Diplomacy In Dealing with Rogue Nations

CONservative Spin:

“Rogue nations such as North Korea and Iran are real threats to the world and we must recognize that negotiations and economic sanctions may not be sufficient to control them. The United States must be prepared and able to act when its interests are jeopardized; we can¬not rely on the United Nations to ensure peace, and we don’t need Blame-America-First liberals hurting the nation’s morale.”

PROgressive Response:

By Alex Carter

November 27th, 2007

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Real Security

The Bush administration has demonstrated clearly how to tear down the nation’s morale. Use September 11 and the war in Iraq as partisan clubs. Ignore your generals and rush into a war with the deluded belief that we would be greeted as liberators, and that Iraq oil revenues would pay for the costs of our involvement there. Shred the president’s credibility by fixing the intelligence to fit the policy. Then mire our forces in an extended and bloody occupation with no plan to get out.

For the United States, military force should always be a last resort, not a first response.

We face a range of threats to our national security, but we cannot ask our military to face them alone. Smart bombs won’t stop global warming or the spread of pandemic diseases. Our reliance on foreign oil makes us vulnerable to turmoil within oil-producing nations, but we cannot seize and hold every oilfield. Diplomacy, alliances, international cooperation, intelligence sharing and police work are the essential tools for heading off the emergence of real threats to our national security. They are the real means of preemption.