Chris Christie Wants a More Aggressive Foreign Policy in Very Messy, Difficult Places

While RNC Chairman Reince Priebus is trying to scare Hilary into not running, while also – in case she does – talking himself into believing Hilary Clinton will not run in 2016, Chris Christie is busy trying to talk himself – and others – into believing he is still a viable candidate for 2016.

Appearing at the allegedly nonpartisan Champions of Jewish Values International awards gala in New York on Sunday, he said that America “must lead” and “in some very messy, difficult places.” Presumably, places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

You might remember here Ross Douthat’s claim that the Obama administration has not enjoyed any foreign policy successes. Chris Christie seems to build on that by demanding a more aggressive foreign policy. You know, because, how can you be successful if you don’t fight a war or two?

The rest of the world watches in desperation and hope that America will realize and act upon once again its indispensable place in the world. We must lead.

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And Christie knows perfectly well where the evil of our time resides, and it’s not Mordor:

We see Russian activism once again rearing its head in the world, we see an America that backed away from a commitment made by the president of the United States in Syria, we see a country, our country, permitting even a thought of a terrorist state like Iran having nuclear capability. It’s unthinkable that the America that has led in the way that it has always led this world would permit that to happen. Yet we are sitting in a world, we are watching the vacuum that the lack of American leadership has created being filled and it is almost never filled by virtue, it is almost always filled by evil.

If the saccharin-coated America Christie describes does not make you vomit, the brazen hypocrisy will.

According to Christie, who has demonstrated himself not to be very moral at all, says that America is “the strongest moral power for what is good and what is right in the world.” We could ask, in the wake of Bridgegate, if Christie knows the difference between right and wrong, or if he wishes merely to transfer his own bullying nature onto the international stage.

The whole reason Christie appeared, of course, is to fill is war chest with the wealth of Jewish donors, and also to make up for his recent gaffe at the Republican Jewish Coalition, where he had referred to the “occupied territories” – forgetting the conservative line that if you don’t talk about the territories in question as being occupied, then they are not, in fact, occupied.

This is just like, if you talk about Hillary not really falling down, she didn’t fall down, and if you later talk about her not only falling down but suffering brain damage, she fell down and had brain damage. And three days in the hospital become thirty, or 300 people on the capital mall thirty million – almost like a biblical miracle.

Despite all the evidence at our disposal, that there are, in fact, no Republicans to be found today evincing any discernible any values at all, Christie told his rich potential donors,

We need to stand once again loudly for these values,” he said. “And sometimes that’s going to mean standing in some very messy, difficult places. Standing long and hard for those things that we believe in.

The things Christie and other Republicans believe in include, most notably, dishonesty and hypocrisy, the two linchpins of modern conservatism – leavened with a heavy dose of greed. We saw how well a foreign policy based on these “values” impressed the world during the Bush administration. Half of his administration is now wanted as war criminals and Iraq and America were left economically ruined.

“We will either lead or disappoint,” he said, missing the irony that the last Republican president did both. And then the obligatory either-or fallacy of the bankrupt imagination: “Those are the only two choices. Unfortunately, today, in my opinion, America is disappointing. But it’s not too late.”

Well, if anyone knows about disappointing, it’s Christie. And sometimes it is too late (I am speaking about Christie here) whether you want it to be or not.

And sometimes, Hillary is going to run, whether you want her to or not.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.