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This past Saturday, a Republican foreign policy debate was held at Wofforrd College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Among the candidates present at the debate were: Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Huntsman, Paul, Perry, Romney, and Santorum. The majority of candidates focused their talks on denouncing President Obama’s current foreign policy. Rep. Bachmann described Obama’s foreign policy “miscalculations” as the possible cause of a nuclear world war against Israel. Mitt Romney, also chimed in on the President’s polices and criticized Obama’s handling the conflict in Iran as his greatest failing as commander in chief. The four main arguments in the debate were over: prisoner torturing and water boarding, U.S. aid to Pakistan, relations with China, and the war in Afghanistan. Gov. Perry was noted as being very forceful and assertive in this debate. His powerful demeanor on Saturday is most likely the result of a weak showing and mental gaffe in last Wednesday’s debate. His strong presence may be an attempt to reaffirm his supporters that he is indeed a viable candidate for President, but that moment may have passed him last week. Perry harshly criticized Ron Paul’s call for a reduction in controversial interrogation techniques such as water boarding. Perry defended interrogation as a necessary aspect of a nation at war, “This is war, this is what happens in war, and I will be for it until I die.” The other candidates attacked Perry on his lack of foreign policy experience, a major flaw in the governor’s campaign. Perry responded by referencing his leadership and experience as the “commander in chief of Texas” and its 20,000 National Guard soldiers. In unison with his forceful demeanor, Perry called for sanctions against Iran’s national bank and compared China to the USSR in that China will eventually meet its demise and end up as an “ash heap of history”. Perry also advocated dissolving current U.S. aid to foreign countries, until they can explain why they need U.S. assistance. Overall, Perry delivered a very abrasive message on foreign policy and the distribution of U.S. aid. His strong positions on Saturday may be an attempt to force Republican supporters back into his camp after his brain fart in the last debate, or they may be an indication of just how little Gov. Perry knows about U.S. foreign relations and the national scope of government.
"...or they may be an indication of just how little Gov. Perry knows about U.S. foreign relations and the national scope of government."
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm going to go with this one.
Using Texas' National Guard numbers and calling himself its "Commander-in-Chief" does nothing except call back images of his tremendously stupid threats of possible secession a couple years back, a gaff he hardly wants his constituency thinking back to in the wake of his most recent one.
Because that is, of course, the only way that his actions as "Commander-in-Chief" would actually have gained him real FOREIGN policy experience...if Texas was its own sovereign nation.
I'll say this last thing - Perry stuck around in this race for a lot longer than I was anticipating, but it's nice to finally see him on the final downward spiral. He may not have been the flavor-of-the-month I had initially judged him to be, but he's proven in the past couple of weeks that he has all the necessary faults of one.
- Kevin Chafe