After watching the debate on foreign policy between McCain and Obama I felt a multitude of different reactions.
I don’t think McCain won on foreign policy at all. All he has done is to say he will be pursuing the same sort of foreign policy that the Bush administration has pursued and which has brought us to the situation we are in now. I thought he came across as trying to be the elder statesman who lectures the young upstart. If this is his position it is a bad one, because we do need change and we need it in a desperate way.
I think Obama made some points on foreign policy when he said that he’d go after the terrorists when a host country couldn’t or wouldn’t do it. When McCain said "you don’t say that out loud" he was wrong. You definitely do say it out loud because it sends a message to those countries that says, you had better do something about the terrorists lurking in your country or we will. That puts them on notice. It isn’t saying, we are going to invade your country, just that we will take whatever action is needed to protect ourselves and others.
One area where I think the Bush administration has screwed up big time and where neither McCain nor Obama are saying what needs to be said is Russia. The remarks on Georgia and Russia during the debate, didn’t clear up any points on what happened and what is continuing to happen around the world in relation to Russia’s overall plans.
It should have been pointed out that Russia set Georgia up and Georgia played right into their hands by sending its soldiers into South Ossetia. The Bush administration should have told Saakashvili point blank that if he took the bait that Russia set out for him, he would be on his own. No one could or would come running to save him. We can’t, NATO can’t. McCain supported Saakashvili’s position, and it has cost Georgia, it was the wrong position.
Russia isn’t trying to go back to what they were before. They are trying and doing a good job of setting themselves up as the one and only superpower. A superpower based on energy, which they have and export. They control a large amount of energy reserves and have used this to their advantage, controlling the major oil lines to Europe, making their stake in the Artic region, creating a consortium with Venezuela, sending aid to Cuba (which is like placing a mosquito on the conservatives back side and letting it bite), helping Iran with nuclear power reactors, etc. They have made moves that the U.S. should have seen coming years ago and been ready to step in with alternative plans.
I don’t think you can necessarily say that in a debate forum, but you can make it clear that you are aware of what is going on in the world and that you are going to be a part of that world.
So no, I don’t think McCain "understands" what is going on and while I think Obama probably does, he isn’t getting the word out to the public. This isn’t the cold war era, we aren’t going to take a step back to that era, we are going to have a new world, and in it we will be number 2, not number 1, not even sharing in a number one spot. We have to either work hard to get the U.S. back into a good standing in regards to our world position, or be satisfied with having a smaller role to play on the world stage.
We do need change, and what Obama needs to make clear is that he will bring change, positive change and that John McCain, can’t and won’t. The American people want change, they want things to be better and they will vote for the person whom they think can deliver it. Obama has to be that person, there is no one else.