The Los Angeles Times: on Foreign Policy
Ayn Rand:
Economic boycott of Russia & they will retreat
Russia, like Nazi Germany, like any bully, feeds on appeasement and will retreat placatingly at the first sound of firm opposition.
[From March 1964 Playboy magazine interview:] I would advocate an economic boycott of Soviet Russia; and you would see that regime collapse without the loss of a single American life.
Source: The Ayn Rand Column (L. A. Times), "Cuban Crisis," p. 62
Oct 1, 1998
Eric Garcetti:
Studied Hindi & Urdu; Master's in international affairs
The mayor has traveled several times to India, most recently as a councilman. In college, he spent a year studying Hindi and Urdu--two of the dozens of languages spoken in the country--and during at least one visit stayed at
the ambassador's residence. Garcetti has a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University and studied international relations as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University.
Source: Los Angeles Times on 2021 Ambassadorial Confirmation Hearing
Jul 9, 2021
Gary Bauer:
End appeasement based on corporate bottom line
In a speech before the Commonwealth Club of California, Bauer delivered a scathing denunciation of China and accused "the Wall Street wing of the Republican Party" and the Clinton administration of conducting a policy of appeasement based on economic,
rather than security, interests. "Our foreign policy must have a greater purpose than the corporate bottom line," Bauer said.
Source: Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times
Sep 28, 1999
George W. Bush:
Will keep sanctions against Cuba
Bush pledged today to take a hard line against Cuban leader Fidel Castro if elected president: "My word to you, Mr. Castro: Let your people live in freedom. I challenge the Castro regime
to surprise the world and adopt the ways of democracy. Until it frees political prisoners, and holds free elections and allows free speech, I will keep the current sanctions in place."
Source: AP Story, LA Times
Aug 25, 2000
George W. Bush:
US will be a friend to Latin American democracies
Bush, continuing his focus on foreign policy, met today with Mexico's President-elect Vicente Fox. "I believe we ought to enforce our borders. My pledge will be: Should I become the president, I'll work and have a good, long-term relationship
with [him] and continue a good relationship with Mexico. As long as you are on the road toward liberty, you will not be alone. As long as you are moving toward freedom, you will have a steady friend in the United States of America."
Source: AP Story, LA Times
Aug 25, 2000
George W. Bush:
Patrol borders, but also invest in Latin America
Bush would:- Ask Congress for $100 million to provide no-collateral loans to the poor.
- Hire more border patrol agents and reform the Immigration and Naturalization Service to crack down on illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
- Establish
an "American Fellows Program" in which young men and women from those nations would be invited to work in the U.S. government.
- Call on Latin American governments to lift barriers of over-regulation that prevent the poor from creating businesses.
Source: AP Story, LA Times
Aug 25, 2000
Kamala Harris:
The way to keep us safe is NOT to keep outsiders out
Accept Syrian refugees? The desire for a middle ground was evident in interviews with some California candidates for the 2016 U.S. Senate contest.California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris said in an interview that she opposed the GOP measure because it set
up an "untenable" system. Beyond the current 18-to-24 month vetting process, it would have required top federal officials to certify that individual refugees pose no threat. She recalled a heart-rending photo of a drowned Syrian toddler, part of a
refugee family torn apart while trying to escape: "We can't allow the images of the tragedy of what happened in Paris to blind us to the image of a 3-year-old child who washed up on a Mediterranean beach." She said, "There is a drum beating,
that the way to keep us safe is to keep outsiders out. That scares me. Ask native Americans: We are a country of immigrants." But, she added, "there's no question that we have to be vigilant."
Source: LA Times, "Syrian Refugees?" on 2016 California Senate race
Nov 22, 2015
Pat Buchanan:
Interventionism is the incubator of terrorism
In the presidential campaign of 2000, we failed to make foreign policy the issue. But what I said then retains relevance: How can all our meddling not fail to spark some horrible retribution....
Have we not suffered enough--from Pan Am 103, to the World Trade Center, to the embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam--not to know that interventionism is the incubator of terrorism?
Or will it take some cataclysmic atrocity on US soil to awaken our global gamesmen to the going price of empire?America today faces a choice of destinies.
We can choose to be a peacemaker of the world, or its policeman who goes about night-sticking troublemakers until we, too, find ourselves in some bloody brawl we cannot handle.
Source: Los Angeles Times, Op-Ed page
Sep 18, 2001
Page last updated: Aug 06, 2024