10/28/10

While comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert hold their "Rally to Restore Sanity" and "March to Keep Fear Alive" this weekend, national security politics offer an ugly reality of sanity threatened and fear unduly stoked.  The mainstream majority of Americans seeking pragmatic national security solutions is in danger of being drowned out by radical voices that are in touch with fear - but out of touch with reality.

Let's take a look at the extreme politics of fear on national security compared to sane policies bipartisan experts endorse:

Iran

FEAR:  Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich:  "As suicidal jihadists, Gingrich said, Iranian leaders believe their dead martyrs go to heaven and Israelis ‘go to hell,' so they win. ‘It's impossible to deter them. What are you going to threaten?' Gingrich asked."  Similarly, Sarah Palin stated that Iran getting nuclear weapons "could lead to Armageddon."[Newt Gingrich, via Denver Post, 10/1/10. Sarah Palin via Newsmax, 10/11/10]

SANITY: General Anthony Zinni, former CENTCOM commander: "The problem with the strike is thinking through the consequences of Iranian reaction...You can see all these reactions that are problematic in so many ways. Economic impact, national security impact -- it will drag us into a conflict.  I think anybody that believes that it would be a clean strike and it would be over and there would be no reaction is foolish." [Anthony Zinni, 8/4/09]

Reacting to terrorism  

FEAR: Rep. Peter King (R-NY): "I think one main thing [to improve anti-terrorism measures] would be to - just himself to use the word terrorism more often." [Rep. Peter King, via Politico, 1/6/10]

SANITY: Richard Clarke, former White House Counterterrorism Czar: "I think what we have to start talking about now, as a nation is what our reaction is going to be [to small terrorist attacks], because the last time 9/11 happened and we panicked. I panicked, everyone did, we overreacted, and in many ways the things we did were counterproductive. Other things we did were wasteful. Some things we did destroyed our own value system... That is the message that the British tried to impart and I think they do a pretty good job."   [Richard Clarke, 5/10/10]

Islamophobia

FEAR:  Extreme, irrational and hate-filled anti-Islamic rhetoric and behavior has played an increasing role in American politics in recent weeks and months.  For example, Sharron Angle, pulled the fear strings, claiming that Sharia law was overtaking the United States: "First of all, Dearborn, Michigan, and Frankford, Texas, are on American soil, and under Constitutional law. Not Shariah law. And I don't know how that happened in the United States.  It seems to me there is something fundamentally wrong with allowing a foreign system of law to even take hold in any municipality or government situation in our United States." The mayor of Frankford, Texas, was unavailable to comment because the city ceased to exist 35 years ago, when it was annexed by Dallas. The mayor of Dearborn, Jack O' Reilly, said Angle "doesn't know what she's talking about." [Sharron Angle, via the Plum Line, 10/8/10]

FEAR: Muslims shouldn't be in congress.  The Tea Party Nation (the third largest tea party organization in the U.S.), actually said that Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), should be defeated in this specifically because he is Muslim.  Judson Phillips, the group's leader, told his members that, "There are a lot of liberals who need to be retired this year, but there are few I can think of more deserving than Keith Ellison... He is the only Muslim member of congress. He supports the Counsel for American Islamic Relations, HAMAS and has helped congress send millions of tax dollars to terrorists in Gaza." [Justin Elliot, Salon, 10/26/10]

SANITY: General Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, secretary of state for George W. Bush, and national security advisor to Ronald Reagan: "Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America.  Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? ... This is not the way we should be doing it in America.  I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine.  It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.  And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave.  And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone.  And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death.  He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith.  And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American." [Colin Powell, 10/19/08]

SANITY: Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) religious freedom is important in the U.S.  The Senator recently said, "Let's be honest about it, in the First Amendment, religious freedom, religious expression, that really matters to the Constitution. We know there are Muslims killed on 9/11 too and we know it's a great religion.   I just think what's made this country great is we have religious freedom. That's not the only thing, but it's one of the most important things in the Constitution." [Orrin Hatch, via Think Progress, 8/30/10]

Nonproliferation

FEAR:  John Raese, West Virginia's Republican nominee for the Senate calls for "lasers in the sky" to deter "Ahmed-dina-dingo."  He wants to put 1,000 lasers "in the sky" (a plan administrations of both parties have rejected as infeasible) to defend against Iran and "Ahmed-dina-dingo." "If there is a rogue missile aimed at our country, we have 33 minutes to figure out what we're going to do," Raese said at an event sponsored by the League of American Voters. "We are sitting with the only technology in the world that works and it's laser technology. We need 1000 laser systems put in the sky and we need it right now. That is [of] paramount importance."  Raese said the system would cost $20 billion. [MSNBC, 10/13/10]

