End the cowboy diplomacy

I agree

NO MORE "Us vs. Them!" That attitude among and between the nations of the world has created more death, destruction and grief than anything else. We are ALL the Crew & Passengers here on Spaceship Earth. It is to the advantage of each and every nation to WORK TOGETHER to solve the world's problems.
We waste time, effort, money and lives uselessly planning and striving to "combat" each other militarily.
Peace should become the norm; war the exception in settling difficulties between nations. We can and will compete with each other economically, educationally, and in sports arenas, but NOT on battlefields.
War is obsolescent and we should all strive to have it become obsolete during the 21st century.
ALSO, strongly advocate and support the R2P (Responsibility to Protect) concept among all the
national governments of the world. Those who cannot or will not act in a civil manner should be treated like the pariahs they are, e.g, Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Chavez in Venezuela and the military junta in Mynamar. . . not to mention that nutcase who runs North Korea!!!
We Americans should be proud of being Americans; but also proud of declaring ourselves World Citizens!!

The Responsibility to Protect is paramount. To achieve inroads into the dominant paradigm of world politics, it needs the support of both the US and countries not traditionally supportive of American policies. This requires honest diplomacy to convince the populations of African and Middle Eastern countries that R2P is not simply an excuse for intervention; by garnering worldwide support and buttressing intervention with concrete steps and criteria, R2P provides an ideal means to prevent another debacle like Iraq.

I think we definitely do need to restore our credibility in the international community. We used to be leaders, but now we are just laughable.

Joe Wilson is a patriot who has put his neck on the block to advocate for this nation's true interests. He is absolutely right. We need a President who can re-establish America's role in the world: an arbiter, not an instigator, of conflicts, and a champion, not a trampler, of human rights.

I want to comment here because I just finished Joe's book and deeply appreciate his courage in speaking out despite intimidation which should inspire others such as the media(they should be ashamed!) to speak. How dare Woodward declare that the Valerie Plame issue isn't important. What arrogance to have taken credit for exposing Watergate but then completely ignore systemic abuse of power, threats, lies and intimidation in this administration that equal or surpass Nixon.
The next administration should hold those who deliberately lied and disinformed our nation accountable first and foremost or no international credibility will be re-establised! Veteran's now and forever forward should be counted in the cost of war and taken care of. Contractors of war for profit corporations should be outlawed.
The paradigm of war as a means for accomplishing anthing except a defense of last resort should be repudiated includes wars on terrorism, drugs, poverty or anything else.
In Marin Luther King's last speech he declared that we don't have the choice between violence and non-violence, but between non-violence or non-existence. We should take this seriously and promote it in intenational disputes, recognizing the wisdom of MLK, Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and the Dalai Lama! MLK is most important not for what he accomplished but for HOW he accomplished it.
Secrecy in government is dangerous and insidious and should discouraged as much as possible and when used should have oversight, accountability, and protections from abuse at home and abroad.
The secret phantom government of the cold war era has created Cheney and Rumsfeld as some of the last casualties of the cold war. The secrecy warped there lives and judgement to the point they believed they were absolutely critical to our nations survival since they were to govern in event of nuclear war outside of the normal line of succession. Thus they came to believe they knew better what is good for us than anyone else.
Destabilizing and overthrowing governments and assassination predators should not be our methodology for the future. Pre-emptive diplomacy is the best pre-emptive strategy. Treatment of addictions is better than drug wars.
Juveniles should not be executed and treated as adult offenders. Behavioral problems should be addressed as such and not as moral condemnations and revenge. The angry hand of God should be abandoned as a form of morality and feminine qualities should be brought back into religion and moral discussions. Violence to our environment and fellow creatures on this planet should be eliminated as a way of life as best we can.
Corporations need to become more accountable for there actions as legal entities. No corporation should be allowed to hold a state hostage!
War for profit and health care for profit should be morally untenable. Unbiased univeral health care should be the goal not health care for profit.
Freedom is mentioned in the constitution not free trade or free enterprise! All nations should be able to protect local agriculture for their own protection in case of natural disaster and disruption of supply and the costs of transportation.
These are as few thing which desparately require attention in the immediate future.
Thank You Joe Wilson, everyone needs to speak out or we will lose our ability to speak.

