At roughly the same time that our illustrious secretary of state, John Kerry-Heinz, went on television, over the weekend, and was saying how it is that the American people can be justifiably proud of their president and the manner in which he chooses to conduct this nation’s foreign policy, a new poll recently came out that would at least seem to indicate that such a thing may not quite be the case. You see, the American people don’t seem to favor the ‘Keystone Cops’ approach to foreign policy now being employed.
According to a newly released Politico poll which was conducted July 3-13 and of 834 likely voters in some of the more competitive House and Senate Races, it was found that just 17 percent of those taking part thought the United States should do more to challenge Russian aggression in Ukraine and 34 percent said the U.S. should be less involved. It might be worth mentioning, however that the poll was conducted before the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down, though I’m not sure it wold make much of a difference
Meanwhile, the poll also pointed out that 44 percent of likely voters support less involvement in Iraq's civil war, compared to just 19 percent who said they favor more involvement, and there were 23 percent who said that they agree with the current level of engagement. Just over half of respondents, or 51 percent, think the situation in Iraq affects U.S. national security "a little" or "not at all," while 42 percent said it affects American national security "a lot." In this argument I think I’m in the same camp as those 42 percent.
The poll also found that the public now trusts Republicans more than they do the Democrats at least on foreign policy issues at 39 percent compared to 32 percent, respectively, while 28 percent said they were unsure which party to trust. "In the big picture, two-thirds of respondents agreed with the statement that U.S. military actions should be 'limited to direct threats to our national security.' While I so agree with that general consensus, I also think it would be rather naive to think that there could never be an exception.
Politico added that while voters appear to have strong opinions on foreign policy and national security, it is unclear to what degree their opinions on those issues will impact their voting decisions in the 2014 elections. Specifically, 89 percent of respondents said that foreign policy would be an important factor in deciding their vote, but just 11 percent named foreign affairs or national security as the issue that would matter most. So here we would seem to have yet another example that points out how electorate seems a bit conflicted.
I would just like to point out one thing here. Americans must realize that by choosing to isolate themselves from the rest of the world they still expose themselves to certain dangers. Because like everything else in this world, such action very often comes with what can be some very nasty, and quite troublesome, unintended consequences. There are going to be those instances where involvement by this country is not only going to be expected, but is required. And it is in those instances that we must be able to trust those making the decisions how and when to do so.
Personally, the primary issue that I have with how this administration attends to the business of the foreign policy of this nation is that they have now put this country into such a position of weakness, to the point where no one any longer listens to us. The main players here, Barry and Mr. Kerry-Heinz, have now, and very effectively so, reduced themselves to being nothing more than the laughing stocks of the world. When either of these guys walks in the room, any chance of a serious discussion being held goes out the window.
And that may all sound pretty funny to some, but when our ‘leaders’ are being laughed, that simply means that America is being laughed as well. And things to not bode well for a world where the United Stated of America is nothing more than a punchline for some idiotic joke. The world is now in a very chaotic place, and whether we like it or not the ONLY thing that is likely to prevent it from totally coming apart at the seams will be some strong American leadership, and right now that is sorely lacking to the point of being nonexistent.
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