prescient commentary from Gary Hart - 01-25-03

[OneBlueSky]

Hart: We are not prepared for war
Possible presidential candidate Gary Hart delivered a speech Tuesday lambasting the current Bush administration's homeland security policy -- or lack thereof.

by Gary Hart
salon.com
01-25-03

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2003/01/25/hartspeech/index.html

(snip)

If the return of the Assassins is the wave of the future, and I believe it is, this has dramatic consequences for how we define security and how we seek to achieve it. There are two basic schools of thought about dealing with terrorism. One school believes the threat is inevitable and that we should crush it, including preemptively, in places like Iraq. The other believes that we should try to understand the nature of the threat with considerably more thoughtfulness and eliminate, to the degree possible, its causes. The first school of thought has the virtue of simplicity. The second has the much greater chance of ultimate success.

The preemption approach, moreover, has long-term foreign policy consequences. For example, in Afghanistan, we armed the mujahedin to fight the Soviets in the 1980s. Then, when the Soviets left, we rode away and the Taliban took over and eventually provided hospitality to al-Qaida. Let's say we mount a major invasion of Iraq. And let's say we succeed in driving Saddam Hussein out -- to join Osama bin Laden, dead or alive. Then what? If we ride away again, we leave behind a much bigger breeding ground for terrorists that will haunt us in years to come. If we stay, we will be there for a very, very long time.

(snip)

This new age requires, at the very least, a new definition of security and, to achieve it, a toolbox filled with more than weapons. National security in the 21st century will require economic and political tools, not simply military ones. Trade and aid programs must become more grassroots and human scale than top-down and bureaucratic. For example, micro-loan programs directed at home, land, and small business ownership have proved enormously promising in several countries in Asia and Latin America. And in the political arena, our diplomacy must once again be based on the principles underlying our Constitution and nation -- principles of honor, of humanity, of respect for difference -- and our diplomacy must be aimed at people not just governments. We can explain our principles and ideals much better than we have been; but we must then also be prepared to live up to them. The ideals of democracy are not marketed: They are lived.

- more . . .

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2003/01/25/hartspeech/index.html

[blm]

1. Hart would have been the BEST choice for Homeland Security chief.

Bar none.

Doofus Bush refused to read the Hart-Rudman report on Global Terror that was handed to him on Jan.30, 2001.