Sarah Palin should have her right to pontificate revoked. In an interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday, the Alaskan rogue had the audacity to claim, "Say [Obama] played the war card. Say he decided to declare war on Iran or decided really to come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to do. But that changes the dynamics in what we can assume is going to happen between now and three years because I think if the election were today, I do not think Obama would be reelected."
Even though Palin quickly backed away from her incendiary comment, she implied that a war with Iran would be necessary for the president to appear "tough" and gain more support at home. Aside from the fact that a surgical strike on Iran would unite Iranians behind an unpopular regime, lead to a regional conflagration spanning from Tehran to Tel Aviv, and further endanger U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the notion of initiating a war with Iran for the sake of domestic popularity exemplifies the sad and contradictory state of the modern GOP: America can NEVER embrace the principles of limited government without rejecting its neo-imperial policies.
Palin's comment reflects an ongoing effort by conservatives to cast Obama as soft on terrorism, and mirrors much of the media coverage following the foiled Christmas Day attack over Detroit. After the failed attack, many conservatives (including Dick Cheney) sought to cynically exploit the would-be deaths of hundreds of innocents for their own partisan political gain. Of course, Obama perpetuates many of Bush's errors. Nevertheless, Sarah Palin and her ilk simply serve to epitomize the philosophical inconsistency of the modern GOP. After all, Republicans of yore forcefully opposed foreign interventions and nation-building overseas. But under their present permutation, the GOP has abandoned their limited government principles. For example, the GOP claims limited government in our health care and in our wallet but not in the affairs of other nations. Thus, we get the bizarre public figures who say that tweaking the communal identity of a tribe in Helmand is alright, but paving a road in Detroit is socialist. Moreover, while the GOP wags a sanctimonious finger at Americans and Democrats about the need for fiscal restraint at home, they burn through billions of dollars on an imperial foreign policy abroad. The canard that such policies ostensibly make Americans safer is not true either. The Christmas Day crotch bomber blew a massive hole through that argument, as he vividly illustrated that occupying foreign countries is not a precondition to keeping America safer.
It's time to redefine the terms of the debate: Sarah Palin is not a conservative--she is a neoconservative inspired by populist beliefs, and so is much of the modern GOP. Going abroad to defend our country, if absolutely required, is fine, but overthrowing foreign leaders to liberate their people or access their markets is a bastardization of free trade theory and classical liberal thought. Libertarian/conservative/independent-minded folks (such as myself) advocate a foreign policy of military restraint not because we are pacifists, but because we believe that free trade and open markets afford the best means for increasing a country's power and prosperity. To quote my friend and colleague, Christopher Preble, the argument that an open global economic system must be protected by the United States actually makes America "less safe, less prosperous, and less free."
Evidently, America's ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and covert operations in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen are not enough for Sarah Palin. Yet even as she admonishes the Democrats for spending billions on bailouts, which some in the GOP endorsed, she's all for squandering more of the American taxpayers' ever-diminishing financial resources on a Quixotic quest for spreading liberty at the barrel of a gun. To make matters worse, the policies that people like her endorse, such as unending wars of occupation and harsh interrogation methods, have become major recruiting tools for terrorists.
Conservatives need to wise up! But they must first overcome their identity crisis.
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Now what the hell is up with some of the public... ???
I've noticed the comments/blogs and polls are more negative about her than before. I'm really glad; it's kind of a relief. I think this last display made the huge impression of stupidity or at least stupidity for rent, and many people on the right seem to be also distancing themselves. Believing in opposing things can lead to a healthy debate, but picking such an unworthy "leader" places things on another level, which unleashes a complete disrespect for the opposition’s ideas if that's the best they can do. Maybe that's becoming more clear now.
One of the most striking parts of the book was when he visits a vast cemetery to Iranian soldiers killed in the very long Iran/Iraq war that America covertly funded with arms to Saddam. It was like the last scene in the "Good, The Bad and the Ugly" as he walks thru rows and rows of markers with photos of the dead soldier embedded in the center of the marker.
America needs to leave Iran alone and worry about its own country and fight hypocrisy and lies that people like SP love to spout.
"It's time to redefine the terms of the debate: Sarah Palin is not a conservative--she is a neoconservative inspired by populist beliefs...."
I'm not sure that Palin really does have a clue what her core ideology is. She just shoots off her mouth for the given audience without thinking through the consequences or ramifications until someone tells her later. Does she then adapt the next time? I haven't seen any hint of adaptation or learning from this arrogant and poorly educated politician.
The two persons who spring most readily available to my mind where I thought that this same pattern was discernible are Ronald Reagan and Junior Bush. Between them they prove that basically anyone is electable to the presidency in this country with the right prepartion. And each of them showed that we get in more trouble when a truly untalented puppet is in the Whitehouse than under any other scenario we have ever experienced.
I agree that she would be potentially far more dangerous if she actually knew what she is talking about but people that bad always end up being their own worst enemy. The people putting those words into her mouth (and working with her to make her delivery far smoother), though, are bent on commiting another crime against the 99.99% of humanity not at the top and are the ones that we need to be working like hell to drag into the spotlight.
Now if the media would JUST STOP putting this hominid in our face... I was looking for more information about the incredibly brave Iranians' (and in particular their women's) struggle to get rid of their hateful vicious regime, and here we go again. And here I go again, snarl, snarl, snarl.
I'm finally have become Palined-out. There is no more I can say, at this point.
I'm glad of your opinion, 3dtrix. I'm female and I see the same thing, but it is good to hear it from a man. I am content with my own looks and life and it is beyond immature when people play the jealousy card. Sometimes the childishness of the people in these blogs is stunning; but again, at this point, I would expect no less from anyone who still wants to associate with her.
However, appealing to people’s irrational fear of change generally brings out the worst in them (a fact demonstrated by the many misguided and offensive slogans spouted at tea party events last summer).
And assuring voters that we can continue consuming resources at or above our current rate is as reckless as it is dishonest. To use a tired metaphor, at a time when Americans must get leaner, Palin is scoring political points by telling us we can eat ice cream every night for dinner and never gain weight or run out of milk.
Read more @ http://armchairfirebrand.wordpress.com/
It's lonely being a peaceful anarchist in the US.
I admire you alimostofi.
Thanks Malou!
If the major broadcasters, newspapers and bloggers don't hammer Palin consistently for her outrageous statements, they are culpable. Thank you, Ms. Innocent (that's a great name, by the way) for this post.
- Mike Prysner (Iraq War Veteran)