re: Rand Paul and foreign policy

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I agree with Jennifer Rubin that the Paul family is just awful when it comes to foreign policy

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I respectfully disagree. IMO, the next time Rubin says something sensible of foreign policy will be the first. This op-ed by the former Washington Post Ombudsman tells you all you need to know about her:

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Jennifer Rubin. Have Fred Hiatt, your editorial page editor—who I like, admire, and respect—fire opinion blogger Jennifer Rubin. Not because she’s conservative, but because she’s just plain bad. She doesn’t travel within a hundred miles of Post standards. She parrots and peddles every silly right-wing theory to come down the pike in transparent attempts to get Web hits. Her analysis of the conservative movement, which is a worthwhile and important beat that the Post should treat more seriously on its national pages, is shallow and predictable. Her columns, at best, are political pornography; they get a quick but sure rise out of the right, but you feel bad afterward.

And she is often wrong, and rarely acknowledges it. She was oh-so-wrong about Mitt Romney, week after week writing embarrassing flattery about his 2012 campaign, calling almost every move he made brilliant, and guaranteeing that he would trounce Barack Obama. When he lost, the next day she savaged him and his campaign with treachery, saying he was the worst candidate with the worst staff, ever. She was wrong about the Norway shootings being acts of al-Qaida. She was wrong about Chuck Hagel being an anti-Semite. And does she apologize? Nope.

Rubin was the No. 1 source of complaint mail about any single Post staffer while I was ombudsman, and I’m leaving out the organized email campaigns against her by leftie groups like Media Matters. Thinking conservatives didn’t like her, thinking moderates didn’t like her, government workers who knew her arguments to be unfair didn’t like her. Dump her like a dull tome on the Amazon Bargain Books page.

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LINK

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How many US military installations in Europe, Balkans, etc would Rand Paul cut if he is elected President?

How would cutting our forces over there act as a deterrent to someone like Putin?

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Eventually, all of them should be cut. It's not our responsibility to be Europe's bodyguard.

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It may not be perfect but it surely beats an expansionist Russia.

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Maybe, maybe not. You don't know this for certain.

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That's what this is about to the new right's foreign policy...withdrawal from the world

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Rand will scale down the involvement for sure, but to call it withdrawal from the world is exaggeration. As president he only would have so much influence.

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That's what this is about to the new right's foreign policy...withdrawal from the world.

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bullshite. To withdraw from NATO would be a statement that America doesn't need or want to be entangled in every problem that NATO members find themselves in. America can only lose influence and strategic capability that it chooses to ignore or under utilize. If anything NATO membership adds liability to the US government with virtually no net gain of influence or situational awareness.

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Hopefully, most of them.

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Why not just withdraw from NATO then?

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That's a good idea. We shouldn't have permanent alliances, just temporary one based on the geopolitics at the time. In 1991, Bush 41 put together the greatest coalition in the history of warfare, but it didn't remain intact once the war was over. One thing that I think George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had right is that we should have no permanent love or permanent hatred of any foreign nation, because nations don't have allies, just interests.

well shite we are 17 trillion in debt.

more frugal overseas spending IS the right direction.

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That's a good idea. We shouldn't have permanent alliances, just temporary one based on the geopolitics at the time. In 1991, Bush 41 put together the greatest coalition in the history of warfare, but it didn't remain intact once the war was over. One thing that I think George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had right is that we should have no permanent love or permanent hatred of any foreign nation, because nations don't have allies, just interests.

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Like a boss. Good post Trackfan!

Cut off all foreign aid and vote on measures one by one to see who gets US aid.

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That's the direction the Paul family wants to take this county. Rand just candies up his rhetoric a little better.

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How much is enough?

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Your chart may not keep looking that way into the future

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Exactly!

In fact, if we keep blowing through money borrowed from the Chinese, a great deal of their future growth will be enjoyed as interest payments on our debt.