The GOP debate on Tuesday witnessed some extraordinary statements made by the Republican Candidate to the Presidential elections, Ben Carson. This was regarding the foreign policy, which throws light on what the Republicans think of the matter. Ben Carson, reflecting the Republican foreign policy made an illogical statement regarding the dire situation in Syria and Iraq.
Ben Carson declared that the Russians are trying to gain influence and control over the region by establishing their presence and hence the region must be made a no-fly zone. Along similar lines, others expressed their concerns over the middle-east talking to Russia. When asked, most of them felt uneasy about the Russian presence in the region. They felt that to make better the situation, the Americans must continue to handle the situation and must not allow Russia to determine when and where the Americans would fly.
The reason for the opinion regarding making the region a no-fly zone was to ensure that violence did not grow by way of air strikes in the region. The Republican foreign policy in this matter consists of an absurd logic. The majority of the violence spread in that area was not on account of air strikes, rather the existing turmoil and violence on field, on the ground by way of bullets and artillery. If the Republicans really wanted to contain violence in the region, they would have probably suggested a safe zone controlled and contained on the ground.
However the moderators failed to confront the debaters on this ground. To even have a safe zone on the ground, the US would require many troops to oppose the rebels and extremists. Even with the support of their Kurdish and Arab allies. Post George Bush, the Republican foreign policy has largely maintained that they would bring back peace and sovereignty in the area without deploying man American troops.
This policy set in after the fiasco that the Iraq war was. As this is clearly an attempt to stop the Russian influence in nations, the US is also risking a possibility of world war III. Supporting the moderate rebels to fight the Assad government, risking another for of Al-Qaeda in the region along with challenging the Russian presence is another cold war like situation, where the US heavily befriended nations just to prevent the spread of Russian communist influence and fighting proxy wars wherever possible, like in Afghanistan
Hence the illogical arguments put forward by the Republican candidates, as far as foreign policy only confirms and reflects what the attitude of the US is in the region.
