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2008 Elections

U.S.-Arab Relations: Republican Candidates

Posted on Wednesday October 24, 2007

Former Mayor Rudolf Giuliani

America has a clear interest in helping to establish good governance throughout the world. Democracy is a noble ideal, and promoting it abroad is the right long-term goal of U.S. policy. But democracy cannot be achieved rapidly or sustained unless it is built on sound legal, institutional, and cultural foundations. It can only work if people have a reasonable degree of safety and security. Elections are necessary but not sufficient to establish genuine democracy. Aspiring dictators sometimes win elections, and elected leaders sometimes govern badly and threaten their neighbors. History demonstrates that democracy usually follows good governance, not the reverse. U.S. assistance can do much to set nations on the road to democracy, but we must be realistic about how much we can accomplish alone and how long it will take to achieve lasting progress.

The election of Hamas in the Palestinian-controlled territories is a case in point. The problem there is not the lack of statehood but corrupt and unaccountable governance. The Palestinian people need decent governance first, as a prerequisite for statehood. Too much emphasis has been placed on brokering negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians -- negotiations that bring up the same issues again and again. It is not in the interest of the United States, at a time when it is being threatened by Islamist terrorists, to assist the creation of another state that will support terrorism. Palestinian statehood will have to be earned through sustained good governance, a clear commitment to fighting terrorism, and a willingness to live in peace with Israel. America's commitment to Israel's security is a permanent feature of our foreign policy.

September/October 2007
Article, “Toward a Realistic Peace,” Foreign Affairs

Gov. Mike Huckabee

We're in a race. We're in a race for our lives against people who want to kill us. And a lot of the reasons that we are entangled in the Middle East is because our money buys their oil, that money ends up coming back to us in the way of Islamo-fascism terrorists.

We've got to come to the place where everything is on the table: nuclear, biofuels, ethanol, wind, solar -- any and everything this country can produce.

…So it's critical that for our own interest, economically and from a point of national security, that we become energy independent and commit to doing it within a decade.

October 9, 2007
Transcript, Republican Presidential Debate, Dearborn, MI

Sen. John McCain

On exporting democracy & the elections in Gaza:

We fail to appreciate that elections do not mean democracy, that it is rule of law. And rule of law, by the way, is beginning to take hold in Iraq, just as peaceful and more secure -- more secure, not totally secure -- neighborhoods in Baghdad and in Anbar and in other parts, in the Kurdish areas, is beginning to take place, which will then allow true democracy to take place. It’s naive to say that we will never use nuclear weapons. It’s naive to say we’re going to attack Pakistan without thinking it through. What if Musharraf were removed from power? What if a radical Islamic government were to take place because we triggered it with an attack? But the fundamental -- by the way, you quoted President Bush. President Kennedy also said at his inauguration that would go anywhere and bear any burden. I believe the reason why we won the Cold War and the reason why we are still a shining city on a hill is because of our advocacy and our dedication to the principles that all of us are created equal and endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights.

That’s all of us, no matter where we live in the world, no matter what our faith or our beliefs are. And I will continue to advocate for freedom and democracy and rights for all human beings.

August 5, 2007
Transcript, Republican Presidential Debate, Des Moines, IA

Rep. Ron Paul

Our responsibility is to spread democracy here, make sure that we have it. This is a philosophic and foreign policy problem, because what the president was saying was just a continuation of Woodrow Wilson’s “making the world safe for democracy.” There’s nothing wrong with spreading our values around the world, but it is wrong to spread it by force. We should spread it by setting an example and going and doing a good job here. Threatening Pakistan and threatening Iran makes no sense whatsoever. We went in -- and I supported going after the Al Qaida into Afghanistan -- but, lo and behold, the neocons took over. They forgot about Osama bin Laden. And what they did, they went into nation- building, not only in Afghanistan, they went unjustifiably over into Iraq. And that’s why we’re in this mess today.

August 5, 2007
Transcript, Republican Presidential Debate, Des Moines, IA

Gov. Mitt Romney

Yes, I think Barack Obama is confused as to who are our friends and who are our enemies. In his first year, he wants to meet with Castro and Chavez and Assad, Ahmadinejad. Those are our enemies. Those are the world’s worst tyrants. And then he says he wants to unilaterally go in and potentially bomb a nation which is our friend. We’ve trying to strengthen Musharraf. We’re trying to strengthen the foundations of democracy and freedom in that country so that they will be able to reject the extremists. We’re working with them -- we’re working with them...

