Marco Rubio spoke about foreign policy at the Brooking Institution. Marco thought Republicans needed to retreat from isolationist positions and have a more proactive role in international affairs.
Marco was disappointed the US didn't have a bigger leadership role in Libya. Of course, Libya was a NATO operation and the US had a supporting role. It cost the US about $ one billion and the job got done.
Perhaps with Marco's approach, there would have been more glory for the US. Rightardia prefers the cost-effective coalition approach of Obama.
Marco chastised US foreign policy on Syria. Syria is a Russian client state and the Russians had a warship in one of the Syrian ports. The Russian's also had their special forces (Spetnaz) on alert to deploy to Syria. Marco was blowing a lot of hot air about Syria. The US is not going to get into a direct confrontation with the Russians if it can be avoided. Certainly, not over Syria.
At this time, the US is involved in delicate negotiations with Iran. Senator Rubio would also advocate military action against Iran. Is Marco pandering for votes?
Probably not because the American Jewish community is small. Rubio is probably pandering for more campaign contributions for this affluent group.
The real problem with US foreign policy is that the state department is too small. Robert Gates, the former Secretary of Defense, pointed out that that it cost more for one carrier task force than the entire State Department. The lack of foreign language linguists is also a problem that could be easily corrected with a Federal program.
Foreign policy under GOP presidents has been hawkish and every modern GOP president has started wars. Bush I brought us the first Iraq War and Bush II brought us the second Iraq War and Afghanistan. Ronald Reagan ran around and destabilized Central and South America and the Caribbean.
This hawkish activity caused the defense budgets and deficit to climb. It is clear in the present US economy, the US can no longer afford adventurist wars under the guise of providing liberty to the people of a country we attack.
Marco Rubio said:
It is a mainstream, bipartisan belief that America benefits from the spread of liberal societies, markets and ideals.
Rubio's speech was departure form the neo-conservatives rants of the past. Men such as John Bolton come to mind with all of his belligerent rhetoric.
Rubio also specifically defended US foreign aid as a “cost-effective” method to “strengthen our influence, the effectiveness of our leadership.”
Marco's speech has a more moderate tone than other Republicans such as Net Gingrich, a pro-Israeli hawk, and Ron Paul, a constitutional isolationist.
This is an improvement from what we have heard form the GOP on foreign policy so far. However, the Obama foreign policy is working well and it is unlikely a GOP executive branch could improve on it.
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