**Update: New information has come to light that the Qu’ran burning was done to prevent messages being sent between prisoners and those outside. It may also have to do with the fact that old, tattered copies of the book are required to be burned. Even with this new information, my argument still holds. It also has one added thought – U.S. military personnel should be smarter than to receive copies of the book from outside the base. The issue disappears if the U.S. provided copies of the book.**
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If there is one thing the U.S. has yet to grasp after two-hundred forty or so years it is an aptitude of basic foreign policy.
Once in a while, in the midst of overarching error, we get something right. I must extend a thank-you to Obama for apologizing to Hamid Karzai for the burning of copies of the Qu’ran on a military base in Afghanistan.
At the same time Ginrich’s reaction to Obama is nothing less than insolent pride, the all-too-familiar American vanity packaged within co-opted Conservatism’s City on a Hill exceptionalism. Whether there is a strain of radical Muslims fueling the protests is of rather little concern. The greater problem is that prior to 2001, Afghanistan, a very conservative culture, had next to no understanding of America other than hearsay of the power of our military. Since crossing their border to pursue the 21st century’s version of Pancho Villa, Afghans have much to justify their increasing dislike of America.
Gingrich, as well as Santorum and Romney, has a profound non-understanding of what Commander-in-Chief entails, Constitutionally speaking. As history currently stands, no American President has been given approval by the Congress to use the military since Truman. Some might cite the War Powers Act of 1973 but that legislation is wholly unconstitutional, granting power to the President that the Constitution expressly gives to the Congress alone. Thus, any would-be Commander-in-Chief who cites the War Powers Act as justification for intervention is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, punishable by impeachment. And, since no war since WWII has posed a real or feigned existential threat to the U.S., the President need not worry regarding ‘defending our borders’.
In any case, the rationale with which Bush 43 took us to war has been rendered moot with the killing of Osama Bin Laden last year. It is therefore high time not only to bring the troops home, but some of our guns could stand to be turned into plowshares.
Great post.
Thanks!
Arguing about the constitution is futile. The only thing separating us from the Wiemar Republic is the Second Amendment. I listened to Santorum and Romney give campaign speeches yesterday, both of them were so boring they could put a crack-head to sleep.
Then I heard about 10 minutes of Newt and the blood started to flow again to my frontal cortex. Santorum is a light weight and Romney can’t get past the Don Draper persona. If Romney is the candidate the race -card will stick to him like fly paper. Newt is the smartest one and Ron Paul has his moments of clarity, but neither of them will be allowed to get the nomination.
I’m not smart enough to understand all the nuances of foreign policy. However I did learn a couple of thing as a boy in the Bronx with a strange name. I learned that every once in awhile you have to “kick some ass” and that it always helps if you are perceived as crazy. Once when I was in the fifth grade a fourth grader kicked my ass. Soon afterwards a third grader was ragging on me, and I knew I had to kick some serious ass quick or my quality of life would decrease. Basically it’s just like work, which I compare to Animal Planet. If weakness is sensed, that person will be isolated and eventually run down and picked off. So as long as we don’t have the will to be crazy and kick some ass it’s better that we stay home and act like Belgium.
Everything I know, I learned before I was ten.
True. And I assume that the Tea Party talk about returning to constitutionalism is nothing more than a talking point.
Personally I believe Constitutionalism has been dead since the War of Northern Aggression, thank-you very much Mr. Lincoln.
But there still has to be some kind of standard by which we hold our so-called representatives accountable. By default that would be the Constitution. Without it this nation is simply dust upon the wind.
Kicking ass once in a while certainly is necessary. The War of 1812 and Jefferson’s defeat of the Barbary Coast kingdoms before that come readily to mind. Kicking ass, though, doesn’t equate with warped ideologies concerning exporting democracy or Communism/Terrorism vs Capitalism/Westernism. True ass-kicking certainly kept us relatively free for roughly the first 90 years. Ideological warfare has bankrupted us in every possible way since then.