From the article...
I know Brent Scowcroft. I worked with Brent Scowcroft. Sarah Palin’s no Brent Scowcroft.
My other thought: The surge in Iraq works. The surge in Afghanistan works. There’s an Arab Spring. The world obviously needs American strength and leadership more than ever. And now everyone (even Palin, to some degree) decides, hey, time to back off? It’s foolish substantively and politically. Do Republicans really want to run as Obama-lite in foreign policy?
Obama is considered to be a Realist. Powell, Gates, Scowcroft, and Kissinger have had much influence over Obama.
Realists say the US should intervene only if it is in the US's interest. The Realists are opposed to intervening for idealistic reasons such democratizing or nation building.
“I know Brent Scowcroft. I worked with Brent Scowcroft. Sarah Palin’s no Brent Scowcroft.”
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Thank God she’s not Brent Scowcroft. I note for the record that Scowcroft’s long tenure In Washington included stints with Nixon, Ford and George H.W. Bush, all opponents of Ronald Reagan. Scowcroft never worked for Reagan in any executive level position. I wonder why.
The neocons, of which Scowcroft is a charter member, have talked us into four wars since Bush 41, two of which have lasted for a decade, and three of which are going on as we speak. In so doing, they have weakened our military and spread us very thin. They have also foisted ridiculous, politically correct rules engagement on the military, which prolong wars and increase our combat casualties. This is something Reagan never would have countenanced. Neither will Palin. If the American military is committed under President Palin, it will be totally committed and victory will be total...no “nation building” nonsense that the neocons are so enamored of. This is not a function that the military can or should perform. And it results in a lot of brave Americans getting killed by IEDs, while they are babysitting rogue countries.
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“My other thought: The surge in Iraq works. The surge in Afghanistan works. There’s an Arab Spring. The world obviously needs American strength and leadership more than ever. And now everyone (even Palin, to some degree) decides, hey, time to back off? It’s foolish substantively and politically.”
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If Reagan had been President, and had committed troops, there would never have been any perceptible surge....THE ENTIRE OPERATION WOULD HAVE BEEN A SURGE. And it would have been over in a matter of weeks or a few months. Not 10 freaking years. Palin is apparently of the same mind as the Gipper. Great.
“Do Republicans really want to run as Obama-lite in foreign policy?”
I don’t know what Republicans want. I don’t care either. Conservatives want a foreign policy modeled after Reagan, which credibly threatened the use of “MASSIVE FORCE” and used that threat to achieve American objectives, such as toppling the Soviet Union without firing a shot and liberating over half a billion people.
RINOs like Kristol want the GOP to continue as the perpetual War Party, until the military is totally demoralized and the country is totally bankrupt. No thanks. We have had a quarter century of them. Back to the Brookings Institution with the lot of them.