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All agreed Beijing is the greatest threat to the US, particularly at the American border. So what are they going to do about it?

by Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Responsible Statecraft

Foreign policy issues typically don’t bring the house down during presidential debates, but the event Wednesday night certainly broke with that tradition, leaving proverbial blood on the floor amidst the Republican primary contenders for 2024.

In this case, it was pretty much Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy who took the biggest body blows from the traditional hawks, who, sounding right from central casting (or the year 2002), said Vladimir Putin is an evil murderer, and continued aid to Ukraine to keep fighting was the only moral and right thing to do.

Stage at the final Republican Party debate, hosted by Fox News

It didn’t matter that the majority of Republican voters don’t want to send more aid to Ukraine, or that a compelling argument can be made — and has — that continuing unfettered arms supplies without a diplomatic track for a ceasefire would mean more deaths, more destruction, and more senseless brutality for Ukraine. Or that the war won’t be won by giving Ukraine more HIMARS and tanks. These cases just weren’t made by anyone on stage Wednesday night.

“The American president needs to have more clarity, they need to know the difference between right and wrong. They need to know the difference between good and evil,” charged former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, referring to the two skeptics, DeSantis and Ramaswamy. “This guy (Putin) is a murderer and you are choosing a murderer.”

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Militarism and Foreign Policy