• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Romney's Campaigning on Foreign Policy

TR1982 said:
Jesus. You need to stop assuming things. It makes an ass out of you an me, and all that. I brought up the "two options" argument to illustrate that the moderate course isn't necessarily the best course. I'm not actually saying that there were only two ways to deal with the Arab Spring. There were many ways to deal with it, those are just the two I think would have been most successful, and would have harnessed the energy of the events towards furthering U.S. policy. Another option would be to completely withdraw from the Middle East. We could also carpet bomb the entire region. But yeah, you are correct. I am absolutely trying to present as fact the idea that the Obama administration has no overarching strategy for the Middle East. Feel free to disprove me.

You were asking me to provide an example of what I would have done. I did. Now you say I have no facts. I'm not sure what you mean by that. If you mean I can't prove the counterfactual, you are correct, but that doesn't make my argument unsound. I also can't prove that if the United States had backed Britain and France during the Suez Crisis, France wouldn't have withdrawn from NATO. Generally most critiques involve assumptions. Mine is no different. It's a petty intellectual copout if you are going to arbitrarily invalidate my entire argument over the fact that I can't prove the counterfactual.
Click to expand...

I think taking this any further is going to be an argument about an argument about an argument, which is more meta than I want to get, and then we're going to get into whether one of us is mischaracterizing what the other said, and at the end of the day it's going to look like an RJ vs. DeacMan slapfight which is not how either of us needs to spend the afternoon. Suffice it to say that I am not convinced by your argument, but I do appreciate your willingness to engage in a civil manner and the fact that you are well informed on the history and realities of the region.
 
Deacon923 said:
I think taking this any further is going to be an argument about an argument about an argument, which is more meta than I want to get, and then we're going to get into whether one of us is mischaracterizing what the other said, and at the end of the day it's going to look like an RJ vs. DeacMan slapfight which is not how either of us needs to spend the afternoon. Suffice it to say that I am not convinced by your argument, but I do appreciate your willingness to engage in a civil manner and the fact that you are well informed on the history and realities of the region.
Click to expand...

Agreed, and likewise.
 
If this doesn't scare any reasonable person about a President romeny's foreign policy, I don't what will.

Here's Secretary of State Jon Bolton.

Yep the guy who wants to nuke Iran and close the UN. What a perfect selection for Secretary of State!!!

"
Romney Praises Bolton
By Katrina Trinko
December 30, 2011 11:51 A.M. Comments11
In a radio interview that aired yesterday, Mitt Romney told Hugh Hewitt that while voters shouldn’t expect to hear him announce his ideal cabinet anytime soon, he did share Newt Gingrich’s respect for John Bolton.

“I had the interesting experience of reading his book, Surrender Is Not An Option, and in it, he described in some depth the mentality of people who spend their entire life in government,” Romney said in reference to Bolton, whom Gingrich has pledged to appoint secretary of state. “And that is in many cases, they’re more inclined towards getting an agreement than actually getting a result. And as someone from the private sector, I’m a results-oriented guy. And John Bolton’s insistence on good results for America is something I respect.”

“I think he’s a fine man with great capacity,” Romney added. “I’m not planning right now on naming my cabinet early, but you never say never in this business, but I think John Bolton is right that we need to have a dramatic shakeup in the approach that’s taken by our State Department.”
 
So basically, TR1982 is saying it's impossible for a Democrat to be strong on foreign policy.
 
BaseballBoomhauer said:
I bolded one part of my response because it is the cornerstone of my argument. You think we're playing a board game. You think we can just keep everyone under our control and excuse it for the sake of "stability." You would have supported the Mubarak and Al-Bashar regimes, and that, my friend, is NOT based on the founding principles of our nation.

And as a side note - I'm enjoying this argument but we HAVE to find a way to cut it down or just take each others' arguments for what they're worth. We're likely the only 2 reading through this book right now.
Click to expand...

Not to say I told you so, but I told you so. Weakness begets aggression. Try going to Brussels and see how everyone feels about those tiny military budgets now. Ask the Ukrainian people how nice it is that we have sanctions as the fallback option in foreign policy.
 
What crap! Our military budget has less than nothing to do with Ukraine. No sane POTUS would send US troops there and start a war with Russia. That's the only action that would have stopped Putin.

As to "tiny military budgets". our is still larger than the next 8-10 nations combined. On what planet would that be tiny?
 
RJKarl said:
What crap! Our military budget has less than nothing to do with Ukraine. No sane POTUS would send US troops there and start a war with Russia. That's the only action that would have stopped Putin.

As to "tiny military budgets". our is still larger than the next 8-10 nations combined. On what planet would that be tiny?
Click to expand...

Not talking about ours, buddy. Go back to sleep.
 
TR1982 said:
Not to say I told you so, but I told you so. Weakness begets aggression. Try going to Brussels and see how everyone feels about those tiny military budgets now. Ask the Ukrainian people how nice it is that we have sanctions as the fallback option in foreign policy.
Click to expand...

What's your solution?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top