Giuliani v. Paul

While watching highlights of the Fox News Debate that was held yesterday in South Carolina, I found a particular exchange very telling.

In the video Ron Paul, who voted against giving Bush authorization to invade Iraq, argues that the 9-11 attacks were “blowback” from interventional foreign policy. He says that we’ve had our noses in the Middle East for fifty years causing rampant hatred and anti-Americanism. Giuliani, responded the only way he knows how, by calling names. He didn’t argue the merit of the statement, he didn’t explain why he disagreed, he simply called it absurd and demanded Rep. Paul retract his comment.

Giuliani showed a lack of maturity and understanding regarding international relations. Like it or not, there are international consequences for American foreign policy. It is the nature of hegemony. Our actions affect the rest of the world and sometimes, even if motivated by irrationality and executed with supreme violence, our actions incur costs. Certainly America didn’t ask for 9-11, but we just as certainly didn’t demand that our foreign policy be benign or friendly. Giuliani is ignoring our part in our world’s problems, and using fear of continued attack, and hatred for our enemies as a catapult into demagogic power. We need a President who understand the complexity of international relations and the simplicity of revenge, not one who assumes the world to be our sandbox and its inhabitants our toys.

UPDATE: Fox News Viewers agree with me for once, Ron Paul beat out Giuliani by 6 points in a Fox News poll that asked, "who won the debate". Paul came in second to Romney, by 4 points.