Sarah Palin dropped her lengthy foreign policy manifesto on Facebook last week and we'd like to recap some of the former vice presidential candidate's key points.
Building on a speech that she gave at "Freedom Fest" in Norfolk, Virginia last week, Sarah Palin expressed a hawkish doctrine outlining her sharp disagreement with the Obama Administration on nine key areas of foreign policy. Palin calls for expanding the nation's naval fleet, eliminating the current withdrawal timetable in Afghanistan, reinforcing unconditional ties with Israel, taking a stronger stance on human rights in countries like Iran and China (while stepping back from diplomacy with "some of the world's worst regimes"), as well as embracing "American exceptionalism" and America's position as "the dominant military superpower."
Some see Palin's manifesto as a sign that she is trying incorporate these positions into the Tea Party platform and perhaps take the lead on foreign policy heading into the 2012 elections.
"In the conservative ranks and within the party, she's really quite a crucial piece in this puzzle," Tom Donnelly, defense fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy. "She's got both political and Tea Party/small government bona fides, but she also has a lot of credibility in advocating for military strength."
Here are the key points from Palin's Facebook post on foreign policy: