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According to Scott Walker, in an interview by ABC’s Jonathan Karl:
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Gov. Scott Walker began a two-day New Hampshire swing Friday by speaking to party activists aboard a sunset dinner cruise on this state's largest lake … told listeners on board that he was not suggesting the United States "go into open-ended excursions" in foreign lands.At the NRA Leadership Forum, Walker grew even more mad with power. He delivered this fiery tirade, calling for war, and the need for "safety." You know, national security.
"But ... we've got an enemy that's unlike any we've faced before. This is not the Cold War where containment is enough. We've got an enemy that's like a virus. If we don't take it out entirely, it's going to come back even stronger."
That became obvious when Walker decided to attack Jeb Bush for saying he would still support invading Iraq knowing what he knows now. That's the thing about preemption, the facts and unintended consequences only become known later. That's what made Jeb's comment so horrific.Fresh off a trip to Israel, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said that the U.S. invasion of Iraq doesn't hold up in hindsight. "Any president would have likely taken the same action Bush did with the information he had, even (then U.S. Sen.) Hillary Clinton voted for it, but knowing what we know now, we should not have gone into Iraq," Walker said in his statement.
And like George Bush, Walker will make the case for preemptive war, not knowing what we will only know after the fact, having learned nothing from the past."We're not going to wait till they bring the fight to us. We're going to bring the fight to them and fight on their soil." - Walker
Scott Walker wants to dump any deal on Iran’s nuclear program the moment he takes office, making military action there far more likely. So does Marco Rubio. None of the GOP candidates will say he wants to occupy Iran. But military action against the country’s nuclear facilities ought to be, as any of them will tell you, “on the table.”
The problem is never that some situations we confront offer no good options, or that our decisions can backfire, or that there are places where America may not be able to set things right to the benefit of all. The problem is always weakness, and strength is always the solution ... neither Walker nor his opponents seem to have learned much from the experience, whether we’re asking about concocting phony intelligence to sell a war you've already decided you want, believing that all the “bad guys” in the world must be in cahoots, seeing every foreign policy question in black and white, or putting blind faith in the idea that “strength” is all you need to succeed.
The George W. Bush years provided an emphatic refutation of the ideas underlying Republican foreign policy, but few in the party seem to have gotten the message.
Ivy Ziedrich, 19, a student at the University of Nevada, approached Jeb Bush to question him about comments he had made … argu(ing) that the Obama administration's weak foreign policy was responsible for the rise of the terrorist group, also known as ISIS, in the Middle East. Ziedrich countered that Obama wasn't to blame -- and that it was his predecessor's decision to disband the Iraqi army that made the group's formation possible. "Your brother created ISIS," she told Bush.
Specific decisions made by the Bush administration also led to the rise of ISIS. Most notably, the administration engaged in a widespread and controversial policy known as debaathification, which made most people, even low-level bureaucrats, who had been associated with the former regime, ineligible for government employment in the new era. The German magazine Der Spiegel in April published a trove of documents that once belonged to the mastermind of ISIS, Haji Bakr, who created the infrastructure of the Islamic State.
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The GOP's hawks were well represented at the event, led by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who has limited foreign policy experience but articulated a muscular vision during his Saturday keynote address (in N.H.). Walker said the threats posed by radical Islamic terrorism won't be handled simply with "a couple bombings."
"We're not going to wait till they bring the fight to us. We're going to bring the fight to them and fight on their soil."
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said his preferred method for dealing with ISIS is to "wipe them off the face of the Earth" as he blasted President Obama for being too soft on the issue.
"For me, defeat is, you know, defeat. Get rid of them, kill them! Wipe them off the face of the Earth. Wipe that evil, that barbarity off the face of the Earth. President Obama's definition of defeat is 'Let's kind of just contain this thing, kick it down the road and let the next guy or gal take care of it.'"
Johnson also blasted Obama for pulling U.S troops from Iraq, saying "the war had been won" but that the U.S should have stayed to build a stable democracy. Obama, Johnson said, "bugged out," causing U.S. casualties and money spent to be "wasted." Johnson told WisPolitics.com afterward that he would not vote to authorize troops to fight ISIS in Syria and elsewhere because he doubts Obama's commitment to success.As an added bonus, here's my little tribute to that grating Walker "head-bob & believe" gimmick:
WALKER: Well, I think - I go back to the red line.One more thing. Matthew Dowd said what the lazy press will be saying till the next election, and it's a major sticking point with me; what about Walker's actual record?
RADDATZ: Let's not go back. Let's go forward. What is your big, bold idea in Syria?
WALKER: I think aggressively, we need to take the fight to ISIS and any other radical Islamic terrorist in and around the world, because it's not a matter of when they attempt an attack on American soil, or not if I should say, it's when, and we need leadership that says clearly, not only amongst the United States but amongst our allies, that we're willing to take appropriate action. I think it should be surgical.
RADDATZ: You don't think 2,000 air strikes is taking it to ISIS in Syria and Iraq?
WALKER: I think we need to have an aggressive strategy anywhere around the world. I think it's a mistake to -
RADDATZ: But what does that mean? I don't know what aggressive strategy means. If we're bombing and we've done 2,000 air strikes, what does an aggressive strategy mean in foreign policy?
WALKER: I think anywhere and everywhere, we have to be - go beyond just aggressive air strikes. We have to look at other surgical methods. And ultimately, we have to be prepared to put boots on the ground if that's what it takes, because I think, you know--
RADDATZ: Boots on the ground in Syria? U.S. boots on the ground in Syria?
WALKER: I don't think that is an immediate plan, but I think anywhere in the world--
RADDATZ: But you would not rule that out.
WALKER: I wouldn't rule anything out.
"He's a competent governor, so he's done that well..."Republican governors have failed miserably, worse than their Democratic counterparts, and yet the media doesn't seem to care.