AMD4

Searching around on Spiegel online for some AMD ideas, I found myself drawn to one particular story, represented by a picture of the ever-entertaining Herman Cain. I read the intro to the article in German, which contained some key words such as “Ignoranz” and “absurde,” which hardly seem out of place in an article examining Republican foreign policy, it not being their strong suit, to put it lightly. The article is actually about German concerns about how willfully ignorant Republican candidates are when it comes to foreign policy, so my guess was more or less correct. Since the American economy is tanking just as hard as Europe’s, most Americans are concerned with the “Staatshaushalt,” or the state budget and not very concerned with foreign affairs. This creates the opening for republicans to blatantly ignore foreign policy, and to get away with it.
Herman Cain for example, when asked about the President of Uzbekistan, or as he calls it in the interview: “Uzbeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan,” says: Ich weiß es nicht, or “I don’t know.” He then claims that it won’t create any jobs in America if he does, but seems to forget that Uzbekistan, which shares a Northern Border with Afghanistan (Germany, by the way, is instrumental in military actions in the North; most of its forces are based there) has been a very open and willing aid to the US for the past decade.
The article analyzes how Rick Perry wants to sell F-16 “Kampfjets” to India, and how he thinks that such a deal actually means something in the region. In reality, India doesn’t want our out-of-date jets, and anyone the US doesn’t like in that region has been dealing with far worse than the F-16 for a long time anyway. Michelle Bachman wants to use a “Grenzzaun” or border to fence to keep out illegal immigrants from Mexico.

The rest of the article shames the Republican party for their ignorance regarding how the world works. John Huntsman, who is at this point an inconsequential candidate, and ex-Beijing ambassador, is the only candidate with diplomatic experience, “konservativer Kandidat mit diplomatischer Erfahrung” and shares the same view as the article: the world works in tandem, and a country like the US can’t simply pull itself from the system and expect it to work properly.

I really liked getting a point of view on US politics from outside of the usual sources. Germany’s writes appear to have good heads on their shoulders, and recognize that the wrong person gaining power in the US could be disastrous to the teetering European economy. It might even force Europe to seek aid from China, which would not be good for the US at all.