A Former Secretary Of State Just Eviscerated Trump’s Incoherent Foreign Policy Speech

[kpete]

Former Sec. of State Madeleine Albright tore apart Donald Trump’s foreign policy speech to reveal the incoherent ramblings of a dangerous man who hides his lies and inconsistencies behind simple slogans.

In a conference call with reporters, former Sec. of State Madeline Albright said:

I’ve gotten to listen to a lot of foreign policy speeches over the years, and in fact have given a few myself, and I was hoping to hear something that made sense. But I’ve got to tell you; I’ve never seen such a combination of simplistic slogans, contradictions, and misstatements in one speech. What Donald Trump’s goal today may have been was to convince us that he can be presidential, but instead of doing that he just underscored the fact that he is running the most reckless and dangerous presidential campaign in modern history.

I found many things troubling, but three that I think are worth pointing out. First, as his advisors pointed out, there were no details in the speech, and instead, we heard a lot tough talk and simplistic slogans and empty promises. Second, it was incoherent and riddled with contradictions. I can’t list every example, but there were a few which stand out. He talked about regaining the trust of our allies while in effect promising to blackmail them in terms of supporting us. If you don’t help us, we don’t help you kind of talk. He then talked about the importance of Western values but questioned why we would think about supporting democracy in other countries. Then, I think the one that really made the least sense of all. He said he would work with Muslims to fight terrorism, but he has already alienated them with proposals to block them from coming into the country.

What I think was most troubling in this speech was the flat out dangerous ideas that he continues to embrace. His foreign policy slogan of America first is so clearly, maybe he’s never read history, or he doesn’t understand it. But he clearly didn’t understand what the America Firsters used to talk about was that there wasn’t any Nazi threat to American interests. If he keeps talking about American interests, but still recalling America Firsters, that is a mega contradiction.

His main message was that we need to be more unpredictable as a nation. Now, in fact, unpredictability is the only thing that you can count on if Donald Trump is our Commander in Chief. But do you actually want somebody unpredictable with the nuclear codes?

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/04/27/secretary-state-eviscerated-trumps-incoherent-foreign-policy-speech.html

[think]

1. Good job Former Sec. of State Madeleine Albright

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

15. Albright and 800,000 genocided Rawandans, then the starved Iraqi children

Rawanda Genocide. Madeleine Albright led US to block UN from actively preventing Rawandan genocide, 800,000 Rwandans were slaughter.

Iraq: Lesley Stahl asked: “We have heard that half a million children have died [as a result of sanctions against Iraq]. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima . . . Is the price worth it?” Albright’s response: “I think that is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, the price is worth it.”

Denis Halliday, UN Assistant Secretary General and Humanitarian Aid Co-ordinator in Iraq, after 31 years of service with the UN, resigned in protest of the sanctions in September 1998. His replacement, Hans von Sponeck, a 36-year veteran of the UN, resigned for the same reason in February 2000, along with Dr. Jutta Burghardt, head of the World Food Program in Iraq.

In his resignation speech, Denis Halliday stated: “We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral.” He elaborated in a lengthy interview on April 17, 1999:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2005/12/10/madeleine-albright-and-us-foreign-policy/

[Ghost Dog]

18. Albright is involved in the Brazil Coup:

... Dilma’s relationship with the U.S. was strained for years, significantly exacerbated by her vocal denunciations of NSA spying that targeted Brazilian industry, its population, and the president personally, as well as Brazil’s close trade relationship with China. Her predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, had also alienated many U.S. officials by, among other things, joining with Turkey to negotiate an independent deal with Iran over its nuclear program when Washington was attempting to assemble global pressure against Tehran. Washington insiders have been making it increasingly clear that they no longer view Brazil as safe for capital.

The U.S., of course, has a long — and recent — history of engineering instability and coups against democratically elected, left-wing Latin American governments it dislikes. Beyond the 1964 coup in Brazil, the U.S. was at least supportive of the attempted 2002 overthrow of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, played a central role in the 2004 ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lent vital support to legitimize the 2009 coup in Honduras, just to name a few examples. Many on the Brazilian left believe that the U.S. is actively engineering the current instability in their country in order to get rid of a left-wing party that has relied heavily on trade with China, and instead usher in a more pro-business, pro-U.S. government that could never win an election on its own.

