I think this is a point overlooked by most Americans. They think (if they think about it) that having troops "overseas" incurs some extreme budgetary expense. We've maintained no fewer (even today) than 75k troops in Europe and no fewer than 50k in Japan/Korea for 70 years. Having a "drawdown to Zero" doesn't help a lot, unless we shift to the model of building up the country's military/police/governance so that we don't have to come back. If we would've left Germany in 1946 they'd be speaking Russian in Paris. If we would've left Japan in 1950 there'd be a communist Chinese-speaking government in Seoul and Tokyo right now.
My point wasn't that it's an expense, or whatever, but that we don't need to be staying there in the same manner we stayed in Japan and Germany.
I'm not a fan of any of the foreign policy ideas put forth by either candidate. However, the biggest thing that stands out from the debate is Obama's desire to spend any peace dividend we get from bringing the troops home from Afghanistan. How about we use that money to reduce the deficit?
He did not say it during the debate (at least when I was watching) but he has said recently the savings should be used half for investing in America and half towards reducing the deficit.
He said during the debate that we're done nation building overseas, time to spend that money nation building at home. We don't need to spend half on anything. Reduce the deficit.
I am not trying to argue, just saying what he said bout a week ago. To tell the truth, I'm trying to stop spending so much time following all this shit. I want Obama, but don't consider Romney the devil. I really don't like either candidate, but more importantly, I don't believe that either will do what is needed to truly help this nation because anyone with a chance at the presidency is de facto corrupted. I'm just going to vote, and turn my attention back to things that are more personal to my life. I hope you really enjoy all this bickering because neither Zags nor papag (nor just about anyone around here) will listen to, and adjust their views, based on what is said. Peace
I thought Obama won the debate again. More importantly, I thought this was the worst Romney looked in all three debates. The debate didn't change my mind, but didn't give me a lot of confidence with Romney when it comes to foreign affairs. Right now economy is my number one issue and by a lot and I give the edge to Romney in that category. I do think Obama is going to win this election as he did just enough in the last two debates to win the majority of the swing states.
This debate was stunning to me. The internals for each campaign must be much worse for Obama and much better for Romney than we have been told generally. If Obama were leading, he would have been the one who was calm and reasoned and Romney would have been the one attacking. Instead it was the other way around. Romney pulled punch after punch while Obama sought conflict. Romney showed he knew the issues and tried to make people comfortable with him as CIC. President Obama did a good job defending his policies, but he focused on the small issues and overdid the snark, which diminished him a bit. Overall, I'll give Obama the battle and Gov. Romney the win of the three debates.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/22/cnn-poll-who-won-the-debate/?hpt=hp_t2 https://twitter.com/SamFeistCNN/status/260588669491085313
