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Cruz’s Foreign Policy: Possibly Even More Aggressive Than McCain’s

Ted Cruz described his foreign policy views earlier this week, and inevitably invoked Reagan as his model: Reagan’s views on foreign policy, and how I would characterize my views, are that I think the United States should be a clarion voice for liberty, that we should speak against oppression, against tyranny and for freedom. I […]

Ted Cruz described his foreign policy views earlier this week, and inevitably invoked Reagan as his model:

Reagan’s views on foreign policy, and how I would characterize my views, are that I think the United States should be a clarion voice for liberty, that we should speak against oppression, against tyranny and for freedom.

I think the U.S. needs to be exceedingly reluctant to put our men and women in harm’s way. I think if and when military action is justified, it should be justified only to protect the vital national-security interest of the U.S.

Cruz’s remarks on foreign policy are politically very clever. He doesn’t pick a fight with McCain or Paul, and positions himself in between them and identifies himself with Reagan, whom all conservative foreign policy factions have sought to claim as their own for decades. It appears that Cruz doesn’t want to openly take sides in factional quarrels, and instead wants to be perceived as a Republican hawk who isn’t preoccupied with starting new wars. A closer look at his record to date shows that this isn’t the position that Cruz truly holds. On Syria, Cruz is arguably the most hawkish Republican in the Senate. Even McCain claims (for now) not to want to send ground forces into Syria, but Cruz goes so far as to demand that the U.S. send in forces to secure the chemical weapons there. Cruz’s exact words on this point were these:

We need to be developing a clear, practical plan to go in, locate the weapons, secure or destroy them, and then get out. The United States should be firmly in the lead to make sure the job is done right.

Since the Pentagon estimates that up to 75,000 soldiers would be needed to achieve that, Cruz is effectively calling for a large-scale invasion of Syria on the dubious grounds that securing the Syrian government’s chemical weapons arsenal is imperative for U.S. security. It’s worth noting that Cruz doesn’t mention his own Syria position in the interview, and he isn’t asked about it when he brings up Syria later on. He is smart not to talk about it, because it reveals that Cruz is not “exceedingly reluctant” to send Americans into war zones, and that he is, in fact, even more aggressive on Syria than McCain.

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