Kerry's WorldviewPage 2 of 2 -- Kerry is persuasive when he makes the case that he is better suited than Bush to forge what he called in a May 27 speech "a new era of alliances for the post-9/11 world." However, his prescriptions for Iraq, which are not much different from current administration policies -- and which may have influenced Bush to seek a UN role in Iraq -- can hardly be counted on alone to rehabilitate relations with Paris and Berlin. Failure in Iraq, Kerry has said, "would be a boon to our enemies and jeopardize the long-term prospects for a peaceful, democratic Middle East -- leaving us at war not just with a small radical minority but with increasingly large portions of the entire Middle East."
To avoid such a failure, Kerry has said he is willing to send as many as 40,000 more troops to Iraq. Kerry has struck a proper balance between criticism of Bush's blunders in Iraq -- particularly of this administration's disregard for "the advice, wisdom, and experience of our professional military officers" -- and a recognition that Iraq cannot be allowed to succumb either to civil war or a new dictatorship. Kerry wants to accelerate efforts to secure or destroy fissile materials in the former Soviet Union. This goal reflects a sage recognition that the gravest threat to US national security comes from terrorists with nuclear weapons. As Kerry said in a June 1 speech in Florida: "No material. No bomb. No nuclear terrorism." The peril of North Korea producing and peddling nuclear weapons has not received the media attention devoted to Iraq, but Kerry's unequivocal call for "bilateral negotiations" with Pyongyang is reassuring. By heeding the doctrinaire refusal of Cheney and other hard-liners to cut a deal for the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear program, Bush has endangered Americans gratuitously. If there is a troubling contradiction in Kerry's foreign policy platform, it lies in the contrast between his get-tough remarks about Saudi Arabia and his desire to "explore areas of mutual interest with Iran, just as I was prepared to normalize relations with Vietnam." The clerical despots in Tehran -- who have lately been chastized for lying to the International Atomic Energy Agency about their nuclear program -- have nothing in common with the pacified communists who rule Vietnam. It is true that Tehran and Washington could both benefit from common understanding about Afghanistan and Iraq. But Kerry's proposal to hand over the Iranian opposition group the People's Mujahedeen of Iran to the mullahs suggests an unfortunate willingness to appease a terrorist regime.
Nonetheless, Kerry has drawn a blueprint for a multilateral, realist foreign policy that is well suited to repairing the damage Bush has done to America's position in the world. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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