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Republicans must get real on foreign policy
The Week ^ | Dec 12 2012 | Daniel Lareson

Posted on 12/13/2012 7:46:55 PM PST by WilliamIII

Republicans are slowly recovering from their crushing defeat in the presidential election, and are now weighing possible changes that the party clearly needs to make to regain the public's trust after losing their third national election in the last six years. (2010 was the lone bright spot.) But despite the broad soul-searching, most of the GOP's high-profile national leaders have so far failed to address the party's continued weakness on foreign policy and national security, which remains a major liability. The exceptions to this have been Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who have both hinted at a reformed Republican foreign policy that is less aggressive and less reliant on military action.

(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Foreign Affairs
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1 posted on 12/13/2012 7:46:59 PM PST by WilliamIII
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To: WilliamIII
Republicans are slowly recovering from their crushing defeat in the presidential election...

That was all of this maggot's puke that I could take.

2 posted on 12/13/2012 7:50:01 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (I feel sad for my once great country. We deserve everything that is about to happen to us.)
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To: WilliamIII

Satire, right?


3 posted on 12/13/2012 7:53:22 PM PST by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
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To: Navy Patriot

I’m a Reaganite, I guess an old-fashioned conservative. Reagan didn’t start any wars. Today, some people think that, to be a Republican, you have to support new wars. Was Reagan weak, an appeasor? Tell that to the Soviets.


4 posted on 12/13/2012 8:01:17 PM PST by WilliamIII
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To: WilliamIII

6% difference is ‘crushing’?

Spare me, the fraud alone could account for most of that.


5 posted on 12/13/2012 8:32:02 PM PST by ASOC (What are you doing now that Mexico has become OUR Chechnya?)
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To: WilliamIII
On the contrary, Reagan subscribed to the principle that if you want peace, prepare for war, and that there are thing that a free man is willing to fight for.

Reagan's genius was that he could spend efficiently. While he rebuilt the military that the Rats had bled for the "Great Society" vote buying, he actually spent less than the Rats on defense (he cut more pork and built solid muscle).

When Reagan decided he could accomplish a major contribution to the world, he unfought the Soviet Union by proposing an anti missile system an antiweapon, if you will.

When the Communists objected, he offered to GIVE them the same system so both sides could unfight (the USSR would still have to build the hardware, the technology was the gift).

Finally, when the showdown with the balky Commies came, Reagan selected his secret weapon, one that doesn't kill, but just completely convinces. That weapon was the US economy. Who knew?

Well, Reagan did, he was a true warrior, and knew his craft, not afraid of blood (Granada), but not reckless.

My kind of guy.

6 posted on 12/13/2012 8:46:58 PM PST by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

It MUST be true, as it was yesterday’s headline on the Frisian Daily News!


7 posted on 12/13/2012 8:54:24 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Navy Patriot

Right now the US needs an Eisenhower. Keep gov and military adventures to a minimum and pay down the debt. Eisenhower basically did that as the US got out of Korea and paid down their WW2 war debts. He got rid of the illegal immigrants and made more jobs available to US citizens, and only major infrastructure program was the interstate highways which employed lots of blue collar workers. These roads provided the US with strategic roadways for war, and in peacetime increased the geographical mobility of Americans and the US economy. He did not let US allies use us, and leery of corporate America in the DoD.


8 posted on 12/13/2012 9:06:21 PM PST by Fee
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To: Fee
All true.

Eisenhower was, in fact, a great President, and accomplished much by NOT having the government do certain things.

He was so popular, it was hard and risky for the well established Marxist left and their MSM sycophants (yes, even in the 50's) to denigrate and demonize him. So the mocked him for doing nothing.

But Eisenhower was no obtuse placeholder, and the Interstate Highway System was actually a huge victory for conservatives and patriots over the American left, while the Federal government remained within the bounds of the Constitution.

Ike whacked a large group of Marxist American traitors with the Interstate, permanently. It's a great story.

9 posted on 12/13/2012 9:36:05 PM PST by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
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To: Navy Patriot

On the contrary, Reagan subscribed to the principle that if you want peace, prepare for war, and that there are thing that a free man is willing to fight for.

I agree, that’s why I’m a Reaganite. He kept the peace by preparing for war. In contrast, Bush started a war that we didn’t need to engage in, and it destroyed his presidency - and left us with an Iraq that’s run by Shiites who are the closest allies to Iran.

As National Rifle Association President David Keene has noted:

“Reagan resorted to military force far less often than many of those who came before him or who have since occupied the Oval Office. . . . After the [1983] assault on the Marine barracks in Lebanon, it was questioning the wisdom of U.S. involvement that led Reagan to withdraw our troops rather than dig in. He found no good strategic reason to give our regional enemies inviting U.S. targets. Can one imagine one of today’s neoconservative absolutists backing away from any fight anywhere?”


