Originally appeared at TheBlogMire
If someone who was seriously vying to become leader of the world’s richest and most powerful country pledged not to even speak to the leader of the world’s biggest country if they became president, wouldn’t that immediately disqualify them for the role? You might think so, yet in the strange world of US politics it apparently qualifies as a plus point.
In last week’s dog and pony show between Republocrat tough-guys, Carly Fiorina attempted to establish her tough-girl credentials by saying this:
“Having met Vladimir Putin, I wouldn’t talk to him at all. We’ve talked way too much to him.”
These are not the words of a serious statesman/stateswoman, and they ought to have been enough to get her laughed off the stage. However, far from laughter, she actually got applause and was allowed to continue by outlining how she intends to further subjugate the vassal-states known as Poland and Germany, and then bring the world to the brink of nuclear war (well she didn’t put it quite like that):
“What I would do, immediately, is begin rebuilding the Sixth Fleet, I would begin rebuilding the missile defense program in Poland, I would conduct regular, aggressive military exercises in the Baltic states. I’d probably send a few thousand more troops into Germany. Vladimir Putin would get the message. Russia is a bad actor, but Vladimir Putin is someone we should not talk to, because the only way he will stop is to sense strength and resolve on the other side, and we have all of that within our control. We could rebuild the Sixth Fleet. I will. We haven’t. We could rebuild the missile defense program. We haven’t. I will.”
Great. Makes me feel much safer.
So will VP get the message? Actually he probably will, if indeed he hasn’t already. Firstly, he’ll probably get the message that Carly and her fellow neo-con buddies really have no understanding either of him or his country. Zero. Zilch. They still think that by making threats, spending more dollars to buy more arms, and playing war games in the Baltic, somehow they will succeed in making VP and the country he governs cringe with fright, bow down in obeisance, and agree to become yet another vassal of the US empire (which incidentally is the aim all along). Ain’t gonna happen.
Secondly, he’ll probably get the message that most of the candidates vying for President of the United States are intellectual pygmies who ought not to be trusted to run a small town in Arizona, let alone a country that spends over $600 billion per year on its military.
And thirdly, he’ll probably get the message that if this is the kind of person America is considering electing, then it is close to being finished as a nation.
Anyone who can manage to make the ego known as Donald Trump look good on an issue — and to his credit he at least says he would make an attempt to speak to and get on with other world leaders — probably has to be certifiably crazy. Yet Certifiably Crazy Carly went up, not down, in the polls to number two after her plans for provoking a nuclear war were revealed. And so the sad decline of this once great nation continues unabated.