Sen. Lindsey Graham, the arch-warmonger from South Carolina, has died. He leaves behind a legacy of death, destruction, and massive human suffering. Graham cheered on every foreign war and every sanctions regime for at least the last thirty years, and he was among the loudest advocates for the criminal attack on Iran. He finally got that one last evil war that he wanted before the end. In a city full of bloodthirsty militarists, Graham distinguished himself as one of the worst.
When he was talking about the possible costs of a war with North Korea in 2017, Graham memorably dismissed the potential loss of life because it would be happening “over there.” The lives of others were always expendable for him, and he actively sought to put people in harm’s way every chance he could. His callous indifference to the human costs of war caused him no political problems in Washington. On the contrary, his enthusiasm for bloodshed was what made him a fixture in the capital.
Despite a long career of supporting U.S. entanglements in unnecessary and illegal conflicts, Graham’s position in Congress was never in jeopardy. He did an abysmal job of representing the people of South Carolina for the last two decades, but once he was in office no one was ever able to dislodge him. In Washington, he enjoyed a wholly undeserved reputation as a serious figure on foreign policy. Graham was able to thrive in Washington because of a vile pro-war culture in which his rabid hawkishness was embraced.
Graham was initially a vocal critic of Trump because he feared that Trump’s rise threatened the sort of reflexive interventionism that Graham prized. Once Trump was elected, Graham quickly learned that Trump was much closer to his positions than he assumed. By the end of the first term, Graham had attached himself to Trump in much the same way that he had tied himself to McCain. He may have switched to a new leader to follow, but his atrocious foreign policy views never changed.