10 posted on 12/13/2012 10:06:16 PM PST by WilliamIII
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To: Navy Patriot
he unfought the Soviet Union by proposing an anti missile system an antiweapon, if you will.

Although the Soviets knew they could not compete with SDI, that had almost nothing to do with what caused their economy to collapse. That was accomplished by falling oil prices subsequent to Reagan's decontrol of American oil production. Without the petrodollar cash flow to support their massive military, the cost of maintaining equipment, particularly for their naval forces, is what really took them down.

11 posted on 12/13/2012 10:25:54 PM PST by Carry_Okie (The Slave Party: advancing indenture since 1787.)
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To: WilliamIII; All

The GOP needs to stay far away from Jon Huntsman’s Liberal Free Trade Communist Globalist agenda.

In fact, this writer fails to mention that too many GOP are pretty close to Huntsman’s foreign policy positions

Rand Paul’s foreign policy views are a little more palatable, but, as long as one supports Free Trade, you support Liberal Globalism....and you support failure. Free Trade Communist Globalism is not going to work in this 21st Century, and its failures are already quite apparent


12 posted on 12/14/2012 4:38:08 AM PST by SeminoleCounty (Seems that the ones who understand little about the economy are economists)
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To: WilliamIII
Bush started a war that we didn’t need to engage in, and it destroyed his presidency - and left us with an Iraq that’s run by Shiites who are the closest allies to Iran.

I agree with that in retrospect of the nation building, democracy crap. I am interested in controlling nuclear WMD's.

“Reagan resorted to military force far less often than many of those who came before him or who have since occupied the Oval Office. . ."

Absolutely true, and a sign of a great warrior, defeat your enemy by not fighting him.

I guess we agree on Reagan. The man was able to avoid so much damage and disaster and still get things done for the betterment of so many people.

13 posted on 12/14/2012 7:31:23 AM PST by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
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To: Navy Patriot

Right, however the subject nobody says anything about (but which is actually more important than any other) is our massive trade deficit.

We must bring back US manufacturing.

Now.

Not soon. Now.


14 posted on 12/14/2012 7:36:56 AM PST by Cringing Negativism Network
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To: Navy Patriot

No, not satire, Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense.


15 posted on 12/14/2012 7:43:19 AM PST by Eva
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To: Carry_Okie
Although the Soviets knew they could not compete with SDI, that had almost nothing to do with what caused their economy to collapse. That was accomplished by falling oil prices subsequent to Reagan's decontrol of American oil production. Without the petrodollar cash flow to support their massive military, the cost of maintaining equipment, particularly for their naval forces, is what really took them down.

True, but three points:

The oil production freed (from control by Communist Environmental Rats), was still an important part of the US economy, so the US economy was the weapon used.

SDI was a proposal based in peace and security proven by the offer to share the technology. It laid a foundation for trust, and Reagan was trustworthy.

The Soviet Union actually could afford SDI, IF they seriously cut their massive and wasteful offensive military programs. The Soviets reluctantly saw the light, and Reagan's ideas prevailed.

16 posted on 12/14/2012 7:58:44 AM PST by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network
We must bring back US manufacturing.

Now.

Not soon. Now.

That would be great, but it would require immediately changing numerous conditions (and not considering the lag time that start ups or relocations always require), in the US that conservatives, free capitalists, Republicans and the ordinary Joe have very little or no control over whatsoever.

I'll give ya just one to accomplish to get me on board:

Defund the EPA, just defund it, and ya got me.

17 posted on 12/14/2012 8:24:48 AM PST by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
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To: WilliamIII
Daniel Larison of the American Dhimmi would no a realism based foreign policy if he sat on it. He knows the cult of "Realism" the ideology which posits that ideology is irrelevant in foreign policy. But when dealing with suicide bombers, that dogma is a farce only academics would be stupid enough to believe.
What Larison believes in is appeasement. And that policy is no less unrealistic or silly than the Democracy Jihad of Neoconservatives.
18 posted on 12/14/2012 10:51:09 AM PST by rmlew ("Mosques are our barracks, minarets our bayonets, domes our helmets, the believers our soldiers.")
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To: Fee

All true. But Ike was also an idiot who horribly ednangered us. He screwed our allies Britain and France to help the Soviet ally, Egypt. This told the third world to go Soviet. He also supported a lunatic policy, “Atoms for Peace”, where we pushed nuclear power around the world. Nothing like promoting nuclear proliferation for peace.


19 posted on 12/14/2012 10:55:37 AM PST by rmlew ("Mosques are our barracks, minarets our bayonets, domes our helmets, the believers our soldiers.")
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To: rmlew

Ike was also an idiot who horribly ednangered us.

The Ike years were Republican years of peace and prosperity.


20 posted on 12/14/2012 1:08:25 PM PST by WilliamIII
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