Quote Originally Posted by Beelzebubalicious View Post
It's funny that the topic is foreign affairs, but the discussion is more narrowly about US military and fighting terrorism. Frankly, I think this is part of the problem. We've missed the fact that current foreign policy has isolated the US and exacerbated tensions between the US and foreign countries.

What I think the US needs to do is to SHOW the world that we have a vision and a plan for solving international problems, including but not just limited to extremism and terrorism. We need to show this through our direct actions and then we need a much better approach to and implementation of international public diplomacy and public relations.

Beating the drum is easy and it wins votes, but it's not a very effective approach to foreign relations. Hard power is important and needed and the US can't let up on some of these countries and entities (AQ, etc.), but it needs to be balanced with more effective soft power. The two need to be consistent, not counteractive.

What I see is Republican candidates pushing the hard power w/out addressing soft power and the Democrats pushing soft power while not showing they know how to manage hard power. I don't see anyone who has a vision for doing both effectively.
Good points. I would say in regard to the last that what we see is what they feel will draw support from their party base, ergo soft for Democrats and hard for Republicans. It is simplistic thinking at best but we are in the 15 second sound byte mode until the election. Maybe some clarity will emerge as they move forward through the primaries. Maybe frogs will sprout wings as well.

Besides it has electrolytes..

Tom