It’s wrong for a person running for the president of the United States to get on TV and say, “We’re going to go into your country unilaterally.” Of course, America always maintains our option to do whatever we think is in the best interests of America. But we don’t go out and say, “Ladies and gentlemen of Germany, if ever there was a problem in your country, we didn’t think you were doing the right thing, we reserve the right to come in and get them out.”

We don’t say those things. We keep our options quiet. We do not go out and say to a nation which is working with us, where we have collaborated and they are our friend and we’re trying to support Musharraf and strengthen him and his nation, that instead that we intend to go in there and potentially bring out a unilateral attack. Recognize to win the war on jihad, we have to not only have a strong military of our own -- and we need a stronger military -- we also need to have strong friends around the world and help moderate Muslims reject the extreme. Because ultimately the only people who can finally defeat these radical Islamic jihadists are the Muslims themselves.

We’d love it if we could all just come home and not worry about the rest of the world, as Ron Paul says. But the problem is, they attacked us on 9/11. We were here; they attacked us. We want to help move the world of Islam toward modernity so they can reject the extreme...

August 5, 2007
Transcript, Republican Presidential Debate, Des Moines, IA

Rep. Thomas Tancredo

Excerpt

The Clash of Civilizations. I happen to be a devotee of Mr. Huntington and believe it's true, it is a clash of civilizations. I believe that what we are fighting here is not just a small group of people who have hijacked a religion, but it is a civilization bent on destroying ours. Radical Islam has been the foe of Christiandom for centuries. The most serious foe of Christiandom. The battle ebbs and flows, peaks and becomes less intense, but it has been going on for centuries. We have never really been bothered by it, because the world was a place in which you could not really attack the United States physically. There were oceans separating us and if you did come, what were you going to come with? A gun, a rock, an arrow? But today it has all changed, it has taken on a different dimension.

People ask me, "Well of the Islamic Community, how many would you say are really terrorists?" I say, "There are relatively few, less than 10% of the Muslim population that you could categorize as (supporters of) terrorists." Now how many people in their heart of hearts in that community want to see the demise of this country? How many would cheer, not out loud maybe, but in their heart when things like 9/11 occur and I'll tell you; it's a majority among them. Now this becomes a little more complicated, so hang with me. Remember that I said the threat to the United States comes from two things; the act of immigration combined with the cult of multiculturalism? We strain to tell Americans and aliens in this country that there's nothing unique about America, nothing unique about American civilization, nothing that requires their allegiance, nothing of great value that they should sacrifice for. Then of course people come here in big numbers, from other countries, in other cultures, in other political and religious ideologies, and they come ready to do battle and we encourage it. We don't try to integrate them, we actually encourage their separateness. We encourage them to stay separate, to retain political allegiance to other countries, to other ideologies. This combination, massive immigration & radical multiculturalism, is a prescription for our own demise.

We will never be able to win in the clash of civilizations, if we don't know who we are. If Western civilization succumbs to the siren song of multiculturalism, I believe we're finished.

On groups like Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas:

We should be going after every one of them. We have to fight radical Islam wherever it exists. It's in Afghanistan, it's in Saudi Arabia, throughout the Middle-East in big numbers and it's in the United States. We have to fight it everywhere and you fight it not just with arms, you fight it with ideas. ...Just the force of arms will not succeed.

Article, “An Interview With Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO),” Right Wing News

Former Sen. Fred Thompson

But you have to look at the bigger picture. Most economic downturns over the last 25 years have been preceded by a spike in oil prices. There's probably plenty of oil out there for the indefinite future. But price is an issue.

And that brings in the whole question of the importance of stability in the world. The United States, since the end of World War II, has been a force for stability and democracy, which helps bring about stability, for a long, long time.

Our policies with regard to places like the Middle East and Iraq right now are very important with regard to the very issue we're talking about, because instability and crises in the wrong parts of the world are going to cause dramatic results in the upward movement of oil prices, and that could be devastating to our economy.

October 9, 2007
Transcript, Republican Presidential Debate, Dearborn, MI