from the atlantic..........
"At a time when Washington can't seem to agree on anything, there is one area of growing consensus -- a new wave of isolationism is on the rise, and it must be stopped.
During last month's first Republican presidential debate, several of the candidates, found surprising areas of consensus on the foreign policy issues dominating headlines this summer. Mitt Romney advocated withdrawal from Afghanistan. Michele Bachman and Herman Cain questioned whether the U.S. truly has vital interests in Libya to justify its intervention there. The next day the New York Times said, a "renewed streak of isolationism" had emerged in the GOP. President Obama took up the charge, arguing that "some would have America retreat from our responsibility as an anchor of global security, and embrace an isolation that ignores the very real threats that we face." Such conservative writers as Mark Thiessen and Max Boot responded that Obama's call for "nation building at home" (rather than in Afghanistan) revealed Obama's own isolationist impulses. GOP candidate Tim Pawlenty even went after his own party, saying, "America already has one political party devoted to decline, retrenchment and withdrawal. It does not need a second one."
Seemingly everyone in Washington is being characterized as an isolationist. That the word has apparently become such a slur is revealing, largely because most of those accused of "isolationism" appear to be anything but. Aside from Ron Paul, who has unashamedly called for ending America's military engagements, disbanding NATO, pulling out of the United Nations, and slashing "hundreds of billions" out of the "military-industrial complex," it's next to impossible to find a single prominent U.S. politician who is calling for the country to reduce its preeminent role on the world stage"............READ MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment