I wasn’t sure about the best way to organize our presidential endorsement. Cover the issues? No, that’s a personal preference. Dwell on leadership intangibles? Too subjective. Bring it back to foreign policy, war, and veterans issues, our core competencies? You betcha.
Foreign Policy
The three top issues of the Obama foreign policy agenda are:
1) Secure loose nuclear materials from terrorists
This is one of the major threats of the post Cold War era, one that is often overlooked because it isn’t as sexy as “hunting” Bin Laden or building aircraft carriers. The greatest threat to our physical security comes from terrorists and rogue states, and the greatest potential for damage comes from their acquisition of nuclear weapons or nuclear material.
Sen. Dick Lugar [R-IN] has a history of working on bipartisan initiatives in non-proliferation and threat reduction and has worked with several democrats including Sam Nunn and Barack Obama. In 2007, the two secured $48 million for Lugar-Obama, which will destroy heavy conventional weapons and intercept materials for mass destruction.
2) Pursue tough, direct diplomacy without preconditions to end the threat from Iran
Obama has stood by his assertion that he will talk to everyone, and that he will meet with allies and enemies alike, without preconditions. Critics said that was tantamount to appeasement, but former Republican secretaries of state James Baker and Henry Kissinger agreed with Obama, and Baker explained on Fox News that it was this very policy helped him bring Syria to the table with Israel.
With regard to Iran, hawks like to talk about “all options on the table”, and war-hungry Americans think this language represents the appropriate stance on Iran. Scott Ritter, former US Marine intelligence officer and a top UN weapons inspector in Iraq who decried the WMD claim before the Iraq War, said this about going nuclear on Iran: “For all those Americans out there who say ‘you know what, taking on Iran’s a good thing’… if we use nuclear weapons, the genie ain’t going back in the bottle until an American city is taken out by an Islamic weapon in retaliation. So tell me, you want to go to war with Iran- pick your city.”
3) Renew American diplomacy
The most embarrassing aspect of American decline over the last eight years has been the hubris that accompanied it and frankly, ensured it.
In a series of tactics he recommends to create asymmetric warfare, Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War, also prescribes psychological operations: “Use humility to make them haughty.” We have done the opposite and our self-aggrandizement, unilateralism, mockery of the United Nations, and indictments of nations as “evil” have alienated allies and made it untenable for moderates in adversarial nations to support us. We’ve talked about isolating rogue nations, but we’ve instead isolated ourselves, with a culture of shoot-first, apologize-for-nothing narcissism.
McCain's saber-rattling and Palin's denouncement of Obama's plan to meet with unfriendly nations suggest a disinterest in pursuing diplomacy to its full potential. Even Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, light on foreign policy, called the Bush Doctrine “head in the ground” diplomacy, and his description was apt in more ways than one. Because when your head is in the ground, you’re showing the world your ass.
War
1) Iraq
It was wrong to invade Iraq because the reasons given (WMD, link to Al Qaeda) were both false, and have been discredited by both parties. Furthermore, the war has destabilized the region, increased Iranian influence and power substantially, placed strategic oil access in undue risk, and as mentioned above, isolated America because of its flawed Bush Doctrine.
Would Barack Obama have voted against the joint resolution authorizing Bush’s invasion of Iraq if he had been in the senate in 2002? That’s a hypothetical no one can answer. What we can ask is whether he appraised the situation correctly and displayed good judgment. He did:
"I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.
I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.
I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars."
What now?
Sen. McCain proposes to keep Americans in Iraq for 100 years. Even granting that he meant troops in Iraq with no more casualties, akin to our current stationing of troops in Japan, Germany, and Korea, how will he deliver the end of hostilities? And if the presence of our troops in those other countries is so controversial to their citizens (plans are in the works to move thousands of Marines from Okinawa to Guam), wouldn’t the presence of American troops in Iraq for 100 years be just as destabilizing as they were in Saudi Arabia, one of the key aspects of Bin Laden’s causus belli?
Americans don’t approve of the US war in Iraq and neither do Iraqis, who are pushing for us to redeploy completely by 2011. Bush’s objectives have been achieved but mission creep has compelled hawks to declare a functioning democracy in Iraq the only true victory, suggesting that anything less would be a “waste” of the lives lost in that country. With the attack inside Syria last week, a keen reminder of 1969 Cambodia, it seems we are fully committed to Bin Laden’s dream of exhausting ourselves and completely destroying our own reputation. Obama’s proposal for a safe, methodical, and strategically sound withdrawal is vastly superior to the demand for an indefinite or unspecified presence.
2) Afghanistan
Our obsession with Iraq has cost us success, or at least better performance in Afghanistan, where a resurgent Taliban attacks allied and Afghani troops with increasing lethality. Are we going to win this war? Ought we to try? Afghanistan represents the home of the organization that attacked us and intends to attack us again.
Obama has led McCain on the primacy and urgency of Afghanistan, the latter saying in 2003: "in the longterm we may muddle through Afghanistan."
Veterans’ Issues
As we’ve written about in the past on 2 Dinar, this issue is a slam-dunk for Obama, and ironically so, given McCain’s brand. McCain’s record is overwhelmingly consistent in voting against veterans’ interests and his ratings from the IAVA (D) and DAV (20%) reflect that. Obama has a consistent voting record on behalf of veterans’ issues (IAVA: B, DAV: 80%). Sen. McCain preaches from the campaign platform about his affection for veterans but he has opposed legislation that would buy body armor for the National Guard, fund VA health care, and scale up veterans' educational benefits. On the flip side, in addition to Obama's record, Joe Biden has made veteran health care a personal crusade. Of all the issues in this election, I have the least conflict over this one- the contrast is totally compelling.
Conclusion
The stakes for our country haven’t been this high in years, and we need intelligent, informed, and dedicated leaders who can communicate with the world and with us. Furthermore, soldiers and veterans need smart foreign policy, exhaustive diplomacy, and military action with vision and honor.
Finally, leadership goes beyond credentials and talking points. Leadership is about motivating people to do their best, setting a high standard, getting people involved, and compelling them to sacrifice for the greater good. Only one candidate in both fields this year has told Americans over and over again that they are going to have to sacrifice and work together to make America great. Only one candidate has suggested that instead of waiting for change, Americans ought to make change. Only one candidate got me out on the streets registering voters, and compelled me to redirect my career back to public service. Only one candidate sets an example of professionalism and dignity that I truly want to emulate.
I’ve never voted for anyone that I truly believed in; I’ve always picked the lesser of two evils.
But I’m not voting against John McCain this year.
I’m voting for Barack Obama.