Foreign Policy

The following is from a paper on national security I wrote in early 2005 for the Pennacchio for Pennsylvania U.S. Senate campaign. I thought I'd post it here today since several of these issues are currently in the news.

John Morgan

By embarking on the mismanaged and badly planned invasion of Iraq, President Bush diverted military and intelligence resources from Afghanistan where they hunting the terrorists and Taliban officials who were responsible for September 11^th. We have over extended our military by committing 80% of it to the War In Iraq, alienated many of our troops with lengthy deployments, lack of armor, and the “back door draft.” President Bush and Congress even sought to reduce combat pay for the soldiers fighting in Iraq.

Instead of fostering a democratic government in Afghanistan, that country is again under the control of regional warlords, including the Taliban. Because we failed to capture Mullah Omar the Taliban has greatly increased its influence and continues to control a sizable portion of Afghanistan. Other than destroying terrorist training camps and killing or capturing some Al Qaeda leaders, we have failed in our objectives there because resources were diverted to invading Iraq. President Karzai has full authority over little more than the city of Kabul.

We have poisoned historical alliances which assisted in the very formation and preservation of our Republic. They have fostered trade, commerce, culture, friendship, cooperation, and the survival of freedom and liberty throughout much of the world over the past century.

We have also destroyed our credibility within the community of nations. The fabrications and deceptions provided to the United Nations by Secretary Powell will make it much more difficult to convince the world community that a future danger does, indeed exist. This could be a threat to our future national security.

We must re-evaluate our national security and foreign policy to reflect our real priorities: threats to our strategic national interests. Terrorists and others who have come to dislike us do not do so “because they hate our freedoms,” as Bush and Santorum attest. They become terrorists bent on destroying us because we are interfering in the internal affairs of countries and regions of the world which are not threats to our own national security. We are holding other nations to standards which we refuse to abide by ourselves, and this causes much hatred against us and motivates the terrorists who wish to do us harm.

We must accept that it is our foreign policy of intervention in such countries, especially those of the Middle East, which fuels the acts of terrorism against us. We must have a foreign policy based only upon the threats to our territorial integrity, national sovereignty, liberty, or for the prevention of genocide.

We must not engage in policies like torture which undermine American moral values. I pledge, as your United States Senator, to preserve and defend the values and principles that made our Pennsylvania and America the beacon of liberty throughout the world. I will preserve the very traditions which provide meaning to such symbols as the Liberty Bell. I will protect all of us from the dangers threatening our security.

The current foreign policy of George W. Bush is creating more terrorists, not fewer. Every new atrocity committed by the use of torture, by troops not trained for nation building, by over extended soldiers caught in an environment created by poor planning, results in more recruits for Al Qaeda. We eliminated one terrorist training ground in Afghanistan simply to create a new one in Iraq. We must correct the course we are on before we are doomed to repeat it.

We have embarked on a misguided war which has diverted us from what were the true threats to our security: Al Qaeda terrorists. As a result we have created more terrorists and new terrorist training grounds. Poor planning, the absence of a true international coalition, mismanagement, and the lack of an exit strategy have created a massive failure of policy in Iraq.

The Bush Administration’s doctrine of pre-emptive war allows U.S. intervention or invasion anywhere we suspect a nation MAY have weapons of mass destruction that MAY, at some future time, be a threat to our national security. This policy would effectively allow us to invade any nation we desired, and is fueling international fear, suspicion, and resentment against us. American military power is unmatched, but our national reputation is at its nadir. Unfortunately, because of the deceptions used to justify the War In Iraq, our international credibility in this regard has been destroyed. I do not believe a great superpower can win friends, provide world leadership, and provide peace and stability worldwide with a policy of fear and intimidation.

One reason for our weakening international reputation has been the absence of bi-partisanship in Washington. Senator Santorum has been in the forefront of the polarization which is crippling our discourse and policy. After President Bush he is the most polarizing political figure in the nation.

I believe we need a bi-partisan approach to solving the major issues facing America, foreign policy being the most critical among them. We need to begin building unity.

The proliferation of weapons grade nuclear materials from the former Soviet Union must be prevented. The Nunn Lugar Act provides funds to help secure these materials and keep them from reaching terrorists. We have not accelerated this process since September 11^th, 2001, and it should be a cornerstone of our national security strategy.

