Anyway, the timing of this 5 point Foreign Policy, the Palin Doctrine, is really important to this discussion. A few days ago, on a different site, I was discussing how President Obama has hijacked a Neo-Con stance on foreign policy and with his latest success could possibly have already won this issue for the upcoming 2012 Presidential election. Now, like clockwork, Palin issues her policy…which is in stark contrast to President Obama’s. She also has parted ways with her longtime foreign policy advisers and has replaced them with Peter Schweizer, someone more akin to her new outlook on American foreign policy…which is not much different than her previous, slightly more hawkish stance, but different enough to argue against Obama’s current grip on foreign policy.
What’s interesting about these 5 points are that they lie smack dab in the middle between neo-con and isolationism. I believe you are beginning to see a more centrist Sarah Palin and I also believe you are seeing yet another clue that she is indeed running for President…if she weren’t why introduce a doctrine? Why clean house of your part-time, contracted advisers and replace them with a full-time staff adviser?
Also, to note, Sarah Palin is the only plausible, possible, candidate that has distanced herself from the Bush/Obama foreign policy. All of the other possible candidates are deep in the muck of Bush/Obama neo-conservatism. Sarah Palin has created the scenario to argue against President Obama’s foreign policy in the upcoming elections…as long as she can stay on point.
How long will it take before the others follow suit?
Peter Schweizer Becomes Sarah Palin's Foreign Policy Guru
By Mark Whittington,
It is considered unusual for a former governor who holds no public office and is not currently running for another to have a foreign policy adviser. But Sarah Palin, not known for being conventional, has
Schweizer is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution with expertise in international relations, national security affairs, and the U.S. presidency. He is also the author of a number of books, including two on President Reagan, one on the Bush family, and a critique on the effects of big government on the world economy.
Most recently, Schweizer published a critique of President Obama's policy in Libya, which he says has all of the elements of, what he calls an "overused analogy," another Vietnam. His critique echoes that Palin, which may partly explain why he is now working for her.
One can make the obvious analogies. Schweizer may be Palin's version of Condoleeza Rice or, even, Henry Kissinger, the power behind the throne who helped shape foreign policy in a White House second only to the president. Palin has not even announced a run for the presidency, not to speak of actually winning the office. But it may well be that we already know whom her National Security Adviser will be should she attain the Oval Office.
This suggests that a President Palin's foreign policy will be at once less and more aggressive than what has been conducted during the past 10 years. Noting the five-point "Palin Doctrine" articulated recently, there would be fewer deployments of conventional American forces overseas. Those that occur will be engaged in sharp, overwhelming campaigns of limited duration and clear, measurable goals. These campaigns would more resemble Grenada during the Reagan administration and Panama and the Gulf War during the first Bush administration than Afghanistan, Iraq, or especially Libya.
At the same time, a President Palin would strike at the enemies of the United States, such as Iran, and assist her friends with a whole panoply of tools, ranging from economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, and support
Palin would learn from the successes of Reagan's Cold War strategy and adapt it for the realities of the 21stCentury.
No comments:
Post a Comment