“Presidential debate on foreign policy: live Glenn Greenwald commentary” @ The Guardian

Posted on October 23, 2012

Glenn Greenwald — October 22, 2012: “Tonight at 9pm EST, the GOP and Democratic presidential candidates will participate in a “debate” over foreign policy, in which the most difficult challenge for each will be to identify meaningful differences with the other. One expects them each to compete vigorously for the title of he who will will impose the greatest suffering on Iranian civilians, demonstrate the most fealty to the Israeli government or, as they affectionately call it, “Bibi” (Joe Biden: “with regard to Bibi, he’s been my friend for 39 years! The president has met with Bibi a dozen times. He’s spoken to Bibi Netanyahu as much as he’s spoken to anybody”), and most ruthlessly pile up corpses in the Muslim world.

It should be greatly riveting and quite inspiring. Depending on how it unfolds and the questions that are (and are not) asked, I may live-blog the festivities in this space. Or I may post a reaction once it’s done. Or I may write nothing until tomorrow morning. Whichever of those courses I embark upon, I encourage readers to use the comment section to live-blog the debate as it occurs.

For the moment, permit me to make one point about the two candidates’ positions on Iran which has broad application to most of the issues likely to be debated tonight. It is true that Romney’s war threats toward Tehran are broader and more aggressive than Obama’s, in that the Republican has vowed to prevent Iran even from obtaining the “capability” to produce a nuclear weapon, while the incumbent Democrat has vowed to prevent only its “acquisition”. That is not a trivial difference…………………….”

Read more at The Guardian.

 

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