The war in Iraq is not about defeating terrorism, its about the US insisting that because it has more guns than anyone else it has the right to be in the Middle East.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has said that only the Arab flag should fly over Arab lands. In other words, no foreign military bases in the Middle East. It is time that the US to realize that the only way to end the war on terror is for the US get out of the Middle East and use to diplomatic means to achieve it ends.
Moreover, the blood and treasure being wasted in the Middle East is better spent here at home. There is need for money for education. infrastructure, health care and local government, money which iwould be available if the war on terror were ended.

Let's reach out to Switzerland and see if they will take the United Nations. Let us also consider rounding up the Liberal Fascists like Joe and send them off to Europe too.

I propose we pay our dues to the UN after they pay NYC for unpaid parking tickets and Joe Wilson gets a regular job rather than living off his Wife's back as a greviance monger.

You lost Joe. The 911 Commission Report, The Robb Silverman Report and The Senate Intelligence Committe Report in 2004 exposed you as being less than truthful with the facts, re: Niger. You are the Billy Huang/Sanjaya of beltway politics, We wish you would just go away. Far away.

most leading nations began their leadership of the world with common human morals and values but they got collapsed because they abandoned those commons. USA now is suffering to death from the emptiness on the paramount and its people must realize that power can never help in preserving leadership. credibility is built on just and fairness wherever and whenever. to regain the world respect and the leadership true responsibility, an awareness of other peoples suffers' must be a priority.

I think I agree with the basic idea of Mr. Wilson's comments, but I have to withhold my judgment about it until I get something more specific. The video does a better job of this, but the truth is I'm still not sure how to define "cowboy diplomacy" besides "George W Bush's smirk." I tend to think that no matter who is president next, it will be a welcome change and demonstrating more seriousness. So I tentatively agree, but I am not sure exactly what it means. Hope that makes sense.

Where the Wilder Things Are

I love comments like "No more 'Us vs. Them!'" Do people who makes comments like this forget that it wasn't America who picked this fight? Or that the "them" of whom they speak actively want to kill Americans, simply for our being Americans? It isn't about military might - it's about religious fanaticism and people who are not only unwilling to tolerate the different beliefs of others but are willing to kill anyone who doesn't share their beliefs.

Plame destroyed CIA credibility. Wilson destroyed State Department credibility.

It's not recoverable.

Joe's dad was a 'diplomat' in Spain.
Plame's dad was Air Force NSA.
Maybe we should skip legacies and hire people who will do the job.

NONSENSE!!! Anyone who thinks the international Islamic jihad against western civilization can be dealt with by diplomacy is utterly delusional, completely irrational, totally detached from reality and a prime candidate for immediate confinement in a mental institution.

These people are out to kill us -- how many more of us have to die before idiots like Joe Wilson realize this? Unbelievable!!

The short and sweet of it is this: I object to the use of "cowboy diplomacy."

Real Texans, real cowboys for that matter, call shit-kicker tactics like this "outlaw diplomacy," at least in polite company.

Send this Elvis-impersonator carpetbagger poser and his criminal brand of government back to Hartford... or better yet, Gitmo.

Even literate cowboys know what neo-fascism is.

My apologies. I didn't make it absolutely clear who the carpetbagger was in my original post. Some folks call him "W"... I'll withhold what "W" is known for to folks outside polite company here.

Joe Wilson, on the other hand, is a true American patriot; moreso now in the face of the tar-and-feather committees only folks like Stalin or McCarthy would endorse for active duty.

("liberal fascists?!" GMAFB. Try something new: read a valid history book before sharing your petty ignorance.)

Unfortunately, the only people we need to be credible with are our enemies. Sadly, we are not as credible as we could be with them.

I'm not sure how being an arbiter increases credibility. Believability comes mostly from backing up words with actions, does anybody operate differently in their personal life? Simply appearing calm and collected lends little credibility to any institution or person, except in the eyes of a fool.

