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February 19, 2005

"It's like they're speaking different languages....."

The quote in the subject heading was said to me by two gentlemen sitting next to me at the Tom McCall Forum presented by Pacific University.

The Forum this year was a debate between newly minted Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean and former assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle. The debate topic of the evening was, "American Foreign Policy Post 9/11".

Perle gave his opening statement first...talking about his experience as a staffer for Scoop Jackson (Kev has noted the neocon connection to Jackson before). Perle went on to say that previous to 9/11, the United States had conducted a series of inadequate responses to terrorism conducted against us. He sees terrorism as deeply ideological, like Communism and Fascism. Perle used the example of Afghanistan being a pre 9/11 state sponsor of terrorism: Pre 9/11 the US gave Afghanistan more humanitarian aid than any other nation, yet the Afghan government harbored terrorists and saw no punishment for doing so.

Perle believes that 9/11 is the example of why preemptive action is necessary. He admitted that he doesn't understand the depth of size of the reaction against the preemption doctrine. It only makes sense, according to Perle, to knock out missile factories for those countries who might lob those missiles at us. Acting before it's too late is "prudence". And even though Iraq had no WMD...what would have happened if they actually did? (Kevin mentioned the unruly protester in his write-up so I'll skip it).

Dean gave his opening remarks next. Dean believes Democrats have a stronger and more thoughtful policy than do Republicans. But he decided to first cite places where he believed the GOP and Dems had common ground: we all want Iraq to succeed and for Iraqis to have a better life.

Dean then wondered aloud why Bush chose to address Iraq first, rather than North Korea or Iran, which have posed a much greater threat to the US and our interests. He also wondered why the US was dumping money so heavily into nuclear missile defense...a program that clearly doesn't work (Dean noted the most recent test failure of last week).

Dean went on to say that he believes the Republicans are failing to take a long term view of defense in three ways:

1. It's weak defense policy to run up the national debt and have the debt held by foreign governments.

2. It's weak defense policy to continue to support policies that give the US energy resources that don't come from stable sources.

3. It's weak defense policy to continually cut the benefits of US veterans.

Dean emphasized that a wider debate must happen and that we must look at the long term issues. Those long term issues involve the doctrine of preemption and how it's eroded the moral authority of the United States. A strong military isn't enough to generate a strong US defense. We must have a successful and integrated world where capitalism and democracy work for everyone. Focusing only on a strong military misses the point of yielding long term opportunities for democracy.

The two gentlemen then answered some panel questions. Dean's main idea throughout the questioning was the fundamental weaknesses of Republican foreign policy as it's currently being conducted. The GOP focus only on the military at the expense of moral authority and goodwill is undercutting the nation's ability to have a strong defense. Perle consistently maintained that the only way to conduct a proper defense against terrorism was to dump money heavily into defense and build it up in such a way that it can overpower anything and everything...whenever it wants and however it wants.

The world views held by these to men are completely different. Perle really does believe that all we have to do is have a military that can completely overpower any foe and we will intimidate all enemies into submission. Those that we don't intimidate...we bomb into submission or wipe them out.

Dean really does believe that we need a strong military to back us up when necessary. But he also believes that we can't beat terrorism unless we show ourselves to be the better alternative. That cant' be done without moral authority.

You can view the debate tonight on CSpan's American Perspectives.

Posted by Carla at February 19, 2005 09:32 AM