Janell Chang: Foreign policy too important to be left to blowhards

With the United States national election slowly approaching, the population has some time to think about the foreign policy plans that each candidate has put forth. Most of the candidates have made their points about pushing back against ISIS. Donald Trump has even declared that he could fix the Middle East better than the current government.

Foreign policy is not something to take on so flippantly, and it would serve the population well to carefully consider the consequences of throwing military might at all the issues that our government is currently monitoring. Those in the military joined to serve this country and it would be dishonorable to send them to fight wars just so politicians can make a point.

There was an applicable quote from “The West Wing,” the political television series. An Air Force transport carrying military healthcare workers was shot down by a Syrian missile: “You think ratcheting up the body count’s going to act as a deterrent? You are just as stupid as these guys who think capital punishment’s going to be a deterrent for drug kingpins. As if drug kingpins didn’t live their day to day lives under the possibility of execution, and their executions are a lot less dainty than ours and tend to take place without the bother and expense of due process.”

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 11:29 AM with the headline "Janell Chang: Foreign policy too important to be left to blowhards."