Our Homeland Security budget is one tenth of our military budget, excluding the cost of wars. The funds being expended in Iraq should have been used to upgrade our homeland security. We are spending billions on a space based anti-missile system designed for Cold War era threats. Terrorists do not use ballistic missiles to attack us. We should be more realistic in our allocation of resources. We are not properly protecting our ports, subways, mass transit systems, chemical plants or tunnels. Our borders are not adequately defended, we’ve taken 84,000 police off our streets, we have sent many of our community first responders overseas, and our terrorist watch lists are incomplete and not distributed to all Homeland Security personnel.

The suspected manipulation of Homeland Security warnings for apparent political exploitation must be eliminated. The use of fear tactics for political gain is abominable policy.

Our present policy puts all the emphasis on offensively confronting the threats from terrorism, while shortchanging our defenses. Homeland Security funds now are shared on an equal allocation per state. Wyoming and Nebraska now receive the same funding as New York and Pennsylvania. The threats to Philadelphia Mississippi are not the same threats to Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and should be treated as such.

We are embarking on a new nuclear strategy and policy which will result in the development of two, new, first strike nuclear weapons. President Bush has also announced a new policy allowing the use of a first nuclear strike against suspected nuclear facilities in non-nuclear nations. This expansion of the doctrine of pre-emptive war is dangerous, especially in light of our drastically reduced state of credibility in regard to other country’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. There are reports that Bush has ordered American troops to invade Iran and scout locations of suspected nuclear facilities. These actions constitute acts of war against Iran.

The policy of pre-emptive war has already resulted in the acceleration of nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran. Because of reckless rhetoric defining these nations as an “axis of evil,” our invasion of a nation which posed no direct or imminent threat to our national security, these two countries found it necessary for their strategic defense, to possess nuclear weapons.

Our national deficit spending is weakening this nation as the value of the dollar begins to fall precipitously, more of our tax dollars must be spent paying interest on the ballooning debt, and trillions of dollars in Federal bonds are held by other nations such as Saudi Arabia and China.

The lack of a comprehensive national energy policy requires us to engage in foreign interventions which are not in our long term national interest. Fifteen percent of our oil imports come from Saudi Arabia, making it difficult to forcefully deal with their involvement in terrorist attacks upon us. The lack of meaningful alternative energy policies and programs weakens our national security.

Our immigration situation could allow terrorists to enter our country at will. Our Border Patrol is unable to properly protect our national territory. We must enforce our immigration laws and better protect our borders.

Environmental policy has left us vulnerable to eco-terrorists. Criticism over our current failure to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, allow the clear cutting of forests, and concern over our withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, make us vulnerable to increased hostility from the world community.

Our meager contributions to humanitarian aid, as measured by our gross domestic product also contribute to the growth of terrorism. Our initial response to the tsunami relief efforts was representative of this. Even after increasing our contributions to $350 million, this is about what we spend in one and a half days destroying Iraq. This fuels resentment of America, as impoverished peoples of the world see us increasingly as selfish and arrogant.

Our new doctrine of spreading democracy to other countries runs counter to what our national strategic posture should be to prevent future terrorist attacks. It is this policy of meddling in the internal affairs of nations and regions which pose no direct or imminent threat to us that gives rise to new generations of terrorists. We did not win the Cold War to become what we feared the Soviet Union would be, if it had one that conflict: an international bully imposing its own form of government on other nations, at the barrel of a gun. These are not the values which we as Pennsylvanians and Americans, cherish and hold dear.

Using torture also undermines our national moral values. These wholesale violations of the Geneva Conventions jeopardize the ideals we seek to impose on other nations, while abandoning them ourselves. It also puts our own soldiers at risk for similar treatment. The use of torture has also been proven ineffective. We must restore the values and ideals which once made America the beacon of liberty throughout the world.

In 2003 we provided $3.7 billion in aid to the State Of Israel, $3.1 billion of it for military assistance. We provided $220 million to the Palestinian Authority. The monetary assistance for the Israeli military has enabled it to divert funds to build new settlements in the occupied territories, construct a security wall which is separating some Palestinians from their fields, and creating a climate of hatred and hostility unimaginable just four years ago. We must help establish a viable economy for the Palestinian people, an environment of peace and stability, and hope for the future so young Arab men and women have choices more viable than strapping bombs around themselves and becoming terrorists. We ceased, under President Bush, of being an honest broker in the Middle East peace process. This has greatly destabilized that region.