Foreign Policy

President Obama’s ‘open door’ overture to Cuba is long overdue

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Conservative were outraged when President Richard Nixon announced that he would normalize relations with Communist China after 18 months of secret negotiations pursuing a policy of opening China. Nixon made an official state visit to Communist China and smiled broadly while greeting Chairman Mao Zedong, the founding father of the People’s Republic of China — and a dictator who oversaw systematic human rights abuses, and whose rule is estimated to have contributed to the deaths of 40–70 million people through starvation, forced labour and executions, ranking his tenure as the top incidence of democide in human history.

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Neocon cold warriors condemned President Nixon in a statement issued by John McCain and Lindsey Graham:

“We agree with President [Nixon] that he is writing new chapters in American foreign policy. Unfortunately, today’s chapter, like the others before it, is one of America and the values we stand for in retreat and decline. It is about the appeasement of autocratic dictators, thugs, and adversaries, diminishing America’s influence in the world. Is it any wonder that under President [Nixon]’s watch our enemies are emboldened and our friends demoralized?”

Wait, that never happened. Nixon’s “open door” policy towards Communist China was hailed as a major foreign policy achievement by Conservatives and Republicans. McCain and Graham were not yet in the Senate (the good old days).

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Congress abdicates its war powers duty, yet again

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“Tony: It’s no use, the man is a complete idiot.

Village Idiot: If only. Now my father, he was a complete idiot. I’m still a half-wit.”

– TV Mini-Series “The 10th Kingdom” (2000)

aquabuddhaThis is the only memorable line I ever remember from this TV show, but I am reminded of it every time I hear that village idiot Aqua Buddha, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), open his mouth to speak.

Aqua Buddha, like his “complete idiot” father Rand Paul, has burnished his credentials as a non-interventionist if not an isolationist in matters of foreign policy.

That was until Aqua Buddha convinced himself, with the cajoling of Beltway media villagers who share his devotion to Ayn Rand and Libertarianism, that he is somehow a credible candidate for president (actually he is just continuing his father’s business of shaking down the rubes for money every four years).

Now this non-interventionist/isolationist wants a declaration of war against ISIS, or ISIL, or IS, or whatever the hell the media is calling them today.

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CD 2 GOP candidates fail the foreign policy test

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On Thursday evening, there was a CD 2 GOP candidate debate sponsored by the Greater Vail Chamber of Commerce and the League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson. The candidates responded to questions put to them by students from the Valley Academy and High School.

Keep in mind that these are high school students. Several of them will graduate and will volunteer to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. Some may even attend one of our military academies. All of the male students will have to register with the Selective Service (draft) for their 18th birthday.

Recent wars and the threat of wars were clearly on their mind. When the candidates were asked about recent events in Iraq, all three GOP candidates for CD 2 expressed no reservations about sending some of these students off to fight and die in a sectarian civil war in Iraq that even the Iraqis do not fully comprehend. These students are to fight and die in the sandbox of Iraq so that GOP politicians can pound their chests and talk tough about American military power. Clearly, no lessons have been learned by these candidates over the past 13 years of war.

Screenshot from 2014-08-10 13:08:53

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Joe Biden was right

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Back in 2006, then Senator Joe Biden proposed to decentralize power in the new Iraqi government. Decentralize, don’t divide:

President Bush does not have a strategy for victory in Iraq. His strategy is to prevent defeat and to hand the problem off to his successor. Meanwhile, the frustration of Americans is mounting so fast that Congress might end up mandating a rapid withdrawal, even at the risk of trading a dictator for chaos.

Both are bad alternatives.

There is a third way. The idea is to maintain a unified Iraq by decentralizing it and giving Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis their own regions. The central government would be left in charge of common interests, such as border security and the distribution of oil revenue. Everything I’m proposing is already in Iraq’s constitution.

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My plan would guarantee the Sunnis a proportionate share of oil revenue. It would tie economic aid to the protection of minorities’ and women’s rights. It would require a regional non-aggression pact. And it would allow us to responsibly withdraw most U.S. forces from Iraq by 2008 — enough time for a settlement to take hold.

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The long road home from Afghanistan, American foreign policy going forward

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us-forces-afghanistan-AP-640x480David Hudson at the White House blog writes, Bringing the War in Afghanistan to a Responsible End:

[Tuesday] afternoon in the White House Rose Garden, President Obama talked briefly about the United States’ next steps in Afghanistan, and how “we will bring America’s longest war to a responsible end.”

Over the last several years, we’ve worked to transition security responsibilities to the Afghans. One year ago, Afghan forces assumed the lead for combat operations. Since then, they’ve continued to grow in size and in strength, while making huge sacrifices for their country. This transition has allowed us to steadily draw down our own forces — from a peak of 100,000 U.S. troops, to roughly 32,000 today.

The President announced today that 22,000 more troops will return home by the end of the year, ending the U.S. combat mission in December 2014.

“When I took office, we had nearly 180,000 troops in harm’s way,” President Obama said. “By the end of this year, we will have less than 10,000.”

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