{"id":46069,"date":"2024-02-18T10:30:16","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T18:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=46069"},"modified":"2024-02-18T10:30:16","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T18:30:16","slug":"kamala-harris-at-munich-tells-you-what-america-is-and-isnt-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2024\/02\/18\/kamala-harris-at-munich-tells-you-what-america-is-and-isnt-about\/","title":{"rendered":"Kamala Harris at Munich Tells You What America Is and Isn’t About"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views<\/a> with the author\u2019s permission.<\/i><\/p>\n

Yesterday,\u00a0in her remarks<\/a>\u00a0before the Munich Security Conference, Vice President Kamala Harris made some remarkable claims while speaking a bold truth about what U.S. foreign policy is all about.<\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s turn to the bold truth:<\/p>\n

And please do understand, [Vice President Harris said,]\u00a0our approach is not based on the virtues of charity<\/strong>.\u00a0 We pursue our approach because it is in our strategic interest.<\/em><\/p>\n

I strongly believe America\u2019s role of global leadership is to the direct benefit of the American people.\u00a0 Our leadership keeps our homeland safe, supports American jobs, secures supply chains, and opens new markets for American goods.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I bolded the key phrase: America\u2019s approach to the rest of the world isn\u2019t charitable in any way. It\u2019s about jobs, supply chains, and new markets. It\u2019s about dominance and profits and \u201cthe homeland.\u201d End of story.<\/p>\n

It put me to mind of a passage in the Bible (Corinthians) about the inestimable value of charity:<\/p>\n

And though I have\u00a0the gift of\u00a0prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. (KJV; 1 Corinthians 13:2)<\/em><\/p>\n

The U.S. can certainly move (or remove) mountains with its nuclear weapons; it certainly thinks it has a gift of prophecy with all its surveillance and spy agencies; but unless it has charity toward those less fortunate, it is nothing. It\u2019s good to hear the Vice President avow so clearly that the U.S. approach to the world isn\u2019t in any way charitable or even well-meaning.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Charity? Nope. \u201cOur approach is not based on the virtues of charity\u201d<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The remarkable claims came as Harris attacked the Republicans and Trump but without specifically naming them. Here\u2019s what she said about them:<\/p>\n

However, there are some in the United States who disagree.\u00a0 They suggest it is in the best interest of the American people to isolate ourselves from the world, to flout common understandings among nations, to embrace dictators and adopt their repressive tactics, and abandon commitments to our allies in favor of unilateral action.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let me be clear: That worldview is dangerous, destabilizing, and indeed short-sighted.\u00a0 That view would weaken America and would undermine global stability and undermine global prosperity.<\/em><\/p>\n

President Biden and I, therefore, reject that view.<\/em><\/p>\n

Are Trump and his followers arguing that America should isolate itself from the world? That America should embrace dictators? That America should betray its allies? That America should be a repressive autocracy? This is a misleading and disturbing caricature of Republicans as it accuses them of treason to the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

Perhaps some believe that Trump and MAGA truly are this malevolent. But should these accusations be made before foreign leaders at a summit in Munich, Germany?<\/p>\n

Something is seriously wrong with America\u2019s leadership. Without charity, they are nothing.<\/p>\n

William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF). He taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools. He writes at Bracing Views<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author\u2019s permission. Yesterday,\u00a0in her remarks\u00a0before the Munich Security Conference, Vice President Kamala Harris made some remarkable claims while speaking a bold truth about what U.S. foreign policy is all about. First, let\u2019s turn to the bold truth: And please do understand, [Vice President Harris said,]\u00a0our approach is not based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-46069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"'Not based on the virtues of charity'"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46069"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46075,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46069\/revisions\/46075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46069"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=46069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}