“I recall how Eisenhower got us deeply involved in Iran.”
Going into the 1950’s, the GOP was thought to be the “isolationist” party. They intentionally picked Ike to break out of that image, in an effort to convince voters that the GOP could better handle the Cold War and Korea.
If modern history would repeat itself, the Dems would be picking a candidate that would be thought to handle Iraq and the WOT better than Dubya. In that scenario, the Dems would certainly have the upper hand for the next election. For whatever reasons, they’ve chosen to portray themselves as the party that refuses to handle the situation, or will simply run away in defeat.
Not exactly. Both parties had subscribed to liberal internationalism since the days of Wilkie and Vandenberg, which means the early 40s. Robert Taft is often tagged as an isolationist, but in the 1952 primary he claimed Douglas McArthur for his running mate.
Eisenhower was picked to put an end to the liberal Truman administration's highly unpopular Korean War, and that's what Ike did. He wasn't as interventionist as the Democrats.