President Obama understands it because he is serious, knows the history of it and as President is involved in it. Charles Krauthammer and Cal Thomas, two conservative journalists have never experienced it first hand. In two separate articles in the Times Picayune dated 4/1/16 titled "Assessing the final four on foreign policy" by Krauthammer and "Terrorists regard U.S. restraint as weakness" by Thomas show their lack of being serious.
Krauthammer tries to explain the foreign policy of Clinton, Sanders, Trump and Cruz who he calls the final four if one of them were elected President and fails the test. Clinton is the only one of the four with actual foreign policy experience but he does not like anything democratic so his comments on her can be taken with a grain of salt. He really is confused about the other three because of their lack of foreign policy experience and therefore has nothing serious to say except to repeat their statements made on the campaign trail which they often walk back.
Thomas in his article is still trying to sell America restraint in its foreign policy as a weakness exploited by terrorists. He can only sell it to the uninformed. He tries to use Bin Laden's statement as an example of restraint even though Bin Laden is dead and not by restraint. In fact Thomas is ignorant concerning American history and American values where restraint plays a major role in American success.
Krauthammer and Thomas has a problem as they continue to show their motivation for such articles because they want to see America hit by terrorists. They were wrong about republicans being better than democrats at keeping America safe and they will stoop to say anything. Those are the type of people connected with the news media who are feeding the extreme policies of the republican party and their Presidential candidates, especially Donald Trump. Yes, for some, conservatism is still the unAmerican ideology.
President Eisenhower was a republican, a conservative and a retired military general who knew about foreign policy, war and the role restraint played in his responsibilities as a leader. Ike, as the President was known, would be opposed to the conservatism paraded today by the republican party and the news media. And that really says it all.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
