This has been a disaster recently. We, as a country, need to get a better handle on our reputation in the world and play masterfully. The relationship with the world must be such that we are perceived as a strong, yet considerate, nation. Today, we are perceived as weak and as bullies. I want to make every effort to change our perception. We need a very wise and comprehensive strategy to achieve these results. My opponent has been supporting Iran and its proxies through his naive positions on no retaliation against Houthi rebels and an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza. A policy of timidity encourages rogue regimes in places like Russia, Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine. We must not support progressive Democrats like Rashida Tlaib, who is openly pro-Hamas.
Israel is suffering! I ask myself what I would do if my wife or teenage daughter was gang-raped, butchered, and roasted alive. What would America have done if thousands of its innocent citizens were massacred in the same fashion? The answers are painful and horrifying. We must help Israel get rid of the hateful Hamas and its supporters.
I feel for the innocent casualties of the Palestinian people. The situation is tragic, and the only solution lies in the hearts of the two peoples. How can both sides stop hating each other? How can Palestinians achieve their rights peacefully? How can we convince Palestinians to stop teaching their kids to hate Jews and to destroy them in order for themselves to survive? How can Israel secure long-term security? We must think beyond tactical ceasefires and Iran/Houthi blackmail.
The Ukrainian war is overextended. We should have encouraged a peace treaty a long time ago and pursued it quickly after the Istanbul peace talks failed. Obama completely misjudged Russia, essentially encouraging Russia to do what is happening today. Millions in Ukraine are being displaced and their lives ruined because the Democrats played a weak and unwise game. Trump gave arms to Ukraine, but not enough, and made no attempts to negotiate with Russia, despite the 1994 Budapest agreement, to secure Ukraine’s integrity and potentially our and European security. We need to elect people in Congress and presidencies who have some sense of history, wisdom, and sensitivity to the world’s cultural differences. In a shamefully ignorant fashion, my opponent, the current congressperson of the CA17th district, tweeted recently that Ukrainians are Nazis (Putin says that too! The tweet has been deleted since). It is still not too late; we need to continue funding Ukraine and stop, or severely punish, countries like Russia for bullying and invading other countries. The world needs to come together to defeat Russia. Today, innocent people on both sides are suffering.
The UN was formed to ensure no country invades or threatens the security of another country. However, the Security Council structure is questionable in enforcing such a charter. We must initiate change; Russia should be removed as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and the US must take the first step. Other strong nations then must be convinced to follow a non-interference principle for world peace in the future. No nation has the right to invade countries and cause loss of lives and property to its population. We need a new United Nations order to ensure that peace and security are guaranteed to all weaker nations trying to live freely and democratically.
Oil dependency was almost over in the last administration, but Biden’s administration reversed many policies to create shortages, apparently to make the alternative energy lobby happier. Just recently, because of inflation and unprecedented gas price hikes, the administration has been forced to allow exploration on public lands to allow increased production. Such naive and experimental approaches by the administration, and some Congress people like Ro Khanna who supports going after the oil companies and redistributing their profits, in managing the country and the world must stop. It is too dangerous and reckless.
I, as a congressional candidate from Dist. 17 of California, will strongly recommend that our current and future administrations create longer-lasting foreign policies based on solid principles of world peace, non-interference, human rights of freedom to choose, fair trade practices, IP protection, balanced world economies, support of smooth changes in energy sources, reduction of pollution, and balanced world populations.