The clearest voice for sanity in the GOP race has gone all in for tonight’s New Hampshire debate with a foreign-policy speech that actually makes sense. But will sanity sell?
“We still have remnants of a top-heavy, post-cold war infrastructure,” Jon Huntsman says. “It needs to be transformed to reflect the 21st Century world and the growing asymmetric threats we face.”
The former ambassador to China argues that “America once had a foreign policy based on containment–the containment of Communism. Today, we need a foreign policy based on expansion–the expansion of America’s competitiveness and engagement in the world through partnerships and trade agreements…
“Simply advocating more ships, more troops and more weapons is not a viable path forward. We need more agility, more intelligence and more economic engagement with the world.”
As he has before, Huntsman calls for an end to the war in Afghanistan, characterizing it as “cultural arrogance to think we can make tribal leaders into democratic leaders,” and advocates counterterrorism as an alternative to nation-building.
For Huntsman, who has closed his national campaign headquarters in Florida, the New Hampshire primary is make-or-break and this debate may be his Last Hurrah to move up in the race.
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