The gigantic sweaty Pachyderm in the room was totally ignored. Instead we had who do we bully already and who should we bully next fiasco, it boiled down to basically; who wants America to have the biggest, shiniest, MIC coated dick. I'm sorry but for all our bayonet flailing the Middle East will basically go its own way, and all the talk about getting tough on China is the same old garbage they have been saying pointlessly for years, because they have zero intention of changing the situation. The reason there was so much agreement is that basically they agree, US foreign policy is still mired in the post 9-11 quagmire.
Now back to the Pachyderm, the biggest single threat to world peace, prosperity and stability was swept under the carpet: Climate change. Bayonets and horses will prove useless, or more poetically; all the kings horses, and all the kings men, couldn't put Gaia together again.
Every year that goes by we feel more and more the effects, and since as a nation America is relatively insulated from the effects so we ignore the threat; but foreign policy includes discussing climate change with respect to global hunger, world food prices. Can we say we are prepared for when whole populations are forced to migrate?
There was no discussion of the devastation that some of our policies such as the "war on drugs" has in central America, no instead, we were treated to who would be the toughest Commander in Chief of them all.
We have Europe tottering on the brink of political and social upheaval, and extreme right wing parties champing at the bit and unemployment amongst the young of truly desperate proportions.
So next time you decide to have a "foreign policy" debate it might be more amusing and informative if; they just dropped their pants.
I don't know about you, but especially in the last debate I learnt nothing new, just listened the same old worn out diatribes. They should get rid of these pointless exercises in futility.