SANITY:  George Schultz, Secretary of State for the Reagan administration: Take practical threats to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons.   He recently said that "[President Obama] is doing an excellent job. He has put the vision out there and keeps it out there. The nuclear posture review shows he is being careful about American national security at every step. The conference of world leaders on securing fissile material is the right thing to do. Who is going to disagree with that? So you get the whole world working on something and solving a problem. That is always a good step." [George Schultz, 4/14/10]

 Defense Spending

FEAR: Bill Kristol, Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute, and Edwin Feulner of the Heritage Foundation, argue that "military spending is not a net drain on our economy."  Their "Defending Defense" project aims to increase defense spending and make its current, historically high levels permanent - regardless of the challenges we face or the state of our economy. [Arthur Brooks, Edwin Feulner and William Kristol, 10/4/10]

SANITY:  President Dwight D. Eisenhower: security is directly tied to the economy.  Christopher Preble of the CATO Institute and Lawrence Korb of the Center for American Progress, who served as assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration, write that: "Over fifty years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower explained that a nation's security was directly tied to the health of its economy... ‘Spiritual force, multiplied by economic force, multiplied by military force is roughly equal to security,' he explained. For Eisenhower this was the ‘Great Equation.' ‘If one of these factors falls to zero, or near zero, the resulting product does likewise.'" [Lawrence Korb and Christopher Preble, National Interest, 6/16/10]

Miranda Rights

FEAR: Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT): revoke citizenship without trial.   In the wake of the failed Times Square attempt, Sen. Lieberman said, "I think it's time for us to look at whether we want to amend that law to apply it to American citizens who choose to become affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations, whether they should not also be deprived automatically of their citizenship, and therefore be deprived of rights that come with that citizenship when they are apprehended and charged with a terrorist act." [Sen. Joe Lieberman, via ThinkProgress, 5/4/10]

SANITY: Brigadier General James Cullen (Ret.): "In the fight against terrorism, our laws and values are our best assets. Our federal courts have shown time and again that they are up to the task of trying terrorist suspects.  Those who question Miranda or suggest stripping suspects of their citizenship fail to understand that the rule of law is the best defense we possess, and the weapon that brings the most people to our side.  We should challenge anyone who suggests we ignore what makes us the strongest."[Gen. James Cullen, via Human Rights First, 5/5/10]

What We're Reading

Afghanistan pressed the U.S. at a closed-door strategy session to force Pakistan to crack down on insurgents on its territory, saying recent military gains will be short-lived as long as these havens remain across the border.

The Obama administration and its European allies are preparing a new offer for negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program, but the conditions on Tehran would be even more onerous than a deal that the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected last year.

With voters focused on the U.S. economy, President Obama's foreign policy agenda has been largely overlooked in the midterm campaigns, but it will come under harsh scrutiny in the Congress that emerges after election day.

Federal law enforcement authorities arrested a Northern Virginia man in connection with an alleged plot to carry out terrorist bombings at stations in the Washington Metro system.

Charging U.S. bottle manufacturer Owens- Illinois with worker exploitation and environmental damage, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced plans to confiscate the local unit of the company, the 200th nationalization of a private firm this year.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she will press China this week to clarify its policy on the exports of rare-earth minerals amid fears Beijing could use them as a political weapon.

Nigeria's secret service intercepted 13 containers of weapons from Iran in what may be part of a new smuggling route from Iran to Hamas in Gaza.

An evangelical activist from Arizona, imprisoned by North Korea last year after he illegally entered the country on Christmas Day, appeared on South Korean television and spoke for the first time about his treatment by his captors.

A volcano erupted for a second time as Indonesian rescue workers struggled against rough weather and difficult terrain to reach tsunami victims.

In Mexico's third mass shooting in less than a week, gunmen opened fire at a carwash in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, killing at least 15 people.

Commentary of the Day

Douglas Bloomfield thinks Eric Cantor's plan to shift Israel's foreign aid into a stand-alone bill is bad for Israel and bad for the US.

Nikolas Gvosdev, after first being skeptical, now thinks that the U.S.-Russian reset is for real.

Shadi Hamid writes that there is a growing problem with the free but unfair elections being held in the Middle East.