Once the news broke, it was only a matter of time before the GOP’s twin front-runners got irresponsibly over their skis:
- “Iran toys with U.S. days before we pay them, ridiculously, billions of dollars. Don’t release money. We want our hostages back NOW!” railed Donald Trump on Twitter.
- Ted Cruz was all about escalating it up to a full-on “hostage” situation, too, adding:“The fact that [the capture] happened is a direct consequence of the weakness of the Obama-Clinton foreign policy.”
It isn’t surprising that the GOP field’s two most bombastic candidates would be unable to grasp the nuance of the situation. But what about foreign policy “expert” Marco Rubio?
Marco Rubio brought more of the same simplistic faux-outrage:
Did you see what they did to these sailors…They took pictures of them on the deck of a ship with their hands behind their back…You know why they did this? Because they know they can get away with it. Because they know Barack Obama is weak. Because they know he won’t do anything about it.
It isn’t surprising that the GOP field’s two most bombastic ignoramuses, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, were unable to offer a restrained response. That isn’t surprising.
Rubio too, like Cruz and the rest of the field, has increasingly adopted Trumpian language during foreign policy discussions, exposing a fundamental lack of Commander-in-Chief readiness and failure to grasp the nuance of a number of pressing issues. It’s clear that Republicans have little grasp of foreign policy issues, no matter how bent out of shape they seem to get every time.
Published: Jan 14, 2016