Right's 'Centrists' Gang Up on Dean

[dkf]

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-op-gibney28dec28,0,5743113.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

Right's 'Centrists' Gang Up on Dean
Far from radical, the Democrat's insistence on multilateralism is eminently sensible.

By Frank Gibney, Frank Gibney, president of the Pacific Basin Institute, is professor of politics at Pomona College and the author of "The Pacific Century" and other books on Asia and foreign policy.

SANTA BARBARA — Listening to Howard Dean's foreign policy speech at a recent meeting of the Pacific Council on International Policy, I was impressed by its realism. Here was a candidate calling Americans back to the policies of international cooperation and alliance that helped us create the United Nations, put Western Europe on its feet, bring Japan and Germany back to democracy and take the lead in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In short, the policies that enabled us to triumph over the Soviets in the Cold War. As a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, I was reassured by Dean's references to Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Clinton and, for that matter, the first President Bush in their reliance on multilateral action to keep the peace.

Dean's post-speech answers to questions about U.S. relations with China, North Korea and the Israel-Palestine conflict also had the ring of realism. Going further, I had to admire his consistency in opposing the hasty, ill-timed Iraq war. His statement that Saddam Hussein's capture, while fine work by the U.S. armed forces, has not improved our domestic security one jot was dead-on. Here's one presidential candidate, I thought, who doesn't waffle on his principles.

It was thus more than mildly surprising to read media comment on the speech, according to which Dean was an extremist wrong about all things international, especially the security consequences of Hussein's capture. Who was he, a mere former governor, to ignore U.S. successes in Iraq, not to mention President Bush's morally worthy plan to bring freedom and democracy in a hurry to Iraq?

snip
This time, we rebounded from the 9/11 attacks with an initially
successful assault on the Taliban and Al Qaeda fanatics in Afghanistan, then hastily went to war in Iraq ostensibly to head off more terrorist attacks on the U.S. Our occupation of Iraq has been bumbling, in large part because we didn't bother to learn much about the country and its cultures. Meanwhile, we allowed the Taliban and the Afghan warlords to retake chunks of Afghanistan.

[Melodybe]

1. That was a good article. It says we AREN'T Traitors!

[edzontar]

2. Dean-far from a waffler or panderer--is a man of convictions..

As this piece explains.

Thanks for posting it.

[JNelson6563]

3. Good article!

Thanks for posting it! Very interersting.

Julie

[chocolateeater]

4. Kick

:toast: