Richard Viguerie’s latest post does a good job summing up VP candidate Paul Ryan’s approach to foreign policy:
Some conservatives may criticize Ryan’s [record] as evidence that he is too willing to go along with the Pentagon on spending, but that is far too simplistic. Ryan’s approach, we think, is the right one – but one too seldom made by other Republicans – and that is that the Pentagon’s budget should be strategy driven based on the threats we perceive, as opposed to the jobs program and gravy train for defense contractors it has become.
Paul Ryan’s foreign policy vision is much more subtle than the neo-con philosophy that informed the recent Bush administration and continues to exert a powerful influence in Republican circles on Capitol Hill. And Ryan’s closing is worth considering, particularly for the contrast that it offers with the incoherent “apologize, and then strategize” policy of Barack Obama.