?? How can a weathervane conduct foreign policy properly?

[MADem]

23. He obviously does NOT know if he suggests that shi'a, Persian - Speaking, southwest

Asian Iran "team up" with sunni, Arabic speaking, Middle Eastern Saudi Arabia to "solve" the Syrian problem--as though they're good pals with no differences who just didn't think of that, themselves and needed the Wise Old American to clue them in. And more to the point, he spoke, with startlingly incorrect certainty, as though they've been sitting on the sidelines observing without putting their beak in to this point.

He's absolutely without any portfolio on this issue. He is beyond naive to the point of clueless on the matters at hand. He should read a newspaper before he shoots off his mouth.

When he made those unhinged remarks, it was a very frightening thing to behold--it reminded me of the way George Bush used to yammer on as a candidate about his simplistic foreign policy goals. People said "Don't worry--he'll get good advisors." We saw what he ended up with. It's not something you can take a crash course in--it's clear to me he doesn't understand the issues on the ground today and he sure as heck doesn't understand the history of the region.

And--by all accounts--he is entirely UNINTERESTED in learning.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/17/bernie-sanders-foreign-policy-platform-lacking

It’s clear that Sanders would rather focus on his longtime hobby horse: political revolution and class-based economics. “I understand there are some who think that because of this attack we no longer have the capability to address the collapse of the American middle class. I disagree,” Sanders said in a speech in Cleveland on Monday night. “Our country and the world can and will defeat Isis and at the same time, we will rebuild our disappearing middle class.”

The speech, in which he called for an international effort to “eliminate the stain of Isis from this world”, was Sanders’s first in-depth effort to address the issues surrounding Paris. During the Democratic debate, just 24 hours after the attacks, Sanders spent minimal time talking about the tragedy in his opening statement before abruptly segueing to his usual campaign talking points on domestic economic populism. What’s more, a Sanders aide had actively argued with the network hosting the debate, CBS, when the moderators signaled they would lead with a discussion of the terrorist strikes.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/bernie-sanders-foreign-policy-deficit-218431

When asked whether Sanders has a full-time campaign staffer who handles foreign policy issues, his campaign did not respond. And several people whom the Sanders campaign has cited as sources of national security advice tell POLITICO they barely know the socialist firebrand.
“Apparently I had a conversation with him last August,” said Tamara Cofman Wittes, a Brookings Institution Middle East scholar, after checking her calendar upon hearing that her name was on a list of people the Sanders campaign said he had consulted in recent months. “My vague recollection is that it was about (the Islamic State) but I don't really remember any of the details.” Wittes added that she backs Clinton.
“I don’t know how I got on Bernie Sanders’ list,” said Ray Takeyh, an Iran scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations who says he spoke to Sanders once or twice about the Iran nuclear deal at Sanders’ request in mid-2015.
With a recent NBC poll showing that only 16 percent of Democratic primary voters call foreign policy or terrorism the most important issue to them, it may be that Sanders can afford to put off the task of building his national security profile until a potential nomination — and the higher expectations of a general election — comes within closer reach. But it is an axiom of presidential politics is that candidates must pass the proverbial “commander in chief test” if they hope to be elected.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/bernie-sanders-foreign-policy-deficit-218431#ixzz3zDYkCsJw

There's a REASON the GOP hasn't tried to ding him on these issues. And it's not because he's a powerhouse of knowledge, either--they're holding their fire in the event they need it for a general election. And he'll be annihilated.