At Home and Abroad

[barfbag]

U.N.:

Leave the U.N. because it is ineffective and form an organization of countries with free elections.
Do all we can to defund the U.N.

Foreign Aid:

Multi-year commitment to Africa for food and medicine.
Cap foreign aid to $15,000,000,000 annually until debt is paid off.
Contribute to IMF and 3rd world countries in exchange for debt relief.

Free Trade:

Place tariffs on imports from countries who manipulate currency.
Impose sanctions and an import ban on Burma.
Free trade spreads economic and political freedom.
Allow presidents to implement economic sanctions for national security purposes.

China:
 
Place trade sanctions on China if they sell nuclear weapons.
Condemn violence of Chinese government in Tibet.
Deter foreign arms transfers to China.
China's entry into WTO should make China play by the rules, but we should leave the WTO.
Urge China to respect religious freedom.
No permanent trade relations with China.

Israel:

Form an unbreakable bond with Israel.
Support Israel against Hamas in Gaza.
Pressure friendly Arab states to end Israeli boycott.

Middle East:

Support Democratic institutions in Pakistan.
Cooperate with India as a nuclear power.
Focus on defeating terrorism, oil, and nuclear development.

NATO:

Let Ukraine and Georgia enter NATO.
Russia's comments towards Georgia in 2008 were terrible.
NATO should include Eastern Europe and continue to expand to other free nations.

Treaties:

Always consider 10th amendment and U.S. sovereignty for our foreign policy.
Oppose Arms Treaty that limits gun trade abroad.
Implement Darfur Peace Agreement along with other free nations and protect Darfur civilians.
Only enter foreign wars when our nation is at risk.

Cuba:

Strengthen trade embargo against Cuba until political prisoners are released.
Lift ban on travel to Cuba.

[opebo]

Conservatives always misunderstand the U.N. - guys, it is America's creation, and it serves American interests.

[TNF]

U.N.:

Leave the U.N. because it is ineffective and form an organization of countries with free elections.
Do all we can to defund the U.N. See opebo's post. The United Nations works just fine, and if anything, we should push for its reform so that it is more, not less, democratic.

Foreign Aid:

Multi-year commitment to Africa for food and medicine. To whom? If you aren't careful, this will end up in the hands of dictators. I tend to be very skeptical of foreign aid, as it is usually a presupposition in domestic political interference by the West.
Cap foreign aid to $15,000,000,000 annually until debt is paid off. Seems like too high a figure. Lower it or cut it out entirely.
Contribute to IMF and 3rd world countries in exchange for debt relief. Leave the IMF.

Free Trade:

Place tariffs on imports from countries who manipulate currency. Place tariffs on all countries with poor environmental and labor standards. End the corporate facade that parades about as 'free trade.'
Impose sanctions and an import ban on Burma. Agreed.
Free trade spreads economic and political freedom. No, it does just the opposite.
Allow presidents to implement economic sanctions for national security purposes. Agreed.

China:
 
Place trade sanctions on China if they sell nuclear weapons. This is kind of a no-brainer, but is this actually going on? Encourage China to raise wages by refusing sweatshop-made products at the docks.
Condemn violence of Chinese government in Tibet. Agreed.
Deter foreign arms transfers to China. By whom? Blanket ban on sale of arms to any nation engaged in armed conflict and any nation which suppresses basic political freedoms.
China's entry into WTO should make China play by the rules, but we should leave the WTO. Agreed, leave the WTO and the IMF.
Urge China to respect religious freedom. Urge all you want, so long as it doesn't mean the United States will saber-rattle with Beijing.
No permanent trade relations with China. Agreed.

Israel:

Form an unbreakable bond with Israel. Ditch Israel, throw up sanctions, and try to isolate Israel from the world community until it ends its apartheid policies in Palestine.
Support Israel against Hamas in Gaza. No, support Palestinians fighting for independence by cutting off all arms sales and economic aid to Israel.
Pressure friendly Arab states to end Israeli boycott. No, join in the boycott.

Middle East:

Support Democratic institutions in Pakistan. Sure, but from afar.
Cooperate with India as a nuclear power. What do you mean by cooperate?
Focus on defeating terrorism, oil, and nuclear development. Get the f**k out of the Middle East, let the region decide its own future.

NATO:

Let Ukraine and Georgia enter NATO. No, dissolve NATO.
Russia's comments towards Georgia in 2008 were terrible. Didn't Russia invade Georgia in 2008?
NATO should include Eastern Europe and continue to expand to other free nations. No, NATO should be dissolved and the missile defense shield put out of commission. Detente with Russia.

