Giuliani's loopy foreign-policy essay
Rudy, the Anti-Statesman
By Fred Kaplan
from Slate.com
Rudy Giuliani's essay in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, laying out his ideas for a new U.S. foreign policy, is one of the shallowest articles of its kind I've ever read. Had it been written for a freshman course on international relations, it would deserve at best a C-minus (with a concerned note to come see the professor as soon as possible). That it was written by a man who wants to be president—and who recently said that he understands the terrorist threat "better than anyone else running"—is either the stuff of high satire or cause to consider moving to, or out of, the country.
The article contains so many bizarre statements, it's hard to know where to start, so let's begin at the beginning and go from there.
"Confronted with an act of war on American soil, our old assumptions about conflict between nation-states fell away."
Why? The biggest worry about al-Qaida after 9/11 was that it had essentially taken over a nation-state, Afghanistan. Giuliani's (and President George W. Bush's) stated fear now is that it might take over Iraq. The rise of transnational terrorist movements adds a twist to the system of nation-states but hardly supersedes it or nullifies the main assumptions about conflict. Giuliani contradicts his own point halfway into the essay when he writes, "There is no realistic alternative to the sovereign state system."
"Much like at the beginning of the Cold War, we are at the dawn of a new era in global affairs, when old ideas have to be rethought and new ideas have to be devised to meet new challenges."
Let's say this is true. What are Giuliani's "new ideas"? He never says.
(Continued here.)
By Fred Kaplan
from Slate.com
Rudy Giuliani's essay in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, laying out his ideas for a new U.S. foreign policy, is one of the shallowest articles of its kind I've ever read. Had it been written for a freshman course on international relations, it would deserve at best a C-minus (with a concerned note to come see the professor as soon as possible). That it was written by a man who wants to be president—and who recently said that he understands the terrorist threat "better than anyone else running"—is either the stuff of high satire or cause to consider moving to, or out of, the country.
The article contains so many bizarre statements, it's hard to know where to start, so let's begin at the beginning and go from there.
"Confronted with an act of war on American soil, our old assumptions about conflict between nation-states fell away."
Why? The biggest worry about al-Qaida after 9/11 was that it had essentially taken over a nation-state, Afghanistan. Giuliani's (and President George W. Bush's) stated fear now is that it might take over Iraq. The rise of transnational terrorist movements adds a twist to the system of nation-states but hardly supersedes it or nullifies the main assumptions about conflict. Giuliani contradicts his own point halfway into the essay when he writes, "There is no realistic alternative to the sovereign state system."
"Much like at the beginning of the Cold War, we are at the dawn of a new era in global affairs, when old ideas have to be rethought and new ideas have to be devised to meet new challenges."
Let's say this is true. What are Giuliani's "new ideas"? He never says.
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
Good news, in Rudy’s World the Axis of Evil does not contain North Korea. No mention of China. Obviously, there is no reason to be concerned with Venezuela (I’m sure he’ll mention Cuba once he figures out that Florida voters count quite heavily in the Electoral College.)
Has Rudy hired Rove yet … it sure looks like “Fear Factor-2008” ?
The scary fact is that these are His Policy Statements … not a quick reaction to a question at a campaign event. But then again, he was too busy to attend meetings as part of the Iraq Study Group to learn anything about the consequences of foreign policy blunders.
Rudy has announced his Foreign Affairs advisors which include Norman Podhoretz in a lead role. When Podhoretz was asked how the Brits should respond when Iran took their sailors. He replied "they should have threatened to bomb the Iranians to smithereens." The New York Observer reported that Rudy talks with Gen. Jack (The SURGEmaster) Keane and former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton who took to The Wall Street Journal Op-Ed page to announce that Iran is not "far short" of HEU levels; it is more than two-thirds of the way there.
QUESTION : Although the Constitution prohibits a President from being elected to more than two terms, is there any reason why Dick Cheney couldn’t be selected as VP ? Rudy & Dick in ‘08 … it’s got a ring to it !
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