Comment: The US Vice Presidential Debate

End of Vice Presidential Debate (Source: CNN)

Last week, on the 11th of October, the fabulous Vice-Presidential Debate took place.

First, I would like to extol Martha Raddatz's remarkable moderation. Second, congratulations to VP Biden and Rep. Ryan: they offered us an exciting match. Third, for those who accused Vice-President Biden of being aggressive or rude: it was a debate, not a conversation over tea and biscuits. In a debate, we expect the gladiators to digladiate; and that was exactly what was delivered. Fourth, Representative Ryan - in order to position his ticket right in the centre of the political spectrum - offered the impression that he'd say anything to sell his product (much like Mitt Romney).

Since I am in the foreign affairs business, I will only comment the points pertinent to the international community:

1) Congressman Ryan repeated a lot that the Obama administration put America in a weak position to which VP Biden answered accurately "This is a guy [Obama] who's repaired our alliances so the rest of the world follows us again" - this reply sums it all up. The world gladly allows itself to be led by the United States of America, once again.

2) Mr Ryan was rather demagogic when discussing Iran because it was not the political arm-wrestling, that we've witnessed, that conveyed to the ayatollahs that sanctions are a joke; it is America, regardless of whom its president is, who causes such contempt in the Persian clergy. However, I do agree with Mr Ryan when he says that Iran is not changing its mind concerning its nuclear programme.

Rep. Ryan mentioned, at least twice, the US silence when the Green Movement uprose; surely a criticism to what George Friedman called the "new foreign doctrine of the US, in which the US does not take primary responsibility for events, but which allows regional crises to play out until a new regional balance is reached"; however we must recall that the obsolete American doctrine - advocated by the republican ticket - is exactly what nurtured, over the years, the anti-West sentiment in the ME and, mainly what empowered Iran because when the US invaded Iraq and deposed Saddam Hussein, it removed the only obstacle to the ayatollahs' Imperialistic Ambitions in the region; meaning that America did Iran a huge favour. And that is why Persia mocks the US and its allies up to this day.

3) Congressman Ryan (pursuing the republican strategy of showing that Israel and the Obama administration are tacit adversaries) was extremely fallacious when stating "They [Iranians] see President Obama in New York City the same day Bibi Netanyahu is and he, instead of meeting with him, goes on a...on a daily talk show" for this was an outright lie - President Obama was in NYC on the 25th of September to address the UNGA; and, PM Netanyahu arrived in the US on the 27th of September to address the UNGA (video of his arrival). Unless Mr Ryan meant to complain about President Obama not having met the Egyptian President - who indeed was in NYC on the same day - after President Mursi failed to clearly decry the attack on the US embassy in Cairo on the Anniversary of the 9/11.

What is more astonishing is the lack of respect some Christian republicans have for Judaism: first, Mitt Romney scheduled his visit to Eretz Yisrael on Tisha b'Av (a day of Fast), having landed there on a Shabbat; then, his running mate wrongly assumes that PM Netanyahu would be in NYC on Yom Kippur (the Holiest Jewish Holiday).

4) Representative Ryan didn't seem to know how the UN Security Council works (he suggested that the Obama administration "allowed" Russia to "water down sanctions"), so we thought we should give him a hand - the United Nations Security Council is comprised of 5 permanent members (United Kingdom, United States, France, Russia, China) and 10 non-permanent members (presently: Portugal, Morocco, Pakistan, Guatemala, Togo, Azerbaijan, South Africa, India, Germany, Colombia). The five permanent members alone hold the veto power - no one allows them to veto; they have that power from the get-go.

5) Paul Ryan took the wrong road when he insisted that the US shouldn't completely withdraw from Afghanistan; confessing to the world that his ticket has indeed Imperialistic Ambitions in that region, as well as in the Middle East (particularly when he was ambiguous regarding Syria. By the way; he said that no one is "proposing to send troops to Syria. American troops" then whose troops? This is something the international community needs to ask & prepare itself for). It is time for the Afghans to take charge of their country and be responsible for their own security. The US has reached the goal of that war: Osama Bin Laden is dead. Another thing, what is this republican obsession with Russia? We are not in the Cold War any longer. And Russia's role in the Syrian issue is not exactly what it seems to be.

I agreed with both Rep. Ryan and VP Biden on the abortion issue. I too believe that life begins upon conception; I too am against denying life to foetuses; but I also think that I have no right to impose my sense of ethics on others, thus restricting their freedom to choose and to face the consequences of their own choices.

One position raised a red flag though:

"I don't see how a person can separate their public life from their private life or from their faith." (rep. Ryan)...did he just confess that he doesn't see with good eyes the separation between State & Church?