Treaties:

Always consider 10th amendment and U.S. sovereignty for our foreign policy. The 10th Amendment is an outdated relic.
Oppose Arms Treaty that limits gun trade abroad. No.
Implement Darfur Peace Agreement along with other free nations and protect Darfur civilians. Unsure.
Only enter foreign wars when our nation is at risk. Only go to war if attacked or if one nation attacks another.

Cuba:

Strengthen trade embargo against Cuba until political prisoners are released. No, end the trade embargo.
Lift ban on travel to Cuba. Agree.

[bedstuy]

Israel:

Form an unbreakable bond with Israel. Ditch Israel, throw up sanctions, and try to isolate Israel from the world community until it ends its apartheid policies in Palestine.

Cuba:

Strengthen trade embargo against Cuba until political prisoners are released. No, end the trade embargo.
Lift ban on travel to Cuba. Agree.

Do you see the irony here? 

[TNF]

Israel:

Form an unbreakable bond with Israel. Ditch Israel, throw up sanctions, and try to isolate Israel from the world community until it ends its apartheid policies in Palestine.

Cuba:

Strengthen trade embargo against Cuba until political prisoners are released. No, end the trade embargo.
Lift ban on travel to Cuba. Agree.

Do you see the irony here? 

Is Cuba engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing at the moment?

[bedstuy]

Israel:

Form an unbreakable bond with Israel. Ditch Israel, throw up sanctions, and try to isolate Israel from the world community until it ends its apartheid policies in Palestine.

Cuba:

Strengthen trade embargo against Cuba until political prisoners are released. No, end the trade embargo.
Lift ban on travel to Cuba. Agree.

Do you see the irony here? 

Is Cuba engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing at the moment?

Cuba's government is far more repressive than Israel's.     

Israel is certainly not doing any ethnic cleansing.  That's a ridiculous thing to imply.  We can disagree amount the settlements with Israel.  But, Israel's policies in the West Bank are not genocide, not even slightly.

[barfbag]

I strongly disagree with some of your responses above, but that's why we have these debates and free exchange of discussion. I'll be breaking down threads dedicated to debating policies towards different countries such as China, Cuba, Israel, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. Israel is doing nothing wrong and has a history of defending itself against monsters from the Middle East. It is our duty to help as needed. The middle east has much of our interests in terms of self-defense. We can't afford terrorists to get their hands on nuclear weapons or oil. As for free trade, we'd have no imports and no means of manufacturing goods here unless we reformed our tax structures and regulations, however, that's a very different topic for a very different thread.

[barfbag]

Israel:

Form an unbreakable bond with Israel. Ditch Israel, throw up sanctions, and try to isolate Israel from the world community until it ends its apartheid policies in Palestine.

Cuba:

Strengthen trade embargo against Cuba until political prisoners are released. No, end the trade embargo.
Lift ban on travel to Cuba. Agree.

Do you see the irony here? 

Is Cuba engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing at the moment?

No but it's dictated by communism. From the way I see it, there's six in one hand and a half dozen in the other.

[Redalgo]

Alternatively, Barfbag, I would offer...


United Nations:

Exert pressure for democratic reforms, at least implicitly support regional trade and political unification, and strive in the long-run for global federalism.


Foreign Aid:

Multiply aid delivery by a substantial factor - this paid for in part by using some of the funds liberated from drastically cutting back on the armed forces. Markedly reduce the portion of aid committed in military rather than humanitarian support abroad, and aim for direct involvement in nation building rather than handing over funds to oft corrupt foreign government agencies or NGOs at high risk of being intimidated or robbed by raiders on the ground for their supplies.

Put pressure on the IMF to cease exploitation of LDCs, and offer said countries debt forgiveness without requiring them to emulate our own government's public policies.


Free Trade:

Offer free trade agreements to every country - no strings attached. Negotiate with the PRC to end their unfair trade practices, offering in exchange an end to U.S. subsidization of economic sectors (agriculture, auto manufacturing, big oil, etc.) and openness to renegotiate terms of "fair trade" if that is what they prefer. Likewise, offer LDCs in particular opportunities to use some protectionist measures to shelter fledgeling sectors of critical importance to them from U.S. competition, allowing the terms of trade to at least somewhat benefit them more than us.

Ban all sales of arms to countries and foreign organizations with poor human rights records - particularly those showing disregard for civil liberties, support or have illiberal or authoritarian forms of government, and also any other parties which either allow or facilitate arms sales to any of the aforementioned human rights violators. On the economic front, lift all bans of travel and all trade sanctions concerning goods other than weaponry.


