THE GOP Debate On Foreign Policy

Fascinating debate. Less moments of true hilarity. All of the candidates agreed that any of them would be better at Foreign Policy than President Obama. President Obama is in Asia solidifying new trade deals and trying to coax China into a better trading position. Since that is part of the world most rapidly developing, it got little mention from the Republicans tonight.

The CBS on-line feeds were absolutely terrible and parts of the last moments were incomprehensible from a technical point of view.

A few observations since I didn't take notes:

Rick Perry probably got himself back into the game by speaking entire sentences and not totally screwing up. The others seemed to go along with his view that all countries should start at zero to see whether they "qualify" for foreign aid. He said in the debate that includes Israel, although he hedged by saying he thought Israel would have a chance to get significant assistance. Strangely even Romney seemed to agree with his.

My overall impression is that with the exception of Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul all the candidates believe that America's foreign policy is solely a matter of military doctrine and military options. Take, for instance, the last debate where Romney led the pack in saying that Europe was on its own in terms of its financial crisis. There is no Africa, no South America, no South Asia and China is seen, particularly by Romney, as a military threat. "We will have to confront it one of these days." He wants to appeal to their youth. I guess for a revolution.

Michelle Bachmann actually got more air time this debate even though she has flatlined in the polls and joining Frothy Mix Santorum near the bottom. The reason China is developing so fast, according to Bachmann, is there are unencumbered by the burdens of social security, Medicare and unemployment insurance. In other words, if we didn't have a social welfare net then we would be chugging right along. Wingbat that she is, she reflects the dominant Republican view that China is already a stronger superpower than we are. A reminder--the Chinese hold only 1% of our Treasury bonds. From the press and the Republicans, you would think they hold our entire national debt.

Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman were against torture, feeling it was un-American. Herman Cain said he was against torture but felt that "enhanced interrogation" wasn't torture. It's sad that the GOP is still trying to resurrect this issue.

Michelle Bachmann claims that the situation in Iran will ignite a world nuclear war. I'm sure Russia and China will stay out and it will be contained to the region if it ever happens. Except for Ron Paul who warned that all this talk about Iran was similar to Iraq and that was a dreadful mistake, the other candidates felt macho enough to suggest war like Rick Santorum,Romney only less hesitant, and Newt was positively giddy about the prospects of killing more Iranian scientists,with plausible denialbility. Newt was amusing because as he blasted Obama he basically stated all the actions he would take and all of them are what Obama is doing now. Romney warned that "If Obama is re-elected, Iran would have nuclear weapons." Rick Santorum urged that we collaborate with Israel on an operation like their strike against the Syrian nuclear facilities. He said that Iran was the most important issue of our time. Herman Cain urged that we back Iranian dissidents, one of the few sane things he has said all campaign.

Mitt Romney thought withdrawing from Iraq was a mistake--even though that was agreed upon by President Bush. Romney also didn't understand in his foreign aid statement that we have a 10-year agreement with Israel so starting at "zero" is not an option.

Strange though it sounded, Herman Cain's rant about the Arab Spring actually represents unspoken Republican opinion. He went on how President Obama basically let it happen and now it has taken a wrong turn and we may never be allies with Egypt again because the revolution there was the product of the Moslem Brotherhood and Obama was asking the Salih of Yemen to step down even though he is our ally against Al Qaeda. Republicans still mourn the loss of Mubarak in Egypt, who was 84, cancer-ridden and who stole $40 billion from the country. But they can't say it like they can't say that toppling Gaddafi was a mistake. So it makes sense they want to support the dictator in Yemen because they have not adjusted to the changing world.

On Afghanistan, Jon Huntsman reiterated that he wanted all troops home and mantained that once we obliterated Al Qaeda and prevented the Taliban from returning to power we have accomplished our mission. Romney and Bachmann opposed President Obama's withdrawal of the surge troops and Bachmann raised the old GOP objection that Obama didn't send enough to Afghanistan in the first place.

Everyone seemed to screw up on Pakistan, which is a complex situation. Romney said that our friends in Pakistan and the U.S. have an agreement to use drones against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. We have no such agreement, which has led Hillary Clinton to intervene to circumscribe their use, which has draw great reactions from the Pakistanis. Herman Cain wants the country to declare whether they are our friends or not. And poor Santorum had to say that the situation is actually more complex than that.

Yesterday, Herman Cain said if he didn't become President, he would like to be Secretary of Defense. Asked as President how he would deal with the generals and could he overrule them he said he would hire a talented team of advisers and evaluate the options and then get the generals' input. Both Cain and Romney have the same commander-in-chief problem. They don't seem to understand that being President is not like being CEO of a company. You get the impression from Romney he would basically let the generals have their way while he and his corporate advisers would tend to the economy.

On Veteran's Day. Romney had announced that he would offer vouchercare for the Veterans, privatize their medical care which is now handled by the Tricare program. Paul Krugman had an excellent op-ed this morning on the voucherization of healthcare proposed by the Republicans. The idea, according to Krugman, is Republicans want all government programs that work to be privatized so that the private sector can benefit. Veterans' care has been examined and actually been shown to be an excellent model for the country. The head of the VFW rapidly responded to Romney suggestion saying that every election cycle this comes up and the veterans oppose it. But the tin ears of someone running for President using Veterans' Day, not to speak about the sacrifices of our armed men and women but basically destroying the medical care they already get by giving them coupons is astounding.

Newt tried to look less pompous and arrogant tonight. If you want an excellent portrait of Newt and what conservatives really think of him read Jack Abramoff's Capital Punishment, where he recounts his meeting with Newt and how Republicans rose up against him as Speaker of the House. Casino Jack's book is surprisingly good and an excellent inside view of the development of today's conservative movement.

So as predicted, the debate concluded that Obama was bad and would make things worse. In previous post, I elaborated on ThinkProgress' recitations of Obama's foreign policy achievements.

I'm sure all the pundits will say that Romney won the debate. But I thought he was actually clueless about the challenges America faces in the world today. The American people have moved on from Iraq and Afghanistan and do not see the Arab Spring as a great threat. The Iranian issue is still before us and it will be the one issue that the GOP will use against Obama as well as the strange notion that Obama isn't defending Israel. Or as Michelle Bachmann said, "Obama defends Occupy Wall Street but won't defend Israel". But the world of the candidates seems to me terribly small and shrunken and out of line for what we have to deal with tomorrow.

There is no turning back. You can't re-invade Iraq. You can't restore authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, although tghat may happen organically. And you can't go picking fights with China since both countries know we are bound together right now. And it is an horrendous thing to cut foreign aid ,especially like the House has been doing lately. Foreign aid is a force multiplier to use military jargon and is a cost-effective way to project a positive image of America in the world. Contrary to long-term popular opinion it causes only a microscopic portion of our national debt.

I didn't see any Commander-in-Chief tonight.

One of the best tweets tonight was someone saying that the Democratic operative who convinced the Republicans to hold all these debates was a genius.