Posted on 04/11/2015 7:57:25 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Riddle me this, fellow Republicans. An NBC survey April 9 reports that a huge majority (70%) of Americans doubts that Iran will abide by any agreement to limit its nuclear arms–but a majority (54%) still thinks Obama will do a better job than the Republicans in dealing with Iran!
A majority of Americans – 54 percent – trust Barack Obama to do a better job handling an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, compared to 42 percent who say they trust the Republicans in Congress. But nearly 7 in 10 Americans say that Iran is not likely to abide by the agreement that has been reached.
53% think Iranian nukes are a “major threat,” and only 37% think they are a “minor threat.” Most Americans, in short, think Iran is a major threat to American security and think that Obama’s nuclear deal is a joke–but they still want Obama in charge of the negotiations, not us.
Maybe NBC made the numbers up. Maybe a proofreader got the numbers reversed. And maybe pigs will sprout wings.
There is a much simpler explanation: Most Americans don’t trust Republicans on matters of war and peace. Not after the nation-building disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan, that is. Why should they trust us? Our leadership has never admitted it made a mistake. Sen. Ted Cruz, to be sure, had the gumption last fall to say that “we got too involved in nation-building” and that “we should not be trying to turn Iraq into Switzerland”–and was excoriated for his trouble by the Bushies. The Republican mainstream is too busy trying to defend the Bush record to address the distrust of American voters.
One gets weary and grows shrill sounding the same note for a decade. I wish the problem would go away. A couple of weeks ago a friend who served in senior defense positions in the Bush administration remonstrated, “Why do we have to worry about what mistakes were made back then?” The American public doesn’t remember a lot, but it does remember the disruption of millions of lives after the deployment of 2.6 million Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan–not to mention 6,000 dead, 52,000 wounded in action, and hundreds of thousands of other injuries.
That’s why Obama still has the upper hand, and is likely to succeed in selling out American and allied interests to the mullahs. His trump card is the repeated statement: “The alternative is war.” That may or may not be true; over at Asia Times’ “Chatham House Rules” blog, several former senior officials of the Reagan administration are debating the merits of a military strike. But an air strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities surely is an option.
Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak had it exactly right: an airstrike on Iran’s nuclear facilities isn’t war. It’s half a night’s work, a pinpoint operation comparable to the killing of Osama bin Laden. But our leaders won’t say this, because the prospect of military force conjures up fears of a million Americans going back to war.
Republicans need a clear and simple policy about the use of force: We will use force only when we and our close allies are under threat. We will use the kind of force that least exposes Americans to harm. We will not sacrifice the time, let alone the lives, of American soldiers to fix the problems of other countries. I recommend that Republican candidates read Angelo Codevilla’s 2014 book To Make and Keep the Peace, and then ask Prof. Codevilla to design a bumper sticker for them.
It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry, or both, and in what order. Here we have the least competent president in American history bungling a decisive foreign policy matter in full view of the public, and bungling so badly that 7 out of 10 Americans think that any agreement we make with Iran will be a piece of garbage–and Americans still want Obama to handle the negotiations! That is not only injurious. It is humiliating.
How much more humiliation at the hands of the public do we need before we straighten out and fly right?
Yes, but I think if we’re honest we both praise Netanyahu and recognize that there is much he didn’t say. He also said Obama was doing good things for the U. S. and couched some other ways too.
I don’t fault him because there’s only so much you can do when you don’t want to alienate a nation completely.
I’m referencing domestic as well as international matters, so there are some things Netanyahu wouldn’t address.
That’s where our people come in.
Hey, I like Netanyahu so this isn’t a slam at him by any means.
Alberta’s Child, do you you have any grasp of Middle East politics at all?
What would the reaction be if Israel attacked other nations with ground troops? Any idea?
Lebanon is one thing, but Syria, Iraq, Iran..., you’d have the whole Middle East invading Israel.
The U. S. was the one that asked Israel to sit out the first Iraq war over Kuwait. Iraq was lobbing skuds into Israel, and Israel wanted to take action. The coalition we build would have disintegrated if it had.
Israel loves to rely on us? Like during the 6 day war and other wars they’ve fought against their neighbors?
You forget an awful lot in your zeal.
If we’re talking about international relations as it relates to our military, I’m not going to go back to ground zero and touch on the need for Conservative nominees. That’s a given. I will instead talk about our military campaigns and why they were needed. I will talk about our global presence, and the fact that we must remain steadfast on the world stage.
I recognize the difference between Republicans and Conservatives. I’ve only been harping on that issue for seventeen years here.
That's really Israel's problem -- not ours. Isn't it?
Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East. I'm not sure why that country would need anyone else to fight on its behalf.
Alberta’s Child, do you have any grasp of Middle East politics at all?
Yes, I do. More importantly, I have a grasp of American politics -- which is supposed to be the topic of this thread.