If American credibility is so shattered, why then have so many nations elected pro-American leaders? In France, Nicolas Sarkozy is unabashedly for a trans-Atlantic alliance. In Germany, Angela Merkel has also done much to repair US-German ties. In Australia both Kevin Rudd and former Prime Minister Howard are staunch American allies. Japan remains a strong ally of the United States, and Shinzo Abe had continued Junichiro Koizumi's strongly pro-American foreign policy.

American credibility comes not from bowing to fickle world public opinion, but from American strength abroad. The term "hyperpower" and the pushback against American foreign policy existed long before the current Administration. We cannot expect the rest of the world to always agree with us, because we live in a competitive world in which the interests of one state or group of states may not always coincide with those of another.

Restoring American leadership requires actually leading. Which means continuing to vigorously prosecute this war against the terrorist who kill fellow Muslims as well as Westerners. We must continue to support democratic movements across the globe, from Lebanon to Zimbabwe to Burma. We must stand up strongly on behalf of free trade and an end to the protectionism that harms so many in the developing world.

Leadership is not about doing what is popular, it is about standing up for our beliefs even when it is difficult. That means standing strongly for the long-term security of our Iraqi allies. That means standing strongly against dictators like Robert Mugabe, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and Kim Jung Il. That means standing up for the principles of democracy, free trade and pluralism, even if it causes the opprobrium of the chattering classes at Davos.

In order to promote our security and show the world we are serious about change we should fire eveyone in the U.S. State Dept.

And at least half of the non-field personal at the CIA.

Then we should set term limits on Congress and give them all a large pay raise so they will quit using pork, favors and other corruption to get more money.

One last thing. Give the troops a real raise, not just cost of living raises each year. Make their families solvent so they can live the American dream while protecting us with their lives and their limbs.

Finally rid the U.S. of illegals, establish a National ID system for everyone and gring in workers for limited periods and give rewards to those that follow the rules and punishments for those that don't.

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

What the %$#*& is "cowboy diplomacy?" Sorry, Joe, the rest of us aren't so impressed with diplomats.
"The really hard work of diplomacy"??? Give me a break. We've lost stature in the world since President GHW Bush puked in the lap of some japanese guy. It's been downhill ever since. I don't much like W, but at least he made some progress in getting the world to respect and fear us again.
W has had a few wins: Libya, Afganistan (yes, that was a win!), Germany, France, and parts of Africa. The Israel/Palestinian thing has been bungled, as usual.
Sorry, Joe. Your ideas are vapid and outdated.

lpd_cheng, I'd be interested to know exactly what victories you're talking about in Libya, Afghanistan, Germany, France and Parts of Africa. I've looked it up and I honestly cannot figure out what you mean.

If you think that fear is the way to respect, then that pretty much makes you a terrorist doesn't it?

And if you've looked at any opinion poll anywhere in the world about feelings toward the US, you would know that we are not respected.

And it's amusing that you say the use of diplomacy is outdated. Using force as a means to an end is a tactic as old as man. But how can you argue with results when every forceful empire that ever existed has done so well in the long-term? Oh wait, what ever happened to the European empires anyway?

I think lpd_cheng could have used a paraphrase on Teddy Roosevelt's, "Talk LOUDLY and carry a big stick" to better make his point. As to Lip Service's regard for worl opinion- see the new changes in France and Germany. The rest of the world will respect us when we WIN. Nobody respects the losers. European empires collapsed after they adopted the Socialist model and now they have declining birthrates and rising unemployment and no real scientific or technical innovations worth mentioning.

THANK GOD for COWBOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If Joe is so averse to "cowboys," what the hell did he move to New Mexico for? Oh wait, I forgot, he moved there to work for Bill Richardson's Presidential campaign. Wilson lied about his trip to Niger, and what he found there, and Richardson lied about a baseball career he never had. What a pair!

GO FUCK YOURSELF YOU COMMUNIST SON OF A WHORE!

