Beyond Baghdad

By Carter Bundy

The Iraq Summer group just finished a surprisingly lively, fresh town hall in Albuquerque about, well, Iraq. It was fresh because there were a few great speakers, including Bruce Clark, a retired Marine with a son near Baghdad now. And congressional candidate Martin Heinrich gave all of us hope that there are still bright, progressive, unifying candidates out there willing to run for high office.

Anyone who questions the family values or patriotism of those of us who think this war is a drag on our national security and domestic life needs to watch the town hall, which will be available on YouTube shortly.

But with W visiting and the Iraq Summer Campaign town hall, there’s been more than enough Iraq talk for one week. The good news is that you can’t stop something that 70 percent of America wants out of power forever.

So if the GOP keeps pushing for an endless war in Iraq, they’ll get creamed in ‘08 and we’ll finally end the war. That even includes Pete and Heather, whose claims of independence from W on Iraq are as believable as Larry Craig’s “wide stance.”

The bad news is that no matter how or when we get out, it’s going to be messy. Let’s just say the neocons really screwed the pooch on Iraq and admit that getting out with a positive result is going to be a bear no matter who is elected.

10 Things I hate about W

There has to be more to foreign policy than just being bummed out about Baghdad. Here are 10 foreign policy ideas, many of which have strong bipartisan support. For seven years, though, they’ve been as welcome in Washington, D.C. as Cowboy fans.

1. Broker Israeli-Palestinian peace. Won’t happen? Egypt and Israel are coming up on 30 years. They said Northern Ireland would never be peaceful as long as Protestants drank Bushmills and Catholics drank Jamesons. Whoops.

When even 60 percent or more of Israelis want a Palestinian state, how pathetic is it that we don’t even try to take a leadership role in making it happen?

Had Clinton (the one who likes McDonald’s) and Ehud Barak not been replaced by two of the biggest trigger-happy leaders in modern history, we’d probably already be there. Zero effort at a time when we needed it more than ever (the Aqaba road map? Anthony Zinni? As my nephews say, “Are you kidding me?”)

2. Develop alternative energy. Had we started even after 9/11, we’d be a heck of a lot further down the road than we are. And we’d be a lot richer. Well, maybe not Halliburton, the Carlyle Group or the House of Saud, which explains why we haven’t done anything here,either.

The Surgeon General has determined that holding your breath while waiting for a change of policy from any of the Republican presidential candidates will be detrimental to your health.

3. Track down as much plutonium and nuke materials as possible, especially from the former USSR. Some in the GOP (thanks, Sen. Lugar) have led with Dems on this issue. If (when?) we get hit, this will be our greatest foreign policy failure.

4. Change our drug policies. How smart is it to have Americans contribute hundreds of billions of dollars to criminal syndicates and thugs here and abroad while draining our own resources, locking up a significant part of our youth, and fueling gangs?

“Traffic” should be mandatory viewing for all elected officials. Our drug policies are creating corrupt governments and supporting terrorists around the globe.

5. Respect democracies. Hugo Chavez won fair and square, twice. Last week I was talking to a GOP elected official with significant ties and experience in Venezuela. Hugo was totally willing to work with us until we tried to overthrow him, and now he’s leading an entire continent against us. Brilliant.

6. Split extreme Islam from moderate Islam. Of course, that would mean not supporting tyrants like the Shah or the House of Saud. Dems have a lot of historical guilt here, too, but Dems are the ones leading the charge to make our foreign policy the one W talked about in his second inaugural.

7. Live up to our promise. Torture and indefinite imprisonment of (some) innocent people without any due process kills us abroad. It drives moderate Muslims into the hands of the extremists, or at least makes moderates’ battles infinitely harder. Some conservatives get this point, too. Just not the neocons and Rudy.

8. Join the rest of the democratic and scientific world in acknowledging that pollution and global warming are problems that affect us all. Our greed and pollution of others don’t win us any friends.

9. Build alliances to isolate the real bad guys. A Republican – Bush 41 – did this better than any American leader in generations, and even Clinton found time between, ummm… cigars, to build alliances. Too bad 41’s son will come in dead last in the list of diplomatic American presidents, at least for the past century.

10. Engage in a genuine humanitarian effort somewhere. Anywhere. We have a chance to shine in Darfur, in one of the world’s darkest