action only escalated scrutiny from the Clintons’ political opponents and from the media, and led to the appointment of a special prosecutor. In the course of the formal investigation, Hillary became the very first First Woman to be subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury. In the end, the investigations concluded there was inadequate evidence of wrongdoing.

The Clintons’ personal lifestyle confronted more general public scrutiny with rumors and accusations close to Bill’s extramarital affairs. In 1992, Hillary experienced defended Monthly bill and their relationship in a notable 60 Minutes interview credited with rescuing his presidential marketing campaign soon after the Gennifer Flowers affair. In 1995, as the scandal of Bill’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky unfolded, Hillary won the admiration of the general public through her robust and considerate response. She in the end reaffirmed her commitment to her relationship, Hillary Clinton’s approval rating rose drastically, even as her spouse was in an imminent down-spiral, later leading to what would be known  as the Bill Clinton impeachment. By the time Monthly bill was acquitted in 1999, Hillary was currently creating ideas for her next period, for the initial time concentrating on her very own political occupation.

Senator and Secretary of State

In 1999, nearing the end of Bill Clinton‘s presidency, the Clinton family obtained a home in Chappaqua, New York. The pursuing calendar year, Hillary grew to become the 1st spouse of a president to operate for countrywide elected office. She received the race by a considerable margin, turning into the first woman senator from New York, and she was reelected in 2006 by an even wider margin. In 2008, whilst working for president, she attained the most delegates and major victories of any lady who had operate just before. She was narrowly defeated for the Democratic nomination in a hard and divisive major contest with Senator Barack Obama of Illinois who went on to earn the Presidency. When she agreed to turn into Obama’s Secretary of State, she became the first former First Lady to be appointed and provide counsel within a presidential cabinet. In that role, she has earned higher praise for developing a robust working partnership with her former opponent, touting an immensely positive “Hillary Clinton Approval Rating” before resigning early from the administration.

Hillary has also documented much of her life’s work, challenges, and accomplishments through a vast array of publications, surely impacting the political socialization of many prominent figures today. Be sure to check-out the variety of Hillary Clinton Books on Google Play.

hillary clinton book
hillary clinton book
hillary clinton book

Did Simple Nuclear-Triad Question Stump Trump?

The WORST Answer in Political Debate History? Luckily, Marco Rubio was there to teach Trump what a Nuclear Triad is…

(Source: The Young Turks / YouTube)

Washington (CNN) – Did a simple question about the nuclear triad stump aspiring commander-in-chief Donald Trump?

During Tuesday night’s CNN-hosted Republican debate, Trump gave a meandering response when conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt of Salem Radio Network asked about the U.S. nuclear capability.

“I think we need somebody, absolutely, that we can trust, who is totally responsible, who really knows what he or she is doing. That is so powerful and so important,” Trump said, before touting his opposition to the war in Iraq.

“But we have to be extremely vigilant and extremely careful when it comes to nuclear. Nuclear changes the whole ball game,” he added.

Hewitt followed up by asking which “of the three legs of the triad” was Trump’s priority.

“For me, nuclear, the power, the devastation, is very important to me,” Trump replied.

But “nuclear,” “the power” and “the devastation” aren’t the three legs of the U.S.’s nuclear triad.

So what are the components of the nuclear triad?

The nuclear triad refers to the three ways the U.S. is capable of firing nuclear weapons.

As Florida Sen. Marco Rubio explained during the debate following Trump’s mishmash of a response: “The triad is the ability of the United States to conduct nuclear attacks using airplanes, using missiles launched from silos from the ground and from our nuclear subs.”

To add a little more specificity, the planes are heavy bombers; the silos house intercontinental ballistic missiles and the submarines also use ballistic missiles to deliver a nuclear payload.

Rubio, who avoided attacking Trump on Tuesday, didn’t directly call out Trump for blanking on the national security question. Instead, he directed his explanation to the “people at home” who likely “have not heard that terminology before.”

The Trump campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.

