Robert Parry: Danger: Tough Talk and Wishful Thinking

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/14699

Danger: Tough Talk and Wishful Thinking
George W. Bush | John McCain
by Robert Parry | May 18, 2008



If the American people should have learned one lesson from the past seven years, it is that the careless mix of tough talk and wishful thinking gets good people killed – and pushes even powerful nations to the brink of bankruptcy.

Yet, the current and possibly future Republican presidents combined these two dangerous elements on the same day: George W. Bush eschewing “appeasement” in the Middle East and John McCain offering a dreamy image of military victory in Iraq by 2013.

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The real test of the Obama campaign – assuming he secures the Democratic nomination – will be whether he can sell a more nuanced approach to foreign policy as hard-headed realism, not soft-hearted idealism.

But the battle lines have now been drawn.

On one side is a commitment from America to fight what the neocons call “the Long War,” “the clash of civilizations,” or simply “World War III.” On the other, there is the belief that reason and negotiations still can work to spare the world an open-ended conflict that could escalate into a global catastrophe.

The Bush-McCain “Long War” position trusts that the old appeals will get American voters to reenlist for four more years, while Obama is counting on a new public attitude that is more willing to seek compromise and less eager to rely on violence.

Obama’s gamble rests on his assessment that the American people have taken to heart a painful lesson about the dangers of mixing tough talk and wishful thinking.
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