September 20, 2012 | 06:27 PM

Mr. Card,

I am not claiming to know what President Obama should do or have done about specific foreign policy issues, nor do I know if Romney or Obama is the better person to lead our country, but as a fan of your review column I read this article and

1) Please stop saying you are not a republican and have no desire to be one, I fail to see which set of policies you do not align with the republican party on in any of your writing.

2) I find it funny that you criticize the President for his foreign policy experience and actions while denigrating his consultation of the "academic elite" when your background is in the arts. Aren't you just another unqualified member of the media judging foreign policy choices which you (nor I) have no real knowledge of?

3) As a "student of history" you cite the barbarians who eventually dried up and destroyed the prosperity of the Roman Empire while saying that American Guns must protect our trade routes. However, in the "good times" the Romans had dealt with the Barbarians one of two ways, eliminating them (and not just defeating them in battle and expecting them to slink away with their heads down, but eliminating a large percentage of the population), or resettling them in Roman lands and eventually giving them Roman Citizenship.

We, like Rome have shown we cannot fight "small wars" (Iraq, Afghanistan) except at great cost. So unless you are advocating genocide, we need to actively change these people to our side and way of life (the modern equivalent of resettling and giving citizenship). Trying to fight a war to win a point but not annihilate the country every five years will wear on us like it did on Rome and we will eventually lose.

Diplomacy is not us telling the world what to do, but convincing the world it is the best thing to do.


Jack