ALTHOUGH NO REAL evidence has emerged proving this theory, a little-publicized trip to the U.S. this week by a key Brazilian opposition leader will likely fuel those concerns. Today — the day after the impeachment vote — Sen. Aloysio Nunes of the PSDB will be in Washington to undertake three days of meetings with various U.S. officials as well as with lobbyists and assorted influence-peddlers close to Clinton and other leading political figures.

Sen. Nunes is meeting with the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Ben Cardin, D-Md.; Undersecretary of State and former Ambassador to Brazil Thomas Shannon; and attending a luncheon on Tuesday hosted by the Washington lobbying firm Albright Stonebridge Group, headed by former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Bush 43 Commerce Secretary and Kellogg Company CEO Carlos Gutierrez.

The Brazilian Embassy in Washington and Sen. Nunes’s office told The Intercept that they had no additional information about the Tuesday luncheon. In an email, the Albright Stonebridge Group wrote that there is “no media component” to the event, which is for the “Washington policy and business community,” and a list of attendees or topics addressed would not be made public....

/... https://theintercept.com/2016/04/18/after-vote-to-remove-brazils-president-key-opposition-figure-holds-meetings-in-washington/

Albright Stonebridge Group (ASG) is a global strategy and business advisory firm chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Commerce Secretary and Kellogg Company CEO Carlos M. Gutierrez.

The firm advises multinational firms, financial institutions, industry associations, and non-profit organizations on a variety of matters including international government relations, market entry and risk assessment, regulatory affairs, stakeholder engagement, partner development, and shared value programs.

Members of the firm have served in senior government roles, including at the White House; U.S. Departments of State, Treasury, and Commerce; the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; in the U.S. Congress; as ambassadors to and from the United States; and as senior officials and elected representatives in governments around the world.[1]

Albright Stonebridge was created through the merger of international consulting firms The Albright Group and Stonebridge International. ASG is affiliated with Albright Capital Management, an emerging markets investment firm founded in 2005.[2]

/... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albright_Stonebridge_Group

[JDPriestly]

2. Trump is simplistic, but so are his supporters.

His simplistic views are precisely what his supporters like about him.

[pampango]

3. "he clearly didn’t understand what the America Firsters used to talk about was that there wasn’t any

Nazi threat to American interests."

Trump may not know that "American First" was an isolationist organization that fought with FDR prior to Pearl Harbor. OTOH, perhaps he knows this very well. He seems to oppose everything FDR stood for so this is consistent.

The America First Committee launched a petition aimed at enforcing the 1939 Neutrality Act and forcing President Franklin D. Roosevelt to keep his pledge to keep America out of the war. They profoundly distrusted Roosevelt and argued that he was lying to the American people.

On the day after Roosevelt's lend-lease bill was submitted to the United States Congress, Wood promised AFC opposition "with all the vigor it can exert." America First staunchly opposed the convoying of ships, the Atlantic Charter, and the placing of economic pressure on Japan. In order to achieve the defeat of lend-lease and the perpetuation of American neutrality, the AFC advocated four basic principles ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_First_Committee

Trump 'profoundly distrusts' Obama and his efforts to have the US play a constructive role in the world. Trump is a genuine 21st century version of the 20th century American Firsters who clashed with FDR.

[pnwmom]

4. Imagine him having a foreign policy debate with Hillary Clinton.

She'll cut him up into bite size pieces, calmly transfer her fork from her left hand to her right, and finish him off.

[Hortensis]

6. Lol. Without missing a thought.

I suspect he'll do everything he can to avoid being on a stage with her, though. Maybe even flat refusing.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

16. Hillary the War Hawk - As SOS she pushed for bombing Libya killing 30,000 people

Hillary is more hawkish than some republicans. She always prefers bombing and starvation style sanctions
to diplomacy.

Hillary Is the Candidate of the War Machine
02/05/2016
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/hillary-is-the-candidate_b_9168938.html

HILLARY CLINTON : I VOTED FOR IRAQ WAR BECAUSE I “OWED” GEORGE W BUSH
https://pivotamerica.com/hillary-clinton-voted-iraq-war-owed-george-w-bush/

During the Democratic town hall on MSNBC on Monday March 14th Hillary Clinton admitted that she voted for the Iraq War because George W. Bush promised $20 billion to rebuild New York.