Joe Wilson is a disgrace to diplomacy. Rather than giving a written report through the proper authority in D.C., he chose to publish his Niger "findings" in the New York Times.
Had I been President Bush, I would have sacked him unless he had "retired." If retired, why was he recirculated to report on whatever he reported on?
My sense is Joe Wilson could not track a head of elephant in six (6) feet of new snow.
His comments are feathers in the wind.
Longdrycreek Ranch
Texas

Wonderful piece by a loser like Joe wilson. I'm sure he would love us to practice a little "Neville Chamberlain" diplomacy in the future. Sorry Joe, maybe you can scam your lefty buddies, but plenty of folks know what a lying opportunist you really are.

Joe Wilson is a liar, he was proven to be a liar and in retribution he blamed it on Dick Cheney. Joe Wilson's wife is a liar, if one cares to view her testimony before the grand jury they will find she perjured herself when she said she had no knowledge of who recommended her husband to fly to Niger on his so-called yellow-cake investigation when in fact the documents prove it was herself.

So, you want to bring up the name Scooter Libby in defense of the above media whores? Within weeks of the start of the special investigation led by prosecutor Fitzgerald, it was discovered that the damning information relevant to Madam Valerie Plame's being outed as an alleged undercover agent was revealed by Mr. Richard Armitage and yet the investigation continued for over 3 years...........

A three years plus investigation into who was responsible for outing Valerie Plame as an alleged undercover agent, costing us taxpayers millions of dollars ultimately revealed that it was none other than Richard Armitage. And this discovery was known from the very beginning.

So what was this result of this monkey court? Mr. Libby was found guilty of supposedly lying to a grand jury for not being able to remember accurately a conversation he had 3 years prior and the original target of the investigation, Richard Armitage, walks.......Is this country great or what?

Wilson is entitled to his opinion, but that doesn't make him right. What we need are a few less "armchair Presidents", and a few more career diplomats and government bureaucrats who recognize that their job is to implement the policies of the elected leaders of our representative republic, not undermine them. Joe and Val would not be on the outside looking in if they didn't take it upon themselves to formulate their own foreign policy.

"Joe Wilson is a patriot who has put his neck on the block" and we are going to chop it off and hang it up with the rest of the traitorous slime crawling out of the gutters around our great country.

Sorry to hear echo-chambered taking out their sedentary frustrations on you, Joe.

www.Vote.org
Taking the "mock" out of democracy!
Evan Ravitz, founder 303-440-6838 www.EvanRavitz.com
"Fool's gold exists because there is real gold." -Rumi

American business thugs are ripping off the resources of other countries, buying up real estate to jack up prices like they did here and paying dictators to let them use the citizens for slaves. We don't deserve any respect.

America CANNOT help ANY-ONE until we HELP OURSELVES! These Employees of OURS have already turned americans into slaves! America must bring back NEW american manufacturing and NEW power plants, clean energies and AFFORDABLE clean fuel cars! Cowboy? Ha! These wanna-be cowboys from New England??? Make us sick here in Az.! They do want to suck ALL life out of this earth, because they have NOT evolved, they can't they are cavemen. they actually rationalize/justify that we will go to Mars, But only the CHOSEN few actually will with their trillions we earned and in the shuttle we pay for, but they won't make it! they are making us americans look real bad and after we get back on OUR feet then we can help ALL countries become self-suffecient with solar plants, wind-mills, waters, sgriculture, health-care and education!!! Stop the Prisons from easily making FELONS out of our youth to take awy their credibility, possability of a real income or running for offices, and voting etc. Can't you see? How calculatingly this has been planned??

It is predictable that President George "shoot first and search for WMD's later" Bush would equate Obama's call for diplomacy with appeasement. How is it that 30%of our nation think that three thousand dead soldiers, 200,000 dead civilians, half a trillion dollars of our nation's treasure, and a world that despises us are reasons to still support Bush, Cheney, Rove, Wolfowitz, Addington, Libby, Perle, Gonzales, and the rest of that steaming, stinking pile of political hacks who hijacked our government

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