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Eli Lake

End of the neocon consensus: The GOP field on foreign policy

Beyond Afghanistan, Romney has been hard to pin down to a single school of foreign policy thought. His campaign told me, when I asked about his ambitious statement from 2007, that Romney thinks “the United States should take a leadership role in assembling the donor and technical resources of international partners—both public and private—to advance stability, modernity, and democracy in the Islamic world.” Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Romney continues to have an ideologically eclectic group of official and unofficial advisers. In addition to Reiss and Senor, the others he listens to on foreign policy are former Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey; Jim Talent, a former U.S. senator from Missouri; and Cofer Black, the head of the CIA’s counterterrorist center before and after September 11 and later vice chairman of the controversial security contractor company Blackwater. Talent is quite conservative—he said in 2006 that he would have voted to authorize the Iraq war even knowing that there were no weapons of mass destruction to be found—while Black is widely viewed in Washington as a sort of anti-terrorist uber-hawk, thanks in part to his portrayal in The Dark Side by Jane Mayer and Bush at War by Bob Woodward. In the latter book, Black is quoted as saying, “When we’re through with them they will have flies walking across their eyeballs.”

BECAUSE THE ISSUES of the moment all revolve around the Middle East—Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Al Qaeda—there has been all too little discussion during the campaign of other key questions, such as the rise of China and the role of economics in foreign policy. On these issues, there is the intriguing possibility that Texas Governor Rick Perry, should he get into the race, could introduce yet another worldview into the already-complex GOP foreign policy mix. As governor of Texas, Perry has been identified with a sort of business-first approach to foreign affairs. This philosophy, too, could in its own way represent a new challenge to the neocon establishment.

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I doubt it. From NSC 68 onward, we’ve only had one foreign policy: damn near indiscriminate war.

ernesto on July 29, 2011 at 8:10 PM

ernesto on July 29, 2011 at 8:10 PM

’75-’91? ’92-’00?

thebrokenrattle on July 29, 2011 at 8:40 PM

From what I hear a lot of the people Perry has had talking to him on foreign policy are guys like Rumsfeld. The truth is aside from differences over Libya, the foreign policy of the United States has been more consistent in recent years. When dealing with the likes of Iran and AlQaida, there are not a lot of choices..unless you are Ron Paul, in which case you blame Israel.

Terrye on July 29, 2011 at 9:00 PM

. . . unless you are Ron Paul, in which case you blame Israel.

And O’Bambi is different from Paul how?

honsy on July 29, 2011 at 9:06 PM

And O’Bambi is different from Paul how?

honsy on July 29, 2011 at 9:06 PM

Obama thinks America is the source of the world’s problems and must be punished.

Paul just wants us to mind our own da** business.

AUH2O on July 29, 2011 at 9:09 PM

Paul just wants us to mind our own da** business.

AUH2O on July 29, 2011 at 9:09 PM

Paul and Goldwater are quite similar as they are gents who could be smart if they really wanted to but never fail to shoot themselves in the boot.

thebrokenrattle on July 29, 2011 at 9:21 PM

Paul and Goldwater are quite similar as they are gents who could be smart if they really wanted to but never fail to shoot themselves in the boot.

thebrokenrattle on July 29, 2011 at 9:21 PM

Principle is sharp razor, liable to slice even the most careful of wielder.

JohnGalt23 on July 29, 2011 at 9:38 PM

Re-reading that statement today, it is impossible not to be struck by one of the items on Romney’s agenda: “Launch A New Type Of Marshall Plan Unifying Non-Military Sources Of Power To Support Moderate Muslims.” This initiative, the campaign explained, “will assemble the resources of all developed nations to assure that threatened Islamic states have public schools, micro-credit and banking, the rule of law, human rights, basic health care, and competitive economic policies. Resources would be drawn from public and private institutions, and from volunteers and NGOs.”

If true, Romney must be completely nuts. Has Doug Feith infiltrated his brain?

Lon Chaney on July 29, 2011 at 10:12 PM

Human rights? That is not what I would call Shariah Law. What an absolute ass.

Lon Chaney on July 29, 2011 at 10:14 PM

Romney seems to have leaned absolutely nothing over the last several years.

Lon Chaney on July 29, 2011 at 10:16 PM

Talent is quite conservative—he said in 2006 that he would have voted to authorize the Iraq war even knowing that there were no weapons of mass destruction to be found

This is not conservative at all. It is anti-conservative.

Lon Chaney on July 29, 2011 at 10:19 PM

Screw neocons.

mythicknight on July 29, 2011 at 10:38 PM

From my posts on the Libyan Rebel inter-tribal warfare

I’m gonna say it and say it loud.

Screw the hajis.
Let them kill each other until they figure out how to stop doing so. Then and ONLY then will they be worth our time.

And stop sending my friends over there to try and pull them apart. It’s not worth our money and my buddies’ lives.

Gaddaffi is a bad SOB, but guess what….the ones waiting in the wings to replace him seem even worse now. Had we struck HARD in February with a single or series of decapitating strikes designed to KILL Gaddaffi then maybe they would be well on their way to figuring out how to govern themselves instead of this internecine tribal Bravo Sierra.

Afghanistan has devolved back to the same crap after nearly 10 years and a trillion dollars and so many lives. The Taliban and al-Qaeda knew what the hell they were doing when they assassinated Ahmed Shah al Mosoud on September 10, 2001. They managed to kill one of the few pro-Western DEMOCRACY guys who could unify the entire nation. So we got stuck with Karzi and how well has that worked out?

Iraq is from the few news reports that come out in a governmental stalemate but at least they have a mostly functional nation.

SgtSVJones on July 28, 2011 at 9:03 PM

The reason the Western world is called (or was before PC kicked in) the civilized world is because we don’t butcher people on a whim or resort to physical violence when one minor sect (let’s say Southern Baptists) disagrees with a much larger sect (Catholics like I am).

We tolerate each other and even if we vehemently disagree with each other, see the debt ceiling debates for good reference, we don’t freaking KILL each other over it. Yes we DID CENTURIES ago. But we moved beyond that. That is why we are called First World (or more properly CIVILIZED) nations.

You cannot impose Western civilized democracy by simply wishing it to be so. Nor can you call anything in that region (other than MAYBE Iraq) democratic in nature.

We want/need their oil…fine give them money but stop interfering in their internal tribal crap. If they send or harbor terrorists, flatten their little sandy crapholes into flatter sandy crapholes and let the people rebuild on their own thank you very damn much.

SgtSVJones on July 30, 2011 at 1:09 AM