Posted on 09/23/2015 2:34:13 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday the United States should use India’s help to deal with Pakistan if it becomes ‘unstable’ in the future.
“You have to get India involved. India’s the check to Pakistan,” Trump said, during his appearance on a radio talk show.
Trump’s statement came in response to Hewitt’s question regarding what he would do if Pakistan, “the most dangerous country in the world other than Iran,” became ‘unstable’.
Asked whether he would send in US troops to neutralise Pakistan’s nuclear capability should the country go rogue, Trump replied that he would not reveal his military plans to a potential rival.
“People can’t know exactly what your intentions are,” Trump said. “You want to have…a little bit of guess work for the enemy. This has nothing to do with lack of knowledge, because I think I know as much about Pakistan as most other people…But I will tell you, I don’t want to broadcast my intentions.”
“I want to be unpredictable with this. I don’t want to be like Obama, where he’s always saying you know, we’re going to do this in two weeks and then we’re going to do that,” he added.
However, in Trump’s opinion North Korea was a more immediate threat than Pakistan because it was already “a rogue group with nukes”.
“I said (during the second Republican debate) we’re talking so much about Iran, and they don’t have nukes at this moment,” Trump said. “You have a madman over in North Korea who actually has nukes and he says he’s going to use them.”
India is also the most likely country for Pakistan to launch nuclear weapons against.
While India would have a strong interest here, the fact that they are enemies means the Indian military (etc) would NOT be welcome operating in Pakistan in any way. Ideally you’d want someone the population regards as friendly or at least neutral to be going in for the nukes. Chalk this up to another example of Trump not being ready for prime time.
It’s a shame the Crusaders didn’t finish the job.
If he surrounds himself with people like Bolton, they WILL know that information and I believe Trump will heed good advice.
As for NK, selling nukes scares me, but using them..not so much. Kim is an atheist who loves food drink and sex. He doesn’t want to die.
the Iranians and ISIS don’t care.
Guess what? None of us really give a shiite about his foreign policy positions.
Pakistan? Is this Hewitts attempt to deflect and re-direct away from Iran and the immigrant crisis... Or is this him actually knowing Obamas admin is about to destabilize Pakistan. After all.. We can’t spend that record breaking IRS tax collection if there aren’t enough crises to go around.
Maybe I am wrong but I see India and Pak like Turkey and Germany... They don’t like each other but they are not interested in starting conflict.
If only Osama was still around, he'd be the go to guy.
I think Hewitt must be some kind of an idiot, and if I were Trump, I would have simply said “I’ll meet with my top generals and military advisers and come up with a strategy that I believe puts America first.”
Why are candidates— none of whom are military generals— being expected to come up with freaking military strategy? That just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Pakistan gave aid to bin laden. If it becomes unstable, so be it. They’re islamist anyway.
That’s like saying Japan needs to be ready to intervene if Korea becomes unstable, or Chine needs to be ready to step in if Taiwan becomes unstable. India and Pakistan are bitter enemies.
What the big joke is, Trump is right, everybody knows he’s right, but nobody likes the guy pointing at the elephant in the room, so expect a lot of ‘oh my goshes’ from Trumps political detractors.
Wrong. Good answer. He’s right.
Welcome to FR!
Nice to have such a foreign policy “expert” aboard.
Let them nuke each other. No big loss.
A very salient point.
One of the concerns I have is that a flippant remark by the Donald will get blown out of proportion, in fact the msm is trawling hard for just that. Hell, they're attacking things he didn't say!
In any case, Trump should identify policy and subject matter experts that will form his management team.
Every good leader needs an "A-team" of marshalls to accomplish goals. Trump being in front of that would make a lot of sense.
You are right. He could answer foreign policy questions with “I would speak in depth with Mr. Bolton before making a final decision” or something like that.
His foreign policy answers are a little weak and he needs to swallow some pride and get a “tutor” for current overseas events and how they came to be.
Thirty years ago Pakistani nationals, from a nominal “friendly” country at the time, were attending American military technical schools. India has been more closely involved with Russia.
China and India are somewhat adversarial. China might be sufficiently neutral via Pakistan.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.