Keywords
or Terms: CNN; FOX News; Carli Fiorina, Donald Trump; Rand Paul; Ben Carson; Hoots;
Applause; “Look at that face”; Profile; Brigades; Marines; Naval Ships;
Vaccines; Victoria Era; neo-Reaganisque;
Slavic-Orthodox Russia Civilization; Confucian China Civilization; Shinto Japan
Civilization; Islamic Middle East Civilization; Eastern India Hindus
Civilization; Latin America Civilization; African Civilization; Russia; Iran; North
Korea; and Syria
If you are a Republican female, you probably was very proud of
former Hewlett Packard CEO Carli Fiorina’s response to the captioned CNN host
question regarding Donald Trump’s castigation of the face of this singular female
aspirant of 2016 Republican primary race. In case you missed it, here are CEO Carli
Fiorina’s response: “Women all over this
country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.” The hoots and applause that followed from the audience probably told the front-runner that he is on
his own on this one! How about her crisped and well thought out comment: “Women are the majority of this nation. We
are half the potential of this nation. And this nation will be better off when
every woman has the opportunity to live the life she chooses.”
Last week, Donald Trump had said: “Look at that face!” … “Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our
next president?!” Her response to Donald Trump was more than: “my face is not
ugly, Donald Trump”, offered to Megyn Kelly of FOX News few days earlier. Her comments
yesterday probably catapulted her to a new level of consciousness among
Republican voters and America, by extension. Not only was the response truly an
embodiment of class, it raised her profile beyond what Senator Rand Paul would categorize
as junior high pranks between classmates or equals. Yes, Donald Trump may be driving the agenda on
economy, social issues, ending the fourteenth amendment, ISIS, and illegal
immigration; however, on the podium yesterday, Carli handed Donald what many Progressive
Republican females responded with: “Go
Girl! Go Carli!! Let the rich kid run back to his castle with his tail between
his legs!!!”
On
a more serious note, if Real Estate Developer Donald Trump suffered any setback
in polls after the second debate, it would not have been for reason of his
subsequent complement of Carli Fiorina or Carli’s insistent criticism of Donald’s
business dealings; but, his inability to be specific regarding policy issues
that he has been proposing. While CEO Fiorina slated that she is prepared to
lead the resurgence of a great nation, what is considered probably the best Conservative
Republican red meat on defense were clearly crystallized in her comments: “We
need 50 Army Brigades, 36 Marine battalions, 300 to 350 naval ships… We need to
rebuild missile defense, revive the sixth fleet, provide intelligence to Egypt,
give weapons to Jordan and arm the Kurds… We need to reform the department of
Defense, and take care of our veterans so 307,000 of them aren’t dying waiting
for health care!”
Few
in America’s health care system and delivery would have been happy with the front
runner’s assertion of a connection between vaccines and autism. Trump’s
emotional story regarding one of his employees, while very sensitive, hardly
justifies a reversion to a Victorian era, where vaccines were unavailable and
people died unnecessarily of minor ailments or diseases. To vigorously assert a
connection of vaccines with autism hardly represent the position of the health
care community as you can see in Neurosurgeon Ben Carson’s contribution to the
debate: “We have extremely documented
proof that there's no autism associated with vaccination, but it is true that
we are probably giving way too many in too short a period of time… I think a
lot of pediatricians now recognize that and are cutting down on the number and
the proximity in which those are done.” Yet, Donald Trump’s comments on
vaccines has clearly turned out to be what another physician and politician on
the stage, Dr. Rand Paul denounced and retorted with: “One of the greatest
medical discoveries of all time were vaccines.” Unfortunately, the politician in
Rand Paul subsumed his ophthalmologist’s credential as he added: “I’m for
vaccines, even if science doesn’t say bunching them up is a problem; I ought to
be able to spread my vaccines a little bit at the very least!” Disappointment
with the association of vaccines with autism notwithstanding, what we probably
learned from the front runner, is the need for a reflection on the use of
vaccines, a position well deserving of attention.
The
narrative of Donald Trump being the 2016 Republican Party front-runner may
probably not be questioned by now; however, Carli Fiorina’s newly found co-star
aspirant is sharply contrasted with her admittedly closed-mouth approach to Russia.
