Foreign Policy Candidate

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/967646.asp?0cl=c1

As a former general who led NATO forces in the Kosovo conflict, Wesley Clark may well have the most expertise in world affairs of any presidential candidate in 2004. But as he gets ready to launch his presidential campaign on Wednesday, Clark needs a little intel on the weird world affairs of election politics.

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It was then that Bush declared his undying opposition to nation building in general, and U.S. operations in the Balkans, Haiti and Somalia in particular. “Maybe I’m missing something here,” he said. “I mean we’re going to have kind of a nation-building corps from America? Absolutely not. Our military is meant to fight and win war…The mission needs to be clear and the exit strategy obvious.”

At the same time, Bush really did miss something, issuing an entirely mistaken challenge to Europe. “I hope our European friends become the peacekeepers in Bosnia and in the Balkans,” he said, ignoring the fact that European troops were already more than 80 per cent of the forces on the ground. “I hope that they put the troops on the ground so that we can withdraw our troops and focus our military on fighting and winning war.”

The U.S. media largely missed that gaffe and concentrated instead on the far more important measures of presidential candidates. In the reviews the next day, Bush was hailed for his ability to pronounce foreign names without sounding like “a bumbler,” as the New York Times put it. Gore was praised in similarly superficial terms, for seeming more likeable than he did in his first debate.