China:

Negotiate mutual test bans on WMDs and strive for mutual nuclear disarmament, offering up as a token of goodwill information concerning ABM technology to further reduce the value of intermediately-ranged, intercontinental, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Urge them to allow greater respect for Tibetan interests in exchange for the U.S. reducing its military presence in East Asian waters and an end to its umbrella of protection over Taiwan - whose leaders, for better or worse, lost the Chinese Civil War a very long time ago.
 
Rather than nagging on the PRC incessantly about our own human rights standards, it may be wiser to lead by example and promote intercultural exchanges and bonding. It is in the long-term interests of both peoples to respectfully collaborate on matters of mutual interest while peacefully coexisting. Far more Chinese are satisfied with their government and the anticipated future course of their society than are Americans right now. Theirs is not a nation crying out for liberation, and they certainly have as much a right to self-determination as us.
 

West Asia:

Cease military assistance and threaten to break our alliance if Israel refuses to sit down for serious negotiations with Palestinian representatives to arrive at a settlement for, and then immediately carry out, the implementation of a two-state solution. Both sides need to make some painful concessions but none of them need be irrational to pursue if folks look at the issue with minds more open than in the past. I reckon this should be part of a larger policy shift toward U.S. restoration of long-lost goodwill and solidarity with the West Asian region. This does not mean abandoning or even abusing Israel of course, but rather accepting that Israel can (and often does) settle on the wrong courses of action on a number of big issues.

Hamas is a terrorist organization, for its part, but also representative of the people of Gaza. To erode support for it we need to help Palestine secure sovereignty and build up enough in the way of economic opportunities for its people - especially young men - that they've more attractive things to do in life than partake in the perpetuation of old feuds and animosities. A free and prosperous Palestine will be less inclined to support the likes of Hamas than a poor, desperate one subjugated and otherwise abused by foreigners.


NATO:

Either leave NATO or get Russia into it to eliminate one of the last vestiges of Cold War rivalry: the symbolic power of NATO as a Western alliance of opposition against Russia and its allies. I believe Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus in particular have alarmingly authoritarian tendencies in their governments today and ought to embrace political changes of several kinds in the years ahead, but am not in favor of Europe being divided along West/East lines in the 21st Century.


Cuba:

Withdraw our personnel from and then relinquish control of Guantanamo Bay to the Cuban government. Cease any programs aimed at assassinating Cuban officials, offer asylum to anyone from Cuba who tries to escape to the States, lift all travel restrictions, end the long-standing embargo, and offer humanitarian assistance to offset some of the harm done to the Cuban people by denying them opportunities to trade with us to produce foodstuffs, medical supplies, etc. If/when Cubans are ready to change their country, we can consider helping them then. In the meanwhile it is not our place to intervene.


Military Doctrine:

Cut back substantially on but maintain naval and air forces adequate for self-defense and global projection of force while closing virtually all of our bases abroad and deeply cutting into army programs, letting our national guards assume responsibility for the ground defenses of the homeland. Do not initiate wars and err toward multilateral rather than unilateral actions. Be firm in opposition to genocide and ethnic cleansing, offer military support to revolutionary forces in countries that stand to substantially improve in their protection of human rights, if and when such revolutionary actions are widely popular amongst the people of the countries in question, and do not use hard power as political tool for tending to U.S. economic interests or aggressively spreading any particular creed, dogma, or ideology around the world.

Take exhaustive measures to minimize civilian causalities, take into consideration the interests and values of peoples in countries we may go to war with, and always defer to the war-initiating authority of Congress for military engagements of nearly every kind. Be open, transparent, and focus on winning hearts and minds whenever reasonably possible as an alternative to using sheer, overwhelming force of coercion to achieve goals. There are other considerations I have in mind, as well, but for now am done writing on the subject.

[barfbag]

Alternatively, Barfbag, I would offer...


United Nations:

Exert pressure for democratic reforms, at least implicitly support regional trade and political unification, and strive in the long-run for global federalism.


Foreign Aid:

Multiply aid delivery by a substantial factor - this paid for in part by using some of the funds liberated from drastically cutting back on the armed forces. Markedly reduce the portion of aid committed in military rather than humanitarian support abroad, and aim for direct involvement in nation building rather than handing over funds to oft corrupt foreign government agencies or NGOs at high risk of being intimidated or robbed by raiders on the ground for their supplies.

Put pressure on the IMF to cease exploitation of LDCs, and offer said countries debt forgiveness without requiring them to emulate our own government's public policies.


