If you liked what Paul Ryan helped the Bush administration do in Iraq, you’ll love what he's cheering for in Iran. That was the message from Ryan’s campaign stop on the Hannity show last night where Sean Hannity credulously welcomed Ryan’s boast that voting for the (misbegotten) Iraq war – and going to the funerals that ensued – gave him enough foreign policy gravitas to talk tough and support an Israeli strike against Iran.
Oh, and by the way, all those “tough choices” and “adult conversations” we need to have on spending cuts and "reforming" Medicare in order to “save” it? They’re nowhere to be seen when Ryan talks war, “peace through strength” and defense cuts. He told Hannity he’s trying to replace “irresponsible” military spending cuts “with other spending cuts that ought to occur in government.”
The discussion began with Hannity saying, at about 3:35, “Tell us about your foreign policy experience.”
Ryan said most of the traveling he’s done as a Congressman has been to the Middle East. Then he flashed his “I voted for the Iraq war” resume for us again.
I’ve had to vote to send men and women to war on more than one occasion. I’ve been to those funerals. I’ve talked to the widows and the wives and the parents. I’ve gone to Afghanistan and Iraq to meet with our troops, to learn from them. Obviously, I have a lot more experience than Barack Obama did when he became president.
Except that Obama chose Joe Biden, someone with real foreign policy experience for his running mate whereas Romney, already a national embarrassment on the world stage, chose Ryan. But, of course, Hannity swallowed without question the analogy.
Ryan continued:
President Obama is quote, unquote leading from behind. He’s rejected the peace-through-strength doctrine. He’s outsourcing our foreign-policy decision-making to the U.N. so that countries like Russia can exercise their veto power over us… These what I call reckless, irresponsible defense cuts as the result of the president’s failed leadership are weakening our resolve and weakening our national security and our national defense at a time when it’s very important that we get back to the peace-through-strength doctrine… That’s why I helped write and passed the bill to prevent those irresponsible defense cuts from passing. To replace those spending cuts with other spending cuts that ought to occur in government.
Wait a minute! Mr. fiscally responsible wants to add to the federal budget with military spending? While he wants to cut Medicare? Hannity didn’t think that worth noting. He was more interested in talking war. “Would you support Israel if they deem it necessary to for their national security to take out (Iran’s nuclear reactor)?” he asked.
Short answer, yes.
Israel has every right to protect their national security interests and Iran’s nuclear weapon capability is an existential threat to not only Israel but it’s a threat to our own national security. The last thing we want is an arms race in the Middle East. And I really do think that the president’s lack of leadership on this issue, his lack of courageous moral support for Israel during this time has brought us to where we are. Going to the U.N. and saying that the beginning of negotiations must start with the ’67 borders undercuts our ally. His references to Bibi Netanyahu with the French president undercuts our allies. And so I think hat has done more to distance the peace process and done more to embolden countries like Iran than anything else.
Paul Ryan: More war and less medical care. But don't count on Fox News to do much looking under the slick talking points of "fiscal seriousness" and "freedom."
He lives a life of luxury. He will never serve in uniform.
Slanthead is without a doubt the most rabid warmonger on the air in the last 20 years!
During the lead up to Dubya’s invasion of Iraq, you could almost measure his adrenaline spike and hear the froth coming out of his mouth while Hannity beat the drums! If Israel does drop a nuke on Iran, Hannity will be the first to volunteer to ride the bomb down (mimicking the Slim Pickens character in “Dr. Strangelove”)! Actually, not… Hannity is a total coward!
It’s too bad Hannity was too young for Vietnam. Too old and too fat (keep stuffing your face with those Big Macs and 64oz sugar drinks Seanny) for Iraq and Afganistan. But he was actually the right age and presumably in fighting shape for the first Bush’s Gulf War.
Why didn’t he serve? Could it be that in addition to being a female-despising misogynist, a gay-bashing homophobe, a lynch-rope-carrying racist and a wetback-hating xenophobe… could Hannity also be a yellow-bellied chicken-shit-hawk?
Nah… Hannity really didn’t mean when a caller got through on his radio cesspool show one day some months ago and asked him directly why he never put on a uniform, and Hannity actually explained: “My father did, that’s good enough for me!” True folks, Hannity said that!
Sarah Palin: she can see Russia from her house
Paul Ryan: I voted to send troops to war
The good thing about Ryan’s foreign policy “experience”? It’s interchangeable with his “military experience” . . .
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