Republicans just can’t stop talking smack to “our enemies” whether it’s bashing Iran, slamming Russia, provoking North Korea, or talking smack about Pakistan. Sure, these nations are a huge problem for us in terms of foreign policy on many levels, but to go out and make public threats is simply dumb.
What these idiotic statements reveal is that all of the Republican candidates need to brush up on a little book by Sun Tzu called “The Art of War.” Maybe it’s that the Republican candidates aren’t well read enough to have covered this book or the chapter on the most important factor in combat besides seeing victory happen before the battle is begun — the element of surprise!
Gone is the element of surprise for people like Ricky Santorum and Newt Gingrich if they were to win office… Iran would know that days after the inauguration Ricky and company will be dropping some pretty serious bombs on their country.
“Talking tough” to our enemies is not the opposite of appeasement it is the embodiment of idiocy in my view because it places our nation on hostile footing with rogue states, dictatorships, and fascist regimes around the globe. We don’t want to strike last if we have to go to war and we don’t need to pre-empt anything — Medvedev is actually correct in asking Romney to use ration and was wise in stating that this is not the mid 1970′s anymore.
What was most distressing to me this evening regarding the Obama open mike, was the fact that both candidates for Presidency looked pretty silly while the only person talking any sense was none other than Russian President Medvedev!
Someone should tell these Republican leaders that it is okay to use a “soft sell” technique with regards to diplomacy. No one likes to be talked at, and while the world is filled with horrible dictators and murderous leaders there is nothing to gain by making threats or spouting hate speech! To me, when it comes to foreign policy the President should first and foremost desire peace.
While many U.S. citizens think that Obama should not practice “appeasement” I have to cordially disagree and say that while he should get our troops out of combat right away, he is certainly not acting in peacetime — leaders should be careful not to pre-empt the enemy in warfare unless they are using this as a surprise/Trojan Horse tactic in battle. What worries me is that so many Americans are willing to go along with policies that call for more battles. This idea is fiscally, morally, and socially untenable.
By spewing war threats to foreign nations, the Republicans have doomed themselves to failure in 2012 in my view. While Obama has irked me with overspending, not bringing our troops home as promised, and essentially handing the economy over to Wall Street he is a far better actor diplomatically than Santorum or Romney. While I am still a big Ron Paul fan and supporter, I empathize with Obama’s focus on education, environmental stewardship, focus on the working man and minorities, etc…
Look, neither party right now is offering what I want which is a political system that is Libertarian yet compassionate, fiscally conservative yet flexible, socially liberal yet financially responsible, and most of all educated when it comes to economics and particularly when it comes to business management.
Each of these candidates posses one or two things I like and one or two things I dislike. In the end, I unfortunately have to side with Obama because I strongly feel that this nation cannot afford any more wars.
All of the major nations around the globe already have nuclear arms. Our job as a sovereign Democracy and world leader is to praise peace and liberty. We should denounce fascism, corporatism, unchecked monopolies, top down despotism, genocide, ignorance, arms races, citizen spies, wire tapping, censorship, warfare, and economic totalitarianism.
The U.S. is so special because we are a nation of compassionate blacksmiths hammering away at injustice to form a nation that lives by the ideals and values of our fathers and forefathers. It is the legacy of freedom, the promise of Democracy, the instincts of compassion, the call to responsibility, and the will to live by the dreams of our founders that make this nation a great place to live.
Unfortunately, the unchecked fraud and greed of the financial barrons has left this nation with little meat on its bones. The policies of Obama have not been any different economically than the policies of Bush: more spending, more money printing, and higher commodity inflation. At $7.50 an hour, Americans simply cannot afford to put food on the table for themselves and their children anymore. The “stimulus” and the “accommodation” used by our central bank is obviously making the situation worse for low income Americans and not better. To think that our nation would consider lowering corporate tax rates before considering lowering taxes on rent, fuel, or food is simply abhorrent.
In the end, we will be left with Obama vs. Romney it seems (I would have voted for Ron Paul even though I think he is wrong on many social issues) and the choice is easy. Romney has to completely change direction on spending (he needs to keep taxes high on corporations and the rich) and renounce his war mongering hate speech to win.
Then again, what do you tell a guy who thinks corporations are people and that Iran needs to be glass parking lotted along with Russia? Obama does have an election to win and Romney should have focused on Obama’s mis-steps not using this as an opportunity to spout war propoganda. In the end, both candidates look pretty bad right now and it’s a shame we can’t resurrect the Ron Paul fever that existed just a few months back in the Republican party. He seems the “realist” out of all the lot…
