Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Donald Trump's foreign policy speech August 18: sins committed and much omitted.

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Trump's speech  was vintage Trump...twisting facts and history to justify his statements. The most humorous one I heard concerned "extreme vetting" based upon an interview with the applicant about their support of the US Constitution, rather inadequate when there are so many other intelligence tools to vet someone out there that is not dependent upon someone being truthful and also unconstitutional, too.

Trump has shown so much ignorance about the constitution, maybe he would fail that test, too, if he had to explain the meaning, particularly of the first amendment.
The one that was the most alarming was his proposal to deport anyone using hate speech or extreme views regarding terrorism  that were already in the US .(Clinton has made similar proposals but giving priority to deportation for those illegally here)   Seems to me those are the ones that deserve close monitoring by the FBI  of those doing it, but deporting them just on the basis of stating their US disloyalty , even though they may be legally in the US, is unconstitutional.  As we know, even such speech is protected by the first amendment.  As fact checker  Politifact found,  there is already a 3 year vetting process using many national and international security agencies to admit refugees to the US.   Somehow an interview based upon a face to face interview seems hardly "extreme" and out of  touch with the reality of the current  vetting process.

Short on details again are the" how, toos".  Except for the violation of international law in seizing oil fields and the number of US troops it would take to occupy a country to do that, some of what he does propose  are  the same tactics already vigorously practiced by the Obama administration, even including some coordination with the Russians in wiping out ISIS in Syria, though our goals regarding keeping Assad are the opposite.. 

What was interesting, Trump's attack echoing Vladimir Putin's words that NATO was obsolete and should be turned into an anti terrorist organization, was altered to acknowledge NATO had recently given more focus to anti terrorism. 

His most recent incendiary remark that Pres. Obama and Hillary Clinton were the 'founders' of ISIS',  directly responsible for the rise of  ISIS, was a bit modified, but the fault was still laid at Obama and Clinton's feet. However, as Politifact fact checker notes on MSNBC the morning of August 16,, the withdrawal of troops and the rise of ISIS took place during the George W Bush administration, which Obama and Clinton carried out.  How short our memories are as well that Obama was elected in 2008 to a great part because he supported withdrawal from Iraq as negotiated in the Bush administration because he had originally opposed the intervention.  Public opinion has always been on the side of withdrawal and opposed to sending in large numbers of ground troops back into Iraq. Besides, the government of Iraq had also opposed continued occupation, too.    

The Associated Press fact checking of his assertions is very lengthy and extensive, but worth reading (link following).
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/fact-check-trump-gets-his-mideast-history-wrong/ar-
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http://heavy.com/news/2016/08/read-donald-trump-full-transcript-speech-foreign-policy-address-remarks-prepared-august-15/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/aug/11/donald-trump/donald-trump-pants-fire-claim-obama-founded-isis-c/


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