Politics & Current Affairs — November 14, 2011

Stop the Scaremongering on National Security

The “I’m stronger than you on national security” saber-rattling by Democrats and Republicans is cheap and dangerous, yet many Americans are sucked in by it.

bigthinkeditor

What’s the Latest Development?

America does not need another election that hinges on imagined weakness aimed at frightening the public, says former senior international correspondent for CNN, Walter Rodgers. He fears that Americans too easily believed the “simplistic myth perpetuated in the Republican debate Saturday that Obama and Democrats are weak on national security while Republicans keep the US strong.”

What’s the Big Idea?

Such political disingenuousness can breed immense tragedies, warns Rodgers. In 1964, Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater was at President Lyndon Johnson to bomb North Vietnam. With an eye on his election prospects and fearful of being called “weak”, Johnson took America into the disastrous war in Vietnam in the hope it would prove him strong.

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