Overlooked in all the score-keeping about the debate were Donald Trump’s preference for peace, which we suspect the American people prefer to Hillary Clinton’s preference for war. From Justin Raimondo at antwar.com:
Hillary’s globaloney vs. Trump’s “America First”
For all Hillary Clinton’s reputation as a policy wonk, her debate performance consisted almost entirely of personal attacks. And while our media is out there proclaiming a Clinton “victory,” their evaluation merely shows how distanced they are from ordinary Americans, who don’t revel in nastiness.
Trump, on the other hand, although he allowed himself to be distracted by her cattiness, was focused on the issues, and in the course of the evening he made three important points of interest to my readers.
1) The most important issue of our time, or any time – nuclear weapons and the looming possibility of nuclear war:
“The single greatest problem the world has is nuclear armament, nuclear weapons, not global warming, like you think and your — your president thinks. Nuclear is the single greatest threat….
“I would like everybody to end it, just get rid of it. But I would certainly not do first strike. I think that once the nuclear alternative happens, it’s over.”
This is the most under-noticed – and most significant – moment of the debate. Although, to be sure, it was immediately noted by the folks over at The Intercept, who opined:
“That may seem like common sense, but it’s actually a commitment that President Obama has been reluctant to make. The Pentagon argues that unless the U.S. is prepared to threaten a nuclear strike, it is less likely to deter Russian and Chinese aggression.
“Arms control advocates have been pushing President Obama to vow ‘no first use,’ ironically in part to try and reign [sic] in a future president.”
On the other end of the spectrum, neocon columnist and Bush Republican Marc Thiessen declared this a “gaffe,” correctly noting that no President has ever taken this position, i.e. committed himself to abjuring the nuclear annihilation of humankind. It’s interesting to note what’s considered a “gaffe” in the world of the Washington insiders.
As usual, Buzzfeed obfuscated the issue, and Trump’s answer, with “political editor” Katherine Miller feigning confusion over what the GOP standard-bearer actually said. She cited him as saying:
“I think that once the nuclear alternative happens, it’s over. At the same time, we have to be prepared. I can’t take anything off the table.” [Emphasis added]
What she conveniently left out is the rest of the quote:
“Because you look at some of these countries, you look at North Korea, we’re doing nothing there. China should solve that problem for us. China should go into North Korea. China is totally powerful as it relates to North Korea.”
What Trump was referring to in saying “I can’t take anything off the table” is the unpredictability of North Korea’s loony leaders: they could well launch a nuclear first strike if they felt threatened enough. While Trump is not the clearest expositor, when you’re the “political editor” of Buzzfeed misreading the GOP nominee is obligatory.
In a rational world, this no-first-strike pledge would’ve headlined media accounts of the debate: however, in our world, the “mainstream” media – which functions as an unregistered PAC working on Hillary’s behalf – ignored this historic first in favor of what Trump said about some beauty pageant contestant in 1996.
To continue reading: The Debate: Trump’s Three Points for Peace
