No hearting of the Huckabees

So what to do today? Hmm...How about tear apart a presidential candidate's article for Foreign Affairs magazine? Yes. That sounds like a good idea. Spotlight on: Mike Huckabee.

I have issues with Huckabee outside of his article, America's Priorities In The War on Terror. Like sticking to a very silly promise made to an American comedian that he would be your vice presidential running mate. Stephen Colbert is awesome, and it might have been a little funny early on in the race, but keeping it up so far into it already isn't funny. Its like the guy doesn't take his candidacy very seriously. Anyway...Mr. Huckabee's opinions appear to be all too common in American politics and regular American discourse.

"The United States' biggest challenge in the Arab and Muslim worlds is the lack of a viable moderate alternative to radicalism."

No, the challenge is actually supporting the very present viable moderates who we have chosen not to listen or even report very much on.

"The potential for such moderation to emerge is visible in the way that Sunni tribal leaders in Iraq have turned against al Qaeda to work with us; they could not stand the thought of living under such fundamentalism and brutality."

First of all, working with the Americans doesn't mean you're progressive. Second, there may be some peaceful Sunnis working with us, but there are just many who are working with us because they don't want the historically oppressed majority Shia to gain ground in the new Iraq. Sectarian violence is going both ways, we shouldn't judge which side is better based on who's more willing to work for us. That is a very very common mistake in American foreign policy.

"We must first destroy existing terrorist groups and then attack the underlying conditions that breed them: the lack of basic sanitation, health care, education, jobs, a free press, fair courts -- which all translates into a lack of opportunity and hope."

Right about lack of freedom being a breeding ground for terrorism, but not poverty.

"If I ever have to undertake a large invasion, I will follow the Powell Doctrine and use overwhelming force. The notion of an occupation with a "light footprint," which was our model for Iraq, is a contradiction in terms."

Now that's just scary. We shouldn't even be thinking about the next invasion we undertake, because there should not be another invasion period.

"I support providing the Turks with actionable intelligence to go after the PKK with limited air strikes and commando raids but would prefer to train and equip Iraqi Kurds to fight the PKK and rid themselves of this menace. I regret that it took the deployment of 100,000 Turkish troops to the border with Iraq, and the PKK problem becoming a crisis, for the Bush administration to give the issue the attention it deserves. We should have put more pressure on the Iraqi government, including the Kurdish authorities, to deal with the PKK earlier. Our special envoy on the issue, retired General Joseph Ralston, quit his post last October out of frustration over the passivity of both the U.S. and the Iraqi governments. Some crises cannot be averted; this one could and should have been."

Does this guy know anything about the Kurds?

Huckabee also goes on to describe how he agrees with Bush's plan to contain Iran and how he wants to continue with it while keeping the military option on the table yet bringing in other options as well so we're not stuck with only the military. I don't agree with this idea of "containing" Iran. Mostly because that's trying to fit a round peg into a Cold War square hole. The best article I've read on this issue is here, I've also blogged about that one before, here.

Then fun of all fun, he goes on to Pakistan, criticizing the government for not fighting Al-Qaeda hard enough. Well, if the US would've had a better strategy in Afghanistan, then Pakistan might not have had to concentrate its limited efforts on the spill-over and influence of the Taliban in Waziristan. He's right to criticize Musharraf where he does, but his chief criticsm seems to be that Musharraf bending over far enough for the US. Its just indicative of an overall view that the world's allegiance should be to America because America and global security and interest are one and the same and that is just ridonkulously arrogant.

In short, Mr. Huckabee has jerkface politics, and unfortunately, his views aren't all that unique.