Palin Channels Her Inner India

In reporting foreign policy I try to stick to the facts and away from the wing-nut fringe of both parties. I have mostly been successful at doing this because, well, wing-nut righties and lefties tend to stick with their own and don't venture far from the delusional kingdom.

That changed this week when Sarah Palin traveled to India to bolster her foreign policy street-cred for an anticipated ill-fated 2012 presidential run.
According to the Associated Press, Palin addressed a group of ''well-heeled'' New Delhi business leaders Saturday with a speech entitled, "My Vision of America." (Editor's note - I had an 8th grade civics paper by the same title ... I'm pretty sure it is not the same content)
In her speech Palin called for India and the U.S. to unite against China saying, "We're going to need each other, especially as these other regions rise." She also implied, in typical Momma Bear logic that China was preparing for global conflict, "What's with the military buildup? China’s military growth can't just be for defensive purposes.''
I guess it has escaped Palin's calculus that the U.S. spends more on purely ''defensive'' military spending than most of the world combined.
Palin continued her distorted vision of America by telling the supportive audience that, "Free people in a free country don't wage war on another country." Again it seems to have escaped Palin that the free people of America have waged almost constant war for a quarter of a century beginning with the invasion of the island of Grenada in 1983 to the continuing 10-year struggle in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The same week Palin was saying, “I want peace on Earth,” the U.S. was conducting Predator strikes in Pakistan – a sovereign country we are not at war with. In retaliation, sovereign Pakistan pulled terrorism talks with the United States. The most recent strike killed 47 civilians according to Pakistani officials. A U.S. military spokesman, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the deaths were insurgents or "at least sympathizers.'' I wonder if in Palin's vision free peace loving Americans bomb civilian sympathizers? Unfortunately, in typical Palin fashion, journalist are not part of her vision of America and were barred from the speech, so we may never know what Palin really thinks, or if she thinks at all.
The problem with wing-nuts, righties or lefties, is that once they get off the reservation they are loose cannons with lit fuses you never know when or how they will go off. The people and nations they engage might see them for what they are - is Palin a politician these days or a reality TV star...is there a difference, or the world might take her antagonistic words to explain Americans often confessed militaristic foreign policy. Diplomacy is the language of subtlety and nuance, not the growls of a delusional grizzly - much can be lost in translation.
After visioning India, Palin departed to deliver her words of wisdom to Israel - Mideast peace may never be the same.