Giuliani's Foreign Policy
Rudy "9/11! 9/11! 9/11!" Giuliani "wrote" a long piece outlining his vision for Murican foreign policy, due out in the next issue of the journal Foreign Affairs. The piece went up free online the other day, and the reaction has been decidedly hostile. I think Steve White at TAPPED summed it up best.
"Rudy Giuliani's Foreign Affairs article is the dumbest/scariest thing I've read in a serious journal in quite some time. In fact, I almost regret reading it, as I could have spent my time doing something more intellectually engaging like punching myself in the face."
Long-story-short, Rudy doesn't think Bush has been committed enough to the neo-con vision of strength through global-transformation-by-the-sword concept. It's a mish-mash of lame conservative rhetorical flourishes ("America and its allies have made progress since that terrible day. We have responded forcefully to the Terrorists' War on Us, abandoning a decadelong -- and counterproductive -- strategy of defensive reaction in favor of a vigorous offense." Notice the capitalization of War On US. God I hope that doesn't catch on.) and insane proposals (gutting the UN, and then turning NATO into the UN, ruled by a domninant Murican military.)
He calls for increasing the size of the military by "a minimum of ten new combat brigades. ...We must also take a hard look at other requirements, especially in terms of submarines, modern long-range bombers, and in-flight refueling tankers." All so that we can credibly threaten the entire world with a US invasion. Oh, plus a missle defense shield.
Matt Yglesias discusses some of the political calculus behind the piece. I think he's right that Giuliani doesn't have the social conservative credibility that other candidates have to appeal to the base, and so instead he decided to "double down on neoconservative foreign policy." Norm Podhoretz is one of his advisors, naturally.
I'm hoping that the idea that Rudy is a moderate because he likes to feel pretty and used to be pro-choice is disappearing. I think that Rudy enjoys republican support primarily because republicans are desperate to have a chance in 08, and they think that Rudy is "electable." I don't know if this support will fade, but it's pretty clear that a large portion of republican primary voters aren't sold on Rudy yet. As he scrambles to the right with failed neo-con rhetoric and ideas, I think he is sowing the seeds of defeat in the general. Can you imagine how starkly different Obama's and Giuliani's visions for America's future will be?
