So what would President Kucinich do to stop, say, Milosevic's genocide in the Balkans?
I would go directly to the United Nations and develop a new level of involvement and accountability. We have to get the world community to function as a world community. And the U.S. cannot do that if we're coming from a position of unilateralism.
You and other opponents of the war keep saying "unilateralism." But President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell have spent a great deal of time lobbying other nations to get their support, and while ultimately we may or may not get the sign-off of the U.N. Security Council or NATO, if military action begins we will be doing it with many other nations. The prime ministers of Denmark, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain, and the president of the Czech Republic, all published a statement of support for a war against Iraq. We'll get help from Turkey and Jordan. It's anticipated that U.S. soldiers will fight alongside those from Australia, Britain, Poland, Spain --
But au contraire! You have to look at how the United States is using its leverage to get this coalition together. You're proving my point. Let me show you how. If the United States is capable of putting together a coalition to attack Iraq without having proven its case, then look at what the U.S. could do with its leverage. The Institute for Policy Studies put out this study, called "Coalition of the Willing or Coalition of the Coerced?" which has a section called "Levers of U.S. Power." And it details how the United States uses its military leverage, its political leverage, and uses it across the spectrum to build this coalition.
As the most powerful nation in the world, we're in position where we can lead the world to peace, as it wants to be led, or to war as we're doing. The U.S. government has to regain its moral authority by pursuing the interests of all nations, not just one nation.
I could cite to you National Security Directive 45, which is one of those seminal directives that need to be looked at when you're deciding what we're doing in the Gulf. And it states: "U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf are vital to the national security. These interests include access to oil and the security and stability of key friendly states in the region."
That comes from the last Gulf War. And some of those same policy themes are working their way through on this one. Is there anybody in the world who thinks we're going to war against Iraq for altruistic reasons?
I would imagine that of all the presidents we've had, you probably would most emulate Jimmy Carter. Nonetheless, it was during Carter's administration when Iran seized our hostages and held them for 444 days. For all his idealism, it did nothing to end the fact that there are a lot of people out there who for ideological and other reasons are dead-set on doing us harm.
But the war on Iraq will only make us more vulnerable. The FBI admitted that in Sunday's New York Times, that if we go to war we'll be more vulnerable to attack by lone-wolf terrorists. And once we endorse preemption and unilateralism, what's to stop China from going after Taiwan, or Russia from going back into Chechnya? Or on first strike, what's to stop either India or Pakistan from doing the same over Kashmir? We have to be careful specifically because the world is so complex.
You know, I started my career in politics in 1967. I'm not new to this. I did not just fall off the Christmas tree. I understand the world is complex. I know that there are people out there who want to hurt other people.
But the only path to the future is for the United States to cooperate internationally with as many nations as it can. If we go at it alone, we will be stuck alone. My philosophy comes from a worldview that looks at the world as one. It's a holistic view that sees the world as interconnected and interdependent and integrated in so many different ways, which informs my politics. I think this world's ready, and I think the country's there.
About the writer
Jake Tapper is national correspondent for Salon.
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