Posted on 12/17/2006 7:36:30 PM PST by neverdem
Two major public statements, coming less than a week apart, nicely capture the confusion besetting U.S. foreign policy these days.
The first is the report of the Iraq Study Group, released on Dec. 6. In good old-fashioned "realist" style, the report offers nothing about how to promote democracy and human rights in the Middle East, focusing instead on the single-minded, amoral pursuit of the U.S. national interest.
Just five days later, outgoing U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan delivered his valedictory address, imploring Americans to uphold human rights and the rule of law in prosecuting the war on terrorism -- idealism at its purest.
Meanwhile, the public seems to want one thing: change. A Washington Post-ABC News survey last week found that eight in 10 Americans favor a new direction for the U.S. mission in Iraq.
In this climate, policy heavyweights from Washington to New York to Boston are grasping for the Next Big Idea, the grand strategy that will guide U.S. foreign policy in a post-Iraq world and earn its creator fame and, if not fortune, perhaps a spot on the next administration's foreign-policy team. So who will be the next George Kennan? The current strategies on offer in various books and articles include new buzzwords, promising ideas -- and miles to go before a consensus emerges.
Mere dissatisfaction with today's foreign policy doesn't guarantee that a new vision will take its place. As Jeffrey Legro, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, recently pointed out in his book "Rethinking the World: Great Power Strategies and International Order," a lot is required for a real shift in worldviews. A new strategy must be more than visionary; it must provide attractive and practical solutions to current challenges. During the Cold War, containment's appeal was that it offered a coherent...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I know .. All the Dems have to do is tell the Iraqis its all Bush's fault and that they will set a $7.15 minimum wage requirement in Iraq... thats it fighting is over...
First Kill al Sadr. Then blow up his funeral. Then bomb Syria and Iran. This would be a good start.
How about we just KILL THE ENEMY and have V I C T O R Y!!
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NEVER FORGET
Praise GOD that...
President BUSH has promised
Freedom's Return to:
Communist Vietnam
Communist North Korea
Communist Cuba
..as well as..
Freedom's Arrival to:
All the Countries of the Middle East
...as America's own best self-protection against future Terrorist Attacks here at home.
Signed:.."ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer
-A Co-Witness to this written BUSH Promise read aloud to over 1,000 Freedom-Loving Vietnamese Americans selflessly demonstrating in support of the President's bringing Freedom to the People of Iraq & Afghanistan-April 2003
(Other Freeper Witnesses = Ron Dog, reformjoy, conservogirl)
NEVER FORGET
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Trade policy is not a comploete foreign polcy, especially when enemies declare war and attack.
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Yes, indeed, there really are people out there who do HATE us, just for being Free.
That was the Lesson of 9/11.
That was also the Lesson I first learned long ago in the Valley of Death known as then Free South Vietnam's IA DRANG Valley of November 1965.
As the CLINTONS:
1) Actively supported our Communist Enemy during the Vietnam War.
2) Refused 3 Free Offers from the Sudan during the 1990's to give us
our No. 1 Terrrorist Enemy OSAMA bin LADEN on a silver platter before he could hit us real hard here at home.
3) Publically apologized in person to the people of Central America, during the CLINTON Impeachment saga, for America's having supported the WRONG side against Communist Dictator FIDEL CASTRO-Backed communists that tried to take over Central America during the 1980's.
4) Publically declared that there shouldn't be just one Superpower in the world, (That's US, Folks), rather all countries should be playing on the same level playing field (That's including America's enemy countries, Folks).
5) Publically declared that there may not even be an America around in 300 years, as they did all they could to make it so while in the Oval Office.
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