Reflection: Realism and Giuliani

I don't know about anyone else, but I definitely got alot out of hearing Giuliani come and speak to us on Saturday Night. As he was speaking I found myself relating things he was saying to realism and things we learned in class. Imagine that! He demonstrated this throughout his speech in saying things like that the Obama administration needs to realize the reality of our security situation and be more aggressive in our stance against terrorism. He also talked about our economic situation being a national security issue. This being the case the advancement of China's economy and the decline of ours was described as against our self-interest. This was really the extent of the "self-interest" part of realism that he described but his speech was riddled with the aggressive dog eat dog world type of talk. This included things like "standing up to bullies," and threatening Iran with military power.

Also his speech didn't really include much talk of cooperation in fixing our economic and national security. Much of his speech focused on what we can do ourselves as a nation which is a very realist attitude. Now I feel I must throw my own opinion in the mix. I was very happy with what I heard because although I am pretty idealistic, this does not mean I want to give any quarter to terrorists. We need to treat the threat with a realistic approach which means considering all possibilities because we all know what happens if we don't. Also I was very interested in how he compared appeasement of Hitler to the situation with Iran. While some may see this as an exaggeration, I think Giuliani's point about the problem getting more serious the more time we allow to slip by is very valid. There will come a point where we will have to either accept a nuclear Iran or use military force. I would advise putting the military pressure on them before they acquire WMDs.

Either way you stand on the aisle, Giuliani's speech gave insight to realism and showed a different perspective of thinking. Also Just as a side comment:Who the heck was that kid who asked a question and then answered it? Really lame, just saying.