The positions popularity with the US right (at least when the president is either a Democrat opposed to or Republican in favor of military action) was pure coincidence.

I do not know if the UK has the saying, but I still believe "politics ends at the waters edge:" Whatever our partisan internal differences, Americans (or residents of any nation) should present a united front to the rest of the world so it cannot exploit those internal differences. That unwritten rule of US politics went out the window after October Surprise though; now any and all presidents political foes gleefully torpedo them in front of, say, Putin, or Queen Elizabeth.