Wednesday, June 20, 2012

"Our bombs cost more than anything they could possibly hit in Afghanistan."

Colorado is home to the Independence Institute, which recently hosted a debate between conservative Ann Coulter and libertarian Nick Gillespie. Some of Coulter's comments:

"Republicans may disagree about what serves America’s interest, but Republicans argue about how to deploy the military so that it will serve America’s national security interests. Democrats could not care less. What they care about is: How do I fling the military around the world to make it look like I’m tough on foreign policy? Lyndon Johnson did it with Vietnam. He kept telling his advisers, “I have to show them that Democrats can be tough on foreign policy too. Let’s just keep sending more and more troops without any plan to win.”

And Obama increasing troops in Afghanistan. What on earth are we doing in Afghanistan? Iraq has a literate populace. It’s beautiful for democracy—as is Iran, by the way —young, pro-Western. They’re being led by a lunatic. Afghanistan is exactly the reverse. They have an Al Qaeda– friendly population that has about an 11 percent literacy rate, more goats than flush toilets. They don’t care that their life expectancy is 30 years, they just don’t want foreigners on their soil. Our bombs cost more than anything they could possibly hit in Afghanistan. Why are we spending money on that war? And the answer is because it was a talking point for Obama on the campaign trail: Oh, Iraq, that was the bad war. Afghanistan, that was the good war.

What I care about—and what we can disagree about—is: What is in America’s interest? I think Iraq was, and at least the first six months of Afghanistan was in America’s interest. But you see with Obama more clearly than you did with Lyndon Johnson that they do not care about what helps America. It’s just what looks good for the campaign."

There is also a transcript of a debate between conservative Jonah Goldberg and libertarian Matt Welch. Read the transcripts here:  http://reason.com/archives/2012/06/19/fusionism-revisited/4

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