So why does the U.S. need three ways of delivering nukes?

Rubio summed it up as: “All three of them are critical. It gives us the ability at deterrence.”

In more expansive terms, they’re all key components because they protect the U.S.’s ability to launch nuclear strikes should one or two of those capabilities be destroyed.

If the underground silos backfire and the planes capable of delivering nuclear weapons get destroyed, the U.S. would still have stealthy nuclear submarines to deliver crippling strike.

The U.S. and Russia are the only two nuclear powers in the world to have triad capabilities, and both countries are eager to maintain that edge going forward.

Makes sense. So what’s so pressing that this had to be included in the debate?

All three components of the nuclear triad are aging and the next president is going to have to address that issue.

America’s nuclear submarines are all more than 30 years old and its most dominant bomber jets remain the 60-year-old B-52s. The Pentagon has also called for upgrading the U.S. arsenal of ICBMs, or intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The Pentagon has estimated that it will need to spend as much as $18 billion per year over the next 15 years — for a grand total of $270 billion — to modernize the nuclear triad.

Amid budget cuts on Capitol Hill, it’s struggled to come up with the funding to get that job done.

Written by: By Jeremy Diamond via CNN

How Hillary Clinton could win the White House by March

First, crush Marco Rubio, and then take the rest of the year off.

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(Source: Getty Images/ Chip Somodevilla)

Hillary Clinton’s only real competition among Republicans is Marco Rubio. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are too extreme for most Americans, and truly leave her unparalleled in experience and political clout.

If Hillary Clinton and her allies are smart, they’ll spend their $50 million-plus campaign war-chest over the next few months making sure Marco Rubio doesn’t get the Republican nomination.

They’ll run ads in the primary states trashing the Florida senator among conservatives — cleverly hiding the source of the ads behind secretive super PACs with conservative-sounding names.

They’ll encourage Democratic activists to cross over to GOP primaries to support Rubio’s extremist opponents.

Hillary herself may even help out by making a couple of high-profile speeches in which she praises Rubio for his “moderation” and “bipartisanship” — especially, she might say, “on the subject of immigration.” Nothing could hurt the young senator more with the GOP base.

Obama could take him golfing.

Following this week’s Republican debate, it looks increasingly like the race is down to three candidates: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, real-estate huckster Donald Trump and Rubio.

If the GOP goes ahead and picks Cruz or Trump, Hillary could probably take the rest of 2016 off to work on her inauguration speech. Both men are extremists, and are traveling with more baggage than Kim Kardashian. The only people who think they are remotely electable in a general election are the increasingly narrow group of people who make up the Republican party base.

We’re talking about people who think “Benghazi” is one of the top three issues facing America.

Who think global warming is a sinister “one-world” plot to take away our pickup trucks and make us all slaves.

And who think 300 million guns are making us all “safe” while 5-year-old Syrian refugees are going to kill us.

The biggest single fact: While individuals rise and fall from poll to poll, overall the four extremist candidates of Trump, Cruz, Rand Paul and Ben Carson have been consistently sharing about 65% in GOP polls.

It’s hard to credit, but the party of Abraham Lincoln has apparently become the party of Jefferson Davis. “Angry white men of the South, arise!” (Yes, Carson, an evangelical Christian, is African-American — showing that even the most conservative coalitions can evolve.)

Meanwhile, the party is losing millennials, professionals, the college-educated, women and Hispanics by wide margins. Good luck with that.

Rubio, on the other hand, could pose a serious challenge to Hillary. He’s a young, telegenic Hispanic American. Her best chance to stop him is now, not next fall.

Yeah, I know, people will say I’m only writing this because I’m part of the fancy-pants, pointy-headed elitist East Coast liberal media and therefore cheering for Hillary.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

As a member of the media, I stand to gain the most if America elects an extremist wacko who generates lots of news, most of it bad. Trump would be the best. Under President Trump, no journalist would want for a job, and no website for eyeballs — at least until he was impeached, America declared bankruptcy or nuclear war killed us all. Failing Trump, any of the other GOP extremists would be just fine. Among the Democrats, Bernie Sanders would be pretty good for the news business too.