MONDOWEISS on Hillary's Iraq Vote: "Look we have to get money for New York."
"Clinton: Look, that was a mistake and I’ve said it was a mistake. And I had good friends like Vice President Biden who were with me, and I had good friends who were on the other side. And I think part of what certainly influenced me is after 9/11 you know I went to New York with Chuck Schumer, the next day, my fellow senator. We were the only plane in the sky and we flew over Ground Zero and we saw the devastation, and we were briefed fully on all of the threats that were still out there.

We get back to Washington I go and see then Senator Byrd, get him to commit to helping New York. Because the first request out of the White House was for 20 billion dollars for the Pentagon, for Homeland Security. Not a penny for New York. So I went and said, Look we have to get money for New York."

http://mondoweiss.net/2016/03/what-certainly-influenced-me-to-support-iraq-war-clinton-says-was-bushs-billions-of-aid-to-nyc/

LIBYA. How Hillary Clinton Lied Her Way to War in Libya.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/How-Hillary-Clinton-Lied-Her-Way-to-War-in-Libya-20160318-0008.html

Hillary Clinton's Involvement in Libya's Turmoil (video)

[pnwmom]

17. Meh. n/t

[greymouse]

20. all Trump has to do

is ask about the millions of Libya lives she ruined. Then about how she kept down wages for Haitian garment workers. Then play the video of her laughing about people dying.

[Loki]

22. Yawn

Got any new republican propaganda to post?

[thereismore]

5. Methinks Madeleine is trying too hard.

Working with Muslims to combat terrorism - would she didagree with that?

[Hortensis]

7. Trump has profoundly insulted 1.6 billion Muslims

and Islam itself many times, our own American Muslims, foreign, it didn't matter to him. The profound contradiction was what she was questioning.

[Beartracks]

8. She didn't say she disagrees with that policy proposal...

... but, rather, questions whether really is a policy proposal from Mr. Trump. She finds it non-sensical for him to say he'll work with Muslims -- an assertion which implies trust -- while at the same time banning them from this country -- a proposal which, frankly, implies mis-trust. I think Ms. Albright's take-away from this and other things he spouts on the campaign trail is that he's simply blowing around a lot of hot air and he really doesn't mean or stand for anything.

========================

[thereismore]

9. Isn't he allowed to "evolve" like some other politicians?

[Beartracks]

10. LOL - Sure, even during the course of one speech!

[Hekate]

11. "Eviscerated" is right

[1StrongBlackMan]

24. But don't you get the sense that some ...

in this thread are not happy with her doing so?

[nationalize the fed]

12. THIS Madeliene Albright?

This is a filthy disgusting "woman". I won't be taking anything she says seriously. Period.

She should be in the Hague

[Loki]

23. Cool, another anti woman screed.

That will earn you brownie points, but not here. 20 year old interview, wow.

[sufrommich]

25. WTF? Why would you put the word "woman" in scare quotes??

[Bucky]

28. Secret plot to keep Albright from using a bathroom in Alabama?

agree completely.... that "critique" was a waste of electrons (also note that I know how to use scare quotes)

[snappyturtle]

30. I can't agree more...posted same idea below. I don't care if it was a man who said

this...it's wrong. It may be 20 years old but so what...the civil war is over a century old and we don't forget that.

[MisterP]

13. the reason why we have Donald Trump condemns Donald Trump

[spanone]

14. it's like curley from the three stooges running for president...good god almighty

[jomin41]

19. Most speeches from most politicians, R or D,

are full of empty promises, tough talk, simplistic slogans, and/or incoherence, imo. Otherwise, we wouldn't be where we are.

[houston16revival]

21. The Ballot Box is what counts and this is what we're up against

Manafort

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/04/paul_manafort_isn_t_a_gop_retread_he_s_made_a_career_of_reinventing_tyrants.html

[underpants]

26. Glenn Beck (not a Trump supporter) and Limbaugh criticized Trump for using "America First"

Both pointed out that a simple google search should have steered him away from using that term. Beck pointed out how mei-nazis use it ...his nameless co-host suggested that maybe that was okay with Trump.

Caught bits of their shows over the last few days.

[cntrygrl]

27. Trump said he'd 'get tough' with China but ignores

the fact that his own daughters company bought scarves from China. When is the press going to report on this?

[snappyturtle]

29. I won't even read this. I have never and will never forgive Albright for saying

that the deaths of hundreds of thousand dead Iraqi children was worth it.

[Overseas]

31. President Obama did a great job on Trump's foreign policy experience last night at WHCD

He said "Trump has been talking with world leaders for years-- Miss Sweden, Miss Argentina, Miss Azerbaijan..."