I'm not convinced Islam would prevail. Sorry Jimmy Carter, I know this will upset you.
As for Jeff, yes he did. I honestly don't know how he's doing.
Here is his last situational post, that I could find. Jeff Head Update
Some of Jeff's more recent posts: Jeff's most recent posts
It's more of a threat now than it was before, mainly because the Sunni leadership has been replaced by Shi'ites and it has basically become a puppet state of Iran. In fact, the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 did more to strengthen Iran in the region than anything Iran could have done on its own. I'm sure this is something a lot of Americans wonder about when some @sshole like John McCain or a clown like Lindsey Graham stands up and claims that Iran is a major threat to the U.S. today.
Iraq is not developing WMDs and it is at peace with it's neighbors. That is a marked improvement, whether you wish to agree or not.
Those statements right there are exactly why American voters don't trust the Republican Party when it comes to foreign policy. There are hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled Iraq since 2003 who would disagree with everything you've posted here. The dismantling of the Ba'athist government in Iraq has resulted in nearly a complete eradication of Christianity in Iraq in the last twelve years. But nobody among the globalists in the GOP would give a sh!t about that, since they've been eating out of the hands of radical Islamic royal families in places like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for years.
The U.S. military campaign in Iraq officially became a joke in 2005 when the U.S. allowed the new Iraqi government to adopt a constitution in which Islam is enshrined as the official state religion.
Just remember, dude ... "Islam is a religion of peace."
Yes, I think we should have insulted 85% of the Iraqi citizens who are Islamic by dictating to the government they were going to have to support, and refuse to allow it to be Islamic.
No.
We may not like it, I don’t, but those folks have a right to set up their government the way they want.
What alternative is there. We demand they keep the government Islamic free, and then there’s an uprising in six months and they topple the government? Then a radical form of government replaces what we have there now?
How does that help maintain peace in the region.
Iraq has been moderate since the government was formed. That is reasoned. It’s the best we could hope for in this region.
“Yes, but I think if we’re honest we both praise Netanyahu and recognize that there is much he didn’t say. He also said Obama was doing good things for the U. S. and couched some other ways too.
I don’t fault him because there’s only so much you can do when you don’t want to alienate a nation completely.”
I think he was being, as we say, politically correct. yes, the beginning of his speech, where he praised Obama, made me rather nauseous. He was being diplomatic - before piling on the hard truth. It actually did make it all a bit more entertaining.
Yes, I agree. I will admit to wanting to read someone anyone just read Obama the riot act, but Netanyahu is smarter and more controlled than I am.
We went to war against Iraq claiming WMD. Then Bush told the country, he made a mistake; there were no WDM in Iraq at the behest of Rice.
Bush going to war on a mistaken basis will never be forgotten by the Americans who lived through it. It is really an unforgivable “error.” He also over-reacted by turning the government against our people by pushing the Patriot Act on us. We are losing the constitutional Republic. He constantly lied calling Islam “the religion of peace.” He permitted the left to run a campaign of absolute hysterics against him over the war in Iraq without addressing their falsehoods. He even allowed the “needless” torture claims to rest on the public.
In the meantime, the voice of GOP foreign policy is John McInsane backed his girlfriend Lindsay, in the Senate. He’s the guy who went to Syria and was pictured with Isis members who he referred to as freedom fighters and demanded the US fund them to take out the Syrian government.
I would never vote for the Dems because they are scum of the earth in all areas of life, but I have trouble trusting the GOP with power again after Bush. I don’t think we are safe as a nation with either party in power. The elite of America (the advisers to our presidents) are globalists; totally corrupt, careless and stupid.
Bush Didn’t Lie: But why did his administration sit on the evidence of Saddam Hussein’s WMDs?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3216382/posts
NYT: There Were Thousands of Old WMDs in Iraq
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3215352/posts
Good Lord. Occam’s Razor. A majority of Americans are left wingers. I don’t like it but that is the way it is.
You don't p!ss away thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars on a military campaign, then turn around and tell the American people that "we may not like it, but those folks have a right to set up their government the way they want."
Bullsh!t. If they wanted to set up their government the way they wanted, they should have staged their own uprising and toppled Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist government themselves.
This is exactly why the American public doesn't trust the Republican Party when it comes to foreign policy. Heck -- even most Republican leaders don't believe this approach to foreign policy is worth a damn. That's why the loudest cheerleaders for these military campaigns are a bunch of Beltway @ssholes and media sycophants who would convert to Islam before they would even dream of putting on a military uniform themselves.
Thank you for your additional comments.
And thank you for all of the insightful comments yourself. I may not agree with them, but they were certainly intelligent and thought-provoking.
:-)
No problem. I appreciate the discussion.
Take care.
Thanks FReeper for the Jeff Head updates. Have a good week. Prayers up for Jeff.
Good questions!
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.