Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has removed two influential neo-conservative advisers from her inner circle and replaced them with people who have a more pragmatic view towards American foreign policy.
The advisers, Orion Strategies’ Randy Scheunemann, the former executive director of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, and Michael Goldfarb, a former reporter and protege of Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, have been shaping Palin’s conconservative foreign policy stance since she ran as John McCain’s running mate in 2008, reports Politco.com. The two left her PAC on good terms, Palin aide Tim Crawford told the online paper.
Replacing Scheunemann and Goldfarb is Peter Schweizer, a writer and fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution who blogs regularly at Andrew Breitbart’s Big Peace. “Schweizer has articulated a more skeptical view of the use of American force and promotion of democracy abroad,” Politico noted.
In a piece critical of US President Barack Obama’s handling of populist uprisings in the Middle East, Schweizer wrote that Egypt has done “a lot of things wrong, but they have also been pro-American on a lot of levels,” and noted hypocrisy in Obama’s policy when it came to handling his support for protestors in Iran.
“Schweizer has also been skeptical of American involvement in Libya, which he compared to Vietnam, speculated that France is “on the brink of a violent civil war” between radical Muslims and its resurgent right,” Politico wrote.
Palin made her new foreign policy outlook known during speech at Colorado Christian Univerisity on Wednesday, when she said the US “should only commit our forces when clear and vital American interests are at stake. Period.” Palin then dissmissed nation-building as a “nice idea in theory,” but not the “main purpose” guiding American foreign policy.
In her opening, Palin praised the American veteran whose sacrifice allows for, among other things, the burning of the American flag.
Palin made her new foreign policy outlook known during speech at Colorado Christian Univerisity on Wednesday, when she said the US “should only commit our forces when clear and vital American interests are at stake. Period.” Palin then dissmissed nation-building as a “nice idea in theory,” but not the “main purpose” guiding American foreign policy.
This is really good news if she is sincere,and not just doing some political posturing.
I do question the sincerity,though. How can she be pro-empire one moment,and anti-empire the next? Is she such a hollow shell her advisers have to fill her with opinions about right and wrong?
I do NOT question her ability to grow and learn,though. IF she is sincere it means she has the ability to admit she was mistaken and to learn from mistakes. This would be huge. I guess time will tell. If she suddenly switches back when the campaign heats up,we will all know she is nothing but a parrot.