Free Trade:

Offer free trade agreements to every country - no strings attached. Negotiate with the PRC to end their unfair trade practices, offering in exchange an end to U.S. subsidization of economic sectors (agriculture, auto manufacturing, big oil, etc.) and openness to renegotiate terms of "fair trade" if that is what they prefer. Likewise, offer LDCs in particular opportunities to use some protectionist measures to shelter fledgeling sectors of critical importance to them from U.S. competition, allowing the terms of trade to at least somewhat benefit them more than us.

Ban all sales of arms to countries and foreign organizations with poor human rights records - particularly those showing disregard for civil liberties, support or have illiberal or authoritarian forms of government, and also any other parties which either allow or facilitate arms sales to any of the aforementioned human rights violators. On the economic front, lift all bans of travel and all trade sanctions concerning goods other than weaponry.


China:

Negotiate mutual test bans on WMDs and strive for mutual nuclear disarmament, offering up as a token of goodwill information concerning ABM technology to further reduce the value of intermediately-ranged, intercontinental, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Urge them to allow greater respect for Tibetan interests in exchange for the U.S. reducing its military presence in East Asian waters and an end to its umbrella of protection over Taiwan - whose leaders, for better or worse, lost the Chinese Civil War a very long time ago.
 
Rather than nagging on the PRC incessantly about our own human rights standards, it may be wiser to lead by example and promote intercultural exchanges and bonding. It is in the long-term interests of both peoples to respectfully collaborate on matters of mutual interest while peacefully coexisting. Far more Chinese are satisfied with their government and the anticipated future course of their society than are Americans right now. Theirs is not a nation crying out for liberation, and they certainly have as much a right to self-determination as us.
 

West Asia:

Cease military assistance and threaten to break our alliance if Israel refuses to sit down for serious negotiations with Palestinian representatives to arrive at a settlement for, and then immediately carry out, the implementation of a two-state solution. Both sides need to make some painful concessions but none of them need be irrational to pursue if folks look at the issue with minds more open than in the past. I reckon this should be part of a larger policy shift toward U.S. restoration of long-lost goodwill and solidarity with the West Asian region. This does not mean abandoning or even abusing Israel of course, but rather accepting that Israel can (and often does) settle on the wrong courses of action on a number of big issues.

Hamas is a terrorist organization, for its part, but also representative of the people of Gaza. To erode support for it we need to help Palestine secure sovereignty and build up enough in the way of economic opportunities for its people - especially young men - that they've more attractive things to do in life than partake in the perpetuation of old feuds and animosities. A free and prosperous Palestine will be less inclined to support the likes of Hamas than a poor, desperate one subjugated and otherwise abused by foreigners.


NATO:

Either leave NATO or get Russia into it to eliminate one of the last vestiges of Cold War rivalry: the symbolic power of NATO as a Western alliance of opposition against Russia and its allies. I believe Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus in particular have alarmingly authoritarian tendencies in their governments today and ought to embrace political changes of several kinds in the years ahead, but am not in favor of Europe being divided along West/East lines in the 21st Century.


Cuba:

Withdraw our personnel from and then relinquish control of Guantanamo Bay to the Cuban government. Cease any programs aimed at assassinating Cuban officials, offer asylum to anyone from Cuba who tries to escape to the States, lift all travel restrictions, end the long-standing embargo, and offer humanitarian assistance to offset some of the harm done to the Cuban people by denying them opportunities to trade with us to produce foodstuffs, medical supplies, etc. If/when Cubans are ready to change their country, we can consider helping them then. In the meanwhile it is not our place to intervene.


Military Doctrine:

Cut back substantially on but maintain naval and air forces adequate for self-defense and global projection of force while closing virtually all of our bases abroad and deeply cutting into army programs, letting our national guards assume responsibility for the ground defenses of the homeland. Do not initiate wars and err toward multilateral rather than unilateral actions. Be firm in opposition to genocide and ethnic cleansing, offer military support to revolutionary forces in countries that stand to substantially improve in their protection of human rights, if and when such revolutionary actions are widely popular amongst the people of the countries in question, and do not use hard power as political tool for tending to U.S. economic interests or aggressively spreading any particular creed, dogma, or ideology around the world.

Take exhaustive measures to minimize civilian causalities, take into consideration the interests and values of peoples in countries we may go to war with, and always defer to the war-initiating authority of Congress for military engagements of nearly every kind. Be open, transparent, and focus on winning hearts and minds whenever reasonably possible as an alternative to using sheer, overwhelming force of coercion to achieve goals. There are other considerations I have in mind, as well, but for now am done writing on the subject.

I'll agree with you on three points.

Closing Guantanamo was the right thing to do.
End torturous practices.
Close military bases we don't use.

[barfbag]

Conservatives always misunderstand the U.N. - guys, it is America's creation, and it serves American interests.

Not really, but at least we don't listen to what they want us to do.