Huckabee And Foreign Policy

Via Hot Air, there are rumors Huckabee will get a major endorsement from someone in the foreign policy area on Friday. Huckabee delivered a speech on foreign policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Sept - text and video here. I hope whoever it is likes baseball. Actually, it's a 24 page mixed bag with a Q and A. He talks religion, energy, talking to Iran and pressuring Pakistan more. And of course, a big key is foreign aid. I'm not sure there's anything we haven't heard before.

There’s a sense in which our situation with prestige in the world in a great deal like many of us experienced as a child, growing up in a neighborhood where there was one kid, one kid who was just exceptional at everything he did. He made A’s, and never anything else; he could run faster; he could jump higher; he could throw the ball further; he never struck out. You know the kid; I hope you weren’t that kid. Chances are you weren’t; you wouldn’t be at a meeting like this. But you know what I’m talking about – the kind of kid who was just good at everything.

Now, remember when that kid was braggadocios about it, and every time he did something exceptional he’d just rub your face in it? Now, when that was the case, what was your attitude toward that other kid in the neighborhood? What did you think about him? You were hoping that, just once, he’d strike out; maybe that he would miss the catch that would save the day, or that he would miss the easy slam dunk, or that he would just get a C on a spelling test. You’d just hope that, at least once, he would experience what you experience on a regular basis.

Now, imagine in that same neighborhood the kid coming up with those same exceptional qualities and skills, but this time, instead of rubbing your face in it, he encouraged you to be your best. And when you got up to bat, he’d say, hey, if you choke up on the bat you can swing better and get a better hit; or he’d say hey, I’ll come over to your house and I’ll work with you, and help you with your spelling test. Now, when his attitude, not his skills, but his attitude was different, your attitude toward him was different was significantly different as well. And instead of wishing for him to have some blundering calamity, you looked up to him and you wanted to be like him.

I know that’s an oversimplification, but I do believe that it explains, somewhat, of the situation that we face as a nation, in that our prestige in the world has been marred not so much because we’re a superpower. We are; we shouldn’t apologize for it, nor should we weaken ourselves in any capacity. But the matter in which we handle our power is critical. And the more that we can do not to weaken ourselves, but to strengthen our neighbors, and to give them encouragement, rather than simply to show them our muscle, is an important part of rebuilding America’s national prestige.

And it’s also difficult for us, with our culture of assimilation, to understand that life for European Muslims is different from life for American Muslims. Muslims in Britain, or the Netherlands or Germany, are second-class citizens because those countries have more homogenous populations that don’t as readily integrate the insiders. Instead of melting pots, Europe has separate pots boiling over with alienation and despair. And in some countries, like France, it’s more a lack of economic integration while in others, like Britain, it’s more a lack of cultural integration. But whatever the reason, Europe is a much more fertile breeding ground for terror than even is the United States.

Comments

[Sara]

Jimmah Carter?

[seekeronos]

Hoping beyond hope that the Second Dope from Hope goes down the slope into the toilet... and that his voters switch to Fred!

[Fred Beloit]

He addresses us as if we were simpletons. He sounds a bit like Al Gore.

[jj]

Seek, his voters are likely to switch to Democrats rather than vote for Romney, which is what I would do if I were a supporter, expecially given the treatment they have received. If Romney or a Democrat is my choice, I will choose to sit this one out, myself, or perhaps vote for the nominee of the Constitutional Party.

[chris]

Clearly, God only Blesses America. Those goofy brown, black and yellow folks will all go to Hell, literally. Oh, and the French too - they're going to burn.

[seekeronos]

"--- Clearly, God only Blesses America. Those goofy brown, black and yellow folks will all go to Hell, literally. ---"

Wrong. God blesses those nations which draw near to Him, and honour Him, and whose people call upon His Name, and treat the widows and orphans with mercy.

Anyone can be saved from Hell, too... if only they will believe in and call upon the Name of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

But those who reject Christ and His forgiveness, their final end shall be the Second Death, and an eternity apart from God spent in Lake of Fire.