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WORD COUNT
680
MARCH 21, 2007
YOU WANT A NEW
DIRECTION? HERE’S ONE – by Marcus Raskin
The American people
tried to wake President George W. Bush out of his fantasies with last
November's elections. The Democratic victory signaled our distress over
Iraq, which has killed thousands of us and left tens of thousands
wounded. The toll is even higher in Iraq, where hundreds of thousand of
civilians are dead as a result of the pointless war.
However, Mr. Bush
won't give up his fantasy. With what amounts to a slap in the face of
Congress and the American electorate, he is expanding the war by sending
21,500 additional troops.
The administration
has advanced no rational argument suggesting that its Middle East
endeavors will either bring peace to Iraq or help resolve the entrenched
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There's no evidence that current policies
will yield anything but a prolonged disaster in Baghdad, a new war with
Iran and continued turmoil in Lebanon.
The Iraqi people have
no more faith in these policies than we do. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
doesn't want additional American troops in Baghdad. Indeed, he wants the
United States out as quickly as possible. A September 2006 poll
conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes revealed that
7 out of 10 Iraqis want the United States to leave within a year. Iraq's
infrastructure is in ruins, the environment, the water and sanitation
systems are virtually destroyed, and violence between groups and within
groups rage, exacerbated by the lingering U.S. presence.
U.S. citizens
recognize their responsibilities to themselves and to Iraq. Though our
own infrastructure is decaying, we must provide sufficient
reconstruction funds for Iraq. The costs of ending the war now will be
much less than continuing. In fact, Mr. Bush has requested an additional
$93 billion for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq this year and will
ask for $142 billion for 2008. His military budget request totals $623
billion.
We need to learn from
this debacle. That requires that we reevaluate America's role in the
world. As a start, the United States should shift its policies 180
degrees in the United Nations and work to establish a program of
economic and social development, in which the United States pledges to
give between 1 percent and 2 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
for economic development, education and confidence-building measures
between peoples and states.
The United States
should also resurrect George Washington's view of "No Passionate
Attachments" to any particular nation. In the 21st Century, this entails
a passionate attachment to all people, for that is the nature of human
rights. Such an idea does not begin with armed conflict. It begins with
a careful analysis of how the United States will operate in the world as
one of many nations, rather than as the superpower that knows best.
Furthermore, the
United States must avoid making more global messes. The nuclear option
must be removed from the table, including threats of "preemptive" and
"preventive" war. No one should feel secure in a command structure that
gives any U.S. president the power and authority to use nuclear weapons
in a first strike. Nor should one feel any more secure bestowing that
power to any nation that has nuclear weapons, whether it's India,
France, China, Israel, Pakistan, Russia or others attempting to acquire
them. Instead, negotiations need to go forward on general disarmament
and real security, as envisaged by the 1975 Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty.
It's also time for
the United States to abandon the same tough talk used against Iraq
leading up to the 2003 invasion. Two countries presently in the U.S.
crosshairs, Syria and Iran, are homes to millions of people and they
must be accorded respect by serious discussions leading to negotiations
regarding Iraq, the Middle East peace process and Iran's nuclear
intentions.
A new course in Iraq
and a reevaluation of America's role represents a melding of realism
with high aspiration based on cooperation, instead of fear and
devastation. If voters can sustain their interest and if the Democratic
Party succeeds at leading us into a new era of cooperation rather than
conflict leading to wars, sound direction will be set for the next stage
of the 21st Century.
--
Marcus Raskin is the
co-founder of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington and the
co-author with Robert Spero of "The Four Freedoms Under Siege: The Clear
and Present Danger of Our National Security State" (Praeger 2007). A
photo of Marcus Raskin is available at:
www.minutemanmedia.org
CLICK HERE
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