LOGIC MINUTE
By Lynn Woolley
Like most Libertarians, Stossel prefers a hands-off policy for just about everything. Some of the time, he’s right. But efforts to stop ISIS and other terrorist threats – Stossel calls “reckless.” The FOX News commentator doesn’t have any ideas on how to stop ISIS. He admits it. http://www.wbdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/LM-12-22-15.mp3
He goes on to say that candidates like Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio seem all too willing to start bombing and sending in troops. Maybe he’s right – and we shouldn’t do those things. But with regard to domestic Islamic terrorism, he takes a weird position: Ignore it.
Stossel says more Americans die in bike accidents or while swimming or driving. He also buys into the Ron Paul “blame America first” position on why Islamists hate us. This is the reason that Rand Paul isn’t doing well. Most Americans actually want to defeat terrorists.
Why terrorists hate us.
John Stossel
According to Stossel, it has nothing whatsoever to do with “who we are” or the fact that we let girls attend school. It’s all because we meddle in their countries. That may be true – but on the other hand – their countries are a mess. They are mostly Islamic theocracies that engage in intra-country atrocities on a daily basis, and that subjugate women. Some brainwash schoolchildren into hating Israel.
More important, we have depended on those countries for oil. That is just a fact. With the world economy base on fossil fuels – and it still is – we have had to protect our interests in the Middle East. That meant propping up the Shah of Iran until Jimmy Carter decided not to. It meant doing other things, based on the best strategy possible at the time. It also means honoring our commitment to the stability of Israel.
Video: John Stossel with Allan Handelman 12/11/15 on “CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS”
Stossel and many other Libertarians do not see the real world.
Don’t misunderstand – I love most of Stossel’s views on government meddling in our lives and in the affairs of private businesses. He makes a lot of sense there. But it’s on foreign affairs that I – and many conservatives – part with Libertarian thought. Sitting back and doing nothing is not always a viable strategy.
Ronald Reagan worked with Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II to hasten the defeat of Soviet Communism. It did not happen because world leaders did nothing.
Granted, we do not have a Ronald Reagan in office now. We have the exact opposite. But with new leadership may come new ideas for defeating and destroying the cult of radical Islamic terrorism.
It can be done. But a Democrat will not likely do it and neither will a Libertarian. It will take a Ronald Reagan type. If you see on one on the ballot, that’s the person to vote for.
lynn@BeLogical.com