For journalists, Hillary Clinton would be a terrible president. It would be four or eight years of guaranteed boredom — unless she divorced Bill, say, or had a fling with a male intern in the Oval Office.

Yet, facts are facts. At this point, it seems almost certain it’s going to be Clinton and Rubio. And if Hillary Clinton has smarts, she’ll make sure it isn’t Rubio.

Eight years ago, Rush Limbaugh and right-wing Republicans inserted themselves into the Democratic primary process by launching “Operation Chaos.” Perhaps some Democrats may feel it’s time to return the favor.

If pro-Clinton allies are smart, they’ll create new secretive super PACs with names like “Patriots for American Values” and “Veterans for American Families” and “Patriotic American Veterans for American Family Values.”

And then they’ll swamp the airwaves in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and elsewhere with ads trashing Marco Rubio among conservatives.

Say he’s soft on Hispanics, Muslims and other non-Aryans.

Say he’s for “amnesty.”

Say he’s a “career politician” who’s “never had a real job.”

And take a leaf out of the New York Times’ preposterous stories and say that he’s fiscally irresponsible because he had to pay late fees on his credit cards a couple of times. Oh, yeah, and he once leased a Lexus with his own money.

They’ll tie Rubio’s personal loans to the issue of the rocketing national debt. “If Marco Rubio can’t even handle his own finances, how can we trust him with America’s?” No, it makes no sense, but what’s that got to do with anything?

Stay tuned.

Published: Dec 18, 2015

Carly Fiorina said she’s been “called every b-word in the book” at the Republican debate

vox

Updated by  via VOX

Photo Source: The Daily Beast

Carly Fiorina said in her opening statement at the CNN Republican debate on Tuesday that she has been “called every b-word in the book.”

Fiorina clearly meant “bitch,” or perhaps “bossy” — in any case, a gendered insult. The comment, and indeed her entire opening statement, was heavily focused on the ways she has struggled to overcome specifically gender-based obstacles to get to the top.

In discussing her struggles and challenges, Fiorina led off with very gendered ones: “I have been tested. I have beaten breast cancer. I have buried a child.”

Then she transitioned into her corporate and political ladder climbing: “I started as a secretary. I fought my way to the top of corporate America while being called every b-word in the book. I fought my way into this election.”

And later on in the debate, Fiorina paraphrased Margaret Thatcher: “If you want something talked about, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.”

It’s likely that Fiorina is trying to set herself up as an opponent who could neutralize one of Hillary Clinton‘s big talking points — her potential status as first woman president of the United States. That could diffuse Clinton’s support from people who generally want to see a woman president; one report found donors who gave to both Clinton and Fiorina, despite their stark differences on policy.

Fiorina may scorn liberal identity politics, but she has had no problem with the word “feminism,” or with discussing the ways that being a woman presents unique challenges to her that men don’t have to deal with. She calls out sexism when she sees it used against her, like her ad pushing back against Donald Trump for making fun of her face. “A feminist is a woman who lives the life she chooses,” Fiorina has said. “A woman may choose to have five children and home-school them. She may choose to become a CEO, or run for President.”

But Fiorina’s feminism is a very individualistic, have-it-all, lean-in, corporate type of feminism — one where any woman can make it to the top if she just “fights” hard enough. One where talking about comprehensive access to reproductive health care is actually an insult to women because it supposedly reduces them to their body parts and makes them dependent on government. And one that doesn’t acknowledge the structural challenges, from implicit bias in the workplace to the impossible “choice” between family income and child care, that make living “the life she chooses” easier said than done for too many American women.

