Response to Oct. 24 endorsement by Jonathan Martin, junior biology/pre-med major from San Antonio.
My initial response to Endorsement: Obama for a Second Term posted online and in last Wednesday’s paper was annoyance at several mistakes in the article but also respect to the editorial board for writing an article that is obviously not going to be very popular in West Texas. Much less Abilene. Much less ACU.
I believe this discussion is necessary at ACU to help get students involved in the debate and not just voting for who their parents are voting for. I appreciate the editors’ online apology and correction of three of the mistakes, which can be found in the comments section below the endorsement.
The original claim that, “Before Sept. 11- the last time a military battle occurred on American soil was the Civil War,” was criticized (i.e. Pearl Harbor) and has since been revised to say, “…most Americans have never experienced war as a domestic issue.” This revision is still not acceptable because it does not exclude the 9/11 attacks. In fact, most Americans have experienced war as a domestic issue.
In addition, to imply that military spending is not as necessary if there are not battles on home soil doesn’t cover the issue. Are we to wait to be attacked before ever going to war?
In my opinion, a strong military will ward off attacks while a weakened military will encourage them. America needs to be ready. We have real enemies. We have learned that the hard way too many times.
I realize that Governor Romney does not have the foreign policy experience that President Obama has. Romney has criticized Obama multiple times, though, for not being tough enough on threats like Iran and the Al-Quaeda groups in Libya. I was surprised to find no mention of this latest terrorist attack on our U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, in which four Americans were killed, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.
How are we discussing foreign policy and not even bringing this up?
Furthermore, to state that “massive military spending is not the answer to our country’s foreign problems” right after trying to make the point that America doesn’t have problems with “war as a domestic issue” seems counterproductive. Doesn’t that imply that because of our strong military, we have been successful in warding off attacks? This seems unclear to me.
I believe these corrections give Governor Romney the foreign policy point. President Obama has not been hard enough on real threats to our homeland. Cutting the military budget and weakening our military is not the answer.
Lastly, I would’ve liked to see this article focus on points more relevant to a Christian college student’s perspective, as it claimed from the beginning. The Christian college student should be concerned with the candidates stances on issues regarding Christian values like welfare, gay marriage and abortion.
College students in general want to know where candidates stand on issues like making college more affordable and getting a job right out of college in a struggling economy. I know that when I graduate, before I focus on who we’re at war with or getting health insurance, I’m going to want to pay off my student loans and get a job.
