An article in the Guardian today on Giuliani’s quasi-lead in the Republican candidate pool. In the sidebox (or very bottom of the online article here) are some rather frightening bits of information I had, before now, been unaware of.
- His campaign team includes neo-conservatives such as Norman Podhoretz, who advocates bombing Iran “as soon as logistically possible”.
- Other foreign policy advisers include Daniel Pipes, who favours profiling Muslims at airports and reviewing Muslims working for the police and other law enforcement agencies.
- Mr Giuliani expressed support for electronic surveillance and “aggressive questioning”.
- Democrats and liberal journalists are keen to point to his record in New York, during which they claim he was vindictive in pursuing those who opposed him, grabbing extra executive powers, and implementing illiberal policies. (Am I the only one who notices a resemblance to our current dictator-in-chief on this particular point?)
Most striking is that Giuliani’s relative ease with the idea of bombing Iran to prevent their obtaining nuclear weapons is very likely the reasoning behind the shocking news this week that Pat Robertson is officially backing Giuliani. In addition to this the two men apparently share a similar view of Israel and the rest of the Middle East in that they want to support the former unquestionably and bomb the latter back into the stone age. Ok, so the last bit is my take on their view of the Middle East but I bet when it comes down to it I’m not far off.
The main point is be afraid, be very afraid. Forget Giuliani’s apparent ‘insanity‘ and look more closely at what he might do to the US if he were put in charge. It would possibly be four to eight more years of what we have currently, possibly even worse. I don’t care if you are a Republican or a Democrat, do not support Giuliani. He may seem likeable and, yes, he governed New York during a terrible time but that does not make him good president material as evidenced by the above.