Politics: Republicans Reveal Discord in Debate Over Dictators

A sharp move away from the adventurous foreign policy of George W. Bush

by Mark Thompson

Republican presidential candidates revealed just how far the Republican Party has moved in the decade since President George W. Bush called for spreading democratic principles through the Middle East, sometimes by force. Much of Tuesday’s debate focused on the role the U.S. has played in toppling them in Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq and Libya—and trying to force out Bashar Assad in Syria—since the terror attacks of 9/11. The certainty that most dictators are bad, not just for their people but for American interests, was no longer a given for Republican candidates, as the U.S. struggles with militants exploiting the vacuums left behind by toppled authoritarian states.

“If you believe in regime change, you’re mistaken,” Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said during the Las Vegas debate.

“We keep hearing from President Obama and Hillary Clinton and Washington Republicans that they’re searching for these mythical moderate rebels,” Senator Ted Cruz of Texas complained. “It’s like a purple unicorn—they never exist. These moderate rebels end up being jihadists.”

Cruz said that the White House “and, unfortunately, more than a few Republicans” have made ridding the world of megalomaniacs like Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years until he was ousted and killed in 2011, more important than keeping Americans safe. “We were told then that there were these moderate rebels that would take over,” Cruz said. “Well, the result is, Libya is now a terrorist war zone run by jihadists.” Much the same thing happened in Egypt, he claimed, when “the Obama Administration, encouraged by Republicans,” ousted longtime U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak, and is happening again in Syria.

“We need to learn from history,” Cruz said. “Assad is a bad man. Gaddafi was a bad man. Mubarak had a terrible human rights record. But they were assisting us—at least Gadhafi and Mubarak—in fighting radical Islamic terrorists.” If Assad is removed, “the result will be ISIS will take over Syria, and it will worsen U.S. national security interests.”

Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who pushed for Gaddafi’s ouster, saidrealpolitik sometimes requires distasteful partners. “We will have to work around the world with less than ideal governments,” he said, citing Jordan and Saudi Arabia, which caused heartburn in Amman and Riyadh.

Neurosurgeon Ben Carson said “the Middle East has been in turmoil for thousands of years,” and the idea that U.S. military involvement will straighten things out is misguided: “No one is ever better off with dictators but…we need to start thinking about the needs of the American people before we go and solve everybody else’s problems.”

Jeb Bush said toppling Saddam Hussein—a 2003 war initiated by his brother, President George W. Bush—was a good thing. But he added that its key lesson is that the U.S. must have “a strategy to get out” and leave a “stable situation” behind. That has never been a U.S. strength. Invasions are quick, easy and relatively cheap compared to the decades-long push to try to rebuild a more moderate nation to replace a dictatorship. Americans may dislike war, but they dislike pumping billions to rebuild shattered counties even more.

Paul agreed that it’s the what-comes-next question that has dogged U.S. policy since 9/11. “Out of regime change you get chaos,” he said. “From the chaos you have seen repeatedly the rise of radical Islam.” The issue is one of “the fundamental questions of our time,” and not necessarily black and white. “I don’t think because I think the [Iraq] regime change was a bad idea,” Paul said, “it means that Hussein was necessarily a good idea.”

For generations, the U.S. fought left-wing dictators (Fidel Castro in Cuba, for example) while bolstering right-wing autocrats (Augusto Pinochet in Chile). This was largely because of the Cold War, where leftist regimes allied themselves with the Soviet Union, and rightist ones cozied up to the U.S. But it has been 25 years since the Soviet Union’s demise. That’s unleashed all sorts of local tensions, ranging from nationalist to religious, that the Cold War had kept largely tamped down.

Nowhere has that energy exploded as quickly and violently as in the so-called arc of crisis stretching from northern Africa, through the Middle East, and on to the Central Asian states. Fueled by the nearly 1,500-year split between the Shia and Sunni branches of Islam, the collapsing regimes have entangled the U.S. in civil and religious wars and triggered the rise of terror groups like al Qaeda and ISIS.

“We’ve spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people,” Donald Trump said, referring to the eventual total price tag of the Afghan and Iraq wars. “It’s not like we had victory—it’s a mess.” While the debate over the pros and cons of backing—or, at least, not attacking—dictators will continue, no one on stage challenged Trump’s accounting.

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