Actions Spoil Candidates' Claims Of Shift To "Smart Power"

March 28, 2008

By Mort Kondracke

The three presidential candidates and much of the U.S. foreign policy

establishment all favor presenting a "kinder, gentler" face to the

world than President Bush's, but both parties have opened big holes in

their appeal.

For the Democrats, it's union-pandering opposition to free trade,

which will deny foreigners access to U.S. markets - and vice versa -

and wipe out the benefits of the big increases in foreign aid that

they advocate. Democratic Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham

Clinton (N.Y.) are vying with each other to denounce the landmark

North American Free Trade Agreement, a net boon to all countries

involved, and Democrats in Congress are blocking the Colombia Free

Trade Agreement despite it including labor and environmental

standards.

Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, are mounting new efforts to

embarrass Democrats - and their own nominee, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.)

- with restrictive new measures on immigration. Ostensibly, they are

just designed to block or drive out illegal immigrants, but the GOP

has done nothing to alter the impression that all immigrants are

unwelcome in America.

Iraq remains a major political burden for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.),

with most polls showing that 60 percent of voters believe the war was

a "mistake," although polling also indicates increasing awareness that

the McCain-backed "surge" is achieving results. Almost daily, Obama

and Clinton repeat the charge that McCain advocates a "100 year war"

in Iraq - a canard that McCain should have taken steps to correct in

his major foreign policy speech in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

What McCain actually said in a January town hall meeting in New

Hampshire was that U.S. troops might be stationed in a peaceful Iraq

for 100 years on the same no-casualty basis that they've been in

Germany for 60 years and South Korea for 50.

It's clear, though, that Iraq - and also Iran - will be major issues

in the fall election, with Democrats promising to withdraw combat

troops on a timetable and deal diplomatically with Iran, and McCain

declaring that "abandonment" of Iraq would be "morally reprehensible"

and sometimes threatening war to stop Iran's nuclear program.

Beyond those two big issues, however, a broad consensus is developing

that the U.S. needs to change its image and practice in the world by

emphasizing diplomacy, development and multilateralism instead of

concentrating on exercises of military power.

"Smart power" is the tag line being used by a number of establishment

figures in both parties to describe the combination of aid, trade,

exchanges and diplomacy needed to supplement, though not replace,

America's military might.

That's the title of a report issued last year by a commission

assembled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies

chaired by former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and

Harvard professor Joseph Nye, originator of the concept of "soft

power" to describe America's non-military assets in international

affairs. Armitage, formerly the top aide to Secretary of State Colin

Powell, told Washington Diplomat newspaper that "we've been exporting

fear and anger after 9/11, rather than the more traditional export of

hope and optimism and opportunity. ... The U.S. has to be involved

across the full breadth of our foreign policy toolbox and not so

heavily weighted toward the military."

A similar message is being issued by the Center for U.S. Global

Engagement and its Impact '08 election-year effort, led by former

Democratic Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former GOP

Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci and signed onto by an all-star cast

of former top officials, plus 50 retired generals and admirals.

Two of the latter, former CENTCOM Cmdr. Gen. Anthony Zinni and retired

Adm. Leighton Smith, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations

Committee in March for increasing the U.S. international relations

budget - especially for foreign aid and diplomats - declaring that

"the U.S. cannot rely on military power alone to keep us safe from

terrorism, infectious disease and other global threats that recognize

no borders."

Non-military "international affairs" spending rose to 0.5 percent of

GDP in 1985, then fell to a low of 0.2 percent in 1997. It's less than

0.3 percent now.

Emphasis on smart power is a recurrent theme for Obama and Clinton, of

course, both of whom have promised major increases in funding for

foreign aid and especially programs to combat HIV/AIDS and other

diseases in the developing world.

But McCain, too, is sounding a tune different from the tough-guy talk

from Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary

Donald Rumsfeld during Bush's first term - and which still lingers in

world opinion despite significant exercises in disease-fighting and

diplomacy during Bush's second term.

In Los Angeles, McCain reiterated his conviction that terrorism is

"the central threat of our time" but also declared that "the United

States cannot lead by virtue of its power alone. We must be strong

politically, economically and militarily. But we must also lead by

attracting others to our cause."

In the struggle against terrorism, he said, "scholarships will be far

more important than smart bombs."

During his recent trip to Europe and in the L.A. speech, McCain

obviously sought to distance himself from Bush by promising to

negotiate "a successor to the Kyoto Treaty" on global warming. Bush's

outright rejection of Kyoto was a major contributor, along with Iraq,

to the cratering of America's world image.

McCain also hopes that his past advocacy of comprehensive immigration

reform will distinguish him from Congressional

Republicans, who this month proposed a bevy of new measures designed

to catch and deport illegal immigrants and punish employers who hire

them.

After the defeat of comprehensive reform last year, however, McCain

switched to a "seal the borders first" stance on immigration and he

absented himself when the Senate voted on budget amendments to, among

other things, punish localities that refuse to allow their police to

round up illegal immigrants.

A National Democratic Network review of 2008 exit polls indicated that

78 percent of Latino voters participated in Democratic primaries this

year, further evidence of a steep falloff in Latino support from 2004,

when Bush won 40 percent of the vote.

Anti-immigrant fever also has led Congress to ignore pleas - by

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, among others - to increase visas for

highly skilled workers and graduate students, sending a message to the

world that the U.S. no longer is a welcoming place.

In the meantime, Democrats threaten to reverse free trade policies

pioneered by presidents of their party, including Bill Clinton. The

1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, for example, tripled trade

between the United States, Canada and Mexico and contributed to 58

percent growth in U.S. manufacturing output between 1993 and 2006.

Clinton has gone so far as to question whether the U.S. should pursue

worldwide free trade agreements - a sure way to condemn poor countries

to continued poverty. And rejection of the Colombia agreement would be

a boon to Venezuelan President Hugo Ch

"Clay" <clayonline@lycos.com> wrote in message

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Death to Fascists

Join the International Socialist Revolution

FREE AMERICA

"America Hater" <ahlbush@ok.net> wrote in message

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> "Clay" <clayonline@lycos.com> wrote in message

> news:d9aa7b23-892a-45d3-9428-a95b73426326@i29g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

> Death to Fascists

All bark. No bite.

Yer a pussy.

> Join the International Socialist Revolution

No such thing.

> FREE AMERICA

Did that already.

Beautify America: KILL a Socialist TODAY!