‘And what is Aleppo?’ - Gary Johnson

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Johnson was talking politics with the "Morning Joe" crew when regular guest Mike Barnicle shifted gears.
"What would you do, if you were elected, about Aleppo?" Barnicle asked.

"About?" Johnson replied.

"Aleppo," Barnicle said.

"And what is Aleppo?" Johnson asked.

A beat. "You're kidding," Barnicle replied. "No!" Johnson said, prompting Barnicle to explain that Aleppo is a city in Syria that epitomizes the country's refugee crisis and has seen some of the worst horrors of its civil war. But ... you probably knew that.

Johnson is running for president on the Libertarian Party line. He's a noninterventionist. Once he got his bearings (perkily replying "Got it!" to Barnicle's explanation), he suggested that the Syria problem was a function of American "regime change" efforts (presumably because of the instability in Iraq) and that the best way forward was to partner with Russia.

Host Joe Scarborough pressed Johnson on his whiff.

"So Aleppo is the center of a lot of people's concerns across the planet about the terrible humanitarian crisis that is unfolding not only in Syria, but especially in Aleppo," Scarborough said. "You asked, 'What is Aleppo?' Do you really think that foreign policy is so insignificant that somebody running for president of the United States shouldn't even know what Aleppo is, where Aleppo is, why Aleppo is so important?"

"No," Johnson replied

fumbling a bit. "I do understand Aleppo and I ... understand the crisis that is going on. But when we involve ourselves militarily, when we involve ourselves in these humanitarian issues, we end up — we end up with a situation that in most cases is not better, and in many cases ends up being worse."

The most generous way to view Johnson's performance is that, in the moment, he blanked on the word. They'd been talking about whether he was going to be 2016's Ralph Nader (that is, a spoiler), then Barnicle comes out with the Aleppo thing. Maybe he simply didn't change tracks fast enough. (A writer for Fusion points out that he has done this before, at one point asking an interviewer, "Who's Harriet Tubman?")
That's a very generous way to look at it, and hardly one that smooths this over for the candidate. Aleppo is a critical component of the current debate over foreign policy and something with which most Americans, and certainly a presidential candidate, should be familiar
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...p_hp-top-table-main_johnson-9a:homepage/story
 
he says he blanked on the name - fair enough..but his answer isn't any answer at all except canned Libertarianism.

But when we involve ourselves militarily, when we involve ourselves in these humanitarian issues, we end up — we end up with a situation that in most cases is not better, and in many cases ends up being worse."
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He could have mentioned the difficulties of a No Fly, or how the inability of Russia and the US/west to get on the same page of what we want the outcome to be in Syria.
Instead he gives the basic shyness about power projection.

And that's the real damage from Iraq/Libya past the obvious money & human toll.
Americans have become literally gun shy to the point they do not value an active US ( not a warmongering/interventionist US).

Who cares if Russia supplants the US in the ME? Afterall Russian interests are benign (etc.)
 
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BECAUSE I GOT HIGH
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In a make-or-break moment, Gary Johnson broke.

During an interview in which Johnson would later say he mentally “blanked,” the Libertarian Party presidential nominee on Thursday flubbed a question on the Syrian civil war, asking, “What is Aleppo?”

His fellow panelists were agape, as Johnson had just claimed unfamiliarity with a city at the heart of Syria’s ongoing civil war.

Johnson spent the rest of the morning on a self-flagellating apology tour, including a brief follow-up interview with Mark Halperin in which Johnson admitted frustration at his answer, an appearance on "The View," and a statement of public mea culpa.

It came at a particularly inopportune time for Johnson’s campaign. Johnson has hung much of his campaign strategy on qualifying for the presidential debate, and the next few weeks of polling will determine who makes the stage.





http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/gary-johnson-aleppo-gaffe-227895#ixzz4JgzoiMV2
 
Considering Trump would have not known what Aleppo is, this is being blown out of proportion. Why the double-standard?
 
This, and Open borders is why I can't vote for Gary.

He actually thinks we can go back to isolationism? In today's age of terrorism. Where people can be recruited on FB? We were barley able to pull it off prior to ww2, and we sure as hell won't be able to today.

His solution to ISIS is literally do nothing and hope they go away.
 
Establishment said:
Interventionism is what created ISIL in the first place.
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Muslims citing Islamic doctrine created ISIS.

With or without the Iraq war or with or without Obama/Hillary dropping the ball on keeping Iraq stabilized, ISIS or something like it, was going to spring up somewhere in the Middle East.
 
Darth Hussein Omar said:
Muslims citing Islamic doctrine created ISIS.

With or without the Iraq war or with or without Obama/Hillary dropping the ball on keeping Iraq stabilized, ISIS or something like it, was going to spring up somewhere in the Middle East.
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No, Muslims citing Islamic doctrine is what creates Islamic terror networks in general, such as al-Queda. ISIL is a specific entity that exists due to instability produced by the invasion.
 
Irish said:
This, and Open borders is why I can't vote for Gary.

He actually thinks we can go back to isolationism? In today's age of terrorism. Where people can be recruited on FB? We were barley able to pull it off prior to ww2, and we sure as hell won't be able to today.

His solution to ISIS is literally do nothing and hope they go away.
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PR is arguing that Trump won't fight any wars and we won't have any more refugees coming to this country as a result and that's why he supports Trump.
 
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Here's the difference - Trump wasn't asked the question, Johnson was, and he flubbed it.

Trump's fans don't care what or where Aleppo is and will vote for their master regardless.

People who might have voted Libertarian as a protest vote might not be so forgiving about Johnson's display of ignorance.

When will you realize that Trump has this in the bag, no matter what he does?
 
Establishment said:
No, Muslims citing Islamic doctrine is what creates Islamic terror networks in general, such as al-Queda. ISIL is a specific entity that exists due to instability produced by the invasion.
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ISIL is just the post product of AQ. AQ and many other terrorist orgs existed prior to really any of our ME intervention. Save the PGW.

We have no intervention in many places, Like Africa and Philippines, but radical islamists have still taken over and are raping/pillaging.

The problem with the Iraq war was nation building, no exit strategy, etc.
 
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