She would not talk to Russia; but hopes to use US forces to conduct aggressive
Baltic State’s military exercises and send US troops to Germany. From here on,
the beauty of her presence on the stage begins to fade. Like many “neo-Reaganisque”,
Ms. Fiorina appears to have bought into the clash of civilization doctrine that
sent America to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan under the 43rd president
of the United States. The idea that there is a conflict or clash of civilization
between Christian western nation(s) and: 1) Slavic-Orthodox Russia; 2) Confucian
China; 3) Shinto Japan; 4) Islamic Middle East; 5) Eastern India Hindus; 6) Latin
America; and 7) African civilization, which has driven foreign policies in the
past century in America, continues to be a factor that many Republicans cannot
wrap their fingers around. Former HP CEO Fiorina and probably a long shot President
of the United States, will not talk with Vlad in Putin, but will create an
atmosphere of hostilities that will lead America possibly to another war. A
position greeted with Senator Rand Paul’s direct comments yesterday: “What
would have happened if Reagan had taken Fiorina’s stance with Mikhail Gorbachev
during the Cold War?” On a possible Iraq or Iran war under “President” Fiorina,
he added “If you want boots on the ground, and you want them to be our sons and
daughters, you got fourteen other choices. There will always be a Bush or
Clinton for you, if you want to go back to war in Iraq”.
A
broader lesson can be taught watching the deliberation of hawkish Republicans
at the second Republican Party Primary debate; one of them is this: It is
apparent that civilizations are differentiated, by history, culture, tradition,
language and religion. This differentiation are found in each civilization’s
relationship with God and man, including their relative interpretations of the
rights and responsibilities of citizens, nations, equality between sexes and hierarchy
between leadership and the led. These fundamental congruities, have made to some
extent, interpretation of intentions of nations difficult for many American
Administrations, especially the Republicans. The difficult foreign policy
agenda of resorting to war or violent conflict has made some other civilizations
interpret America’s voyeurism as colonialist and or hegemonic. As long as the
nation’s administration opt for war to resolve differences, there is always
going to be a price to pay, some of which are going to be very unbearable and
probably disastrous, depending on whom you are talking with.
Many
Republicans have a fancy for muscular foreign policy and would not hesitate to
use US influence and military powers across the globe to impact changes.
However, the question has always been at what cost? President George W. Bush
fought two unfunded wars and delved into Social Security trust funds, just like
some other Presidents before him, to fight these clashes of civilization wars
that are virtually unwinnable. Some 2016 Republican aspirants believe religious
wars are winnable; a fact any historian or experienced statesman would tell
you, is an illusion. If Republicans are in doubt ask the State of Ireland and Israel.
It is somewhat possible to take out a head of State like Saddam Hussein, Moammar
Gadhafi and probably other Middle-Eastern leaders with Islamic Civilization
affiliation; however, you cannot take out all the people, all the nations,
their history, culture, language, tradition and religion; that is why, going
after the Islamists in Asia minor is hardly going to achieve much. It is also
okay to pick up the phone and assure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of US solidarity
with Israel and denounce the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Sayyad Ali
Khamenei, as Fiorina is proposing to do once she occupies the oval office in
the White House. The question for her from seasoned political historians: how
far is she going to get?
The
failure of peace in Middle-east has very little to do with the use of might and
power to resolve differences, the reality is: you cannot bomb folks to
extinction as conceived by some naïve Republican politicians. You cannot also ostracize
folks of a different religion from Christianity as is being advanced by folks
with little experience of multiculturalism. Ask France how it has been able to
work many North African Arabs into its population or how Britain has been able
to work with Asiatic Arabs in some of its multicultural suburbs. The world is
becoming smaller, interaction between peoples of different civilization are
increasingly becoming the minute by minute, or millisecond by millisecond,
experience with the expansion of the World Wide Web. To the greatest dismay and
probably the obvious expectation, there is now more than ever, the
intensification of civilization consciousness and differences. Just as
Americans react negatively to Japanese investments in the early nineties and
Chinese investments in recent years, so also are Palestinians’ rejection of Israel’s
occupation of Arab lands and Al-Qaida and ISIS fight for their accepted norms,
tradition and religion.
As
Americans, we must always tell ourselves the truth, the broader reaches of
human history has shown that inter-civilization wars are unwinnable. There had
been twenty-one civilizations in human history and metamorphoses of
civilization has led us to six today; traces of characteristics of each of the
none existent civilizations are found in the surviving six; however, never has
it been possible to completely eradicate the tenets of the extinct civilizations.
Rather, the history, language, culture, tradition and religion that once made
other civilizations continue to manifest themselves in the contemporary world.
Just as Fiorina indicated that Women hears Trump clearly, so does the world
that is mostly different from us, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Syria, hear her
clearly and loudly. If she wins, they all will be prepared for war and that
means a lot: sacrifice of more American lives; huge expenditure of war expenses;
and constant fear of travel across the globe for Americans. It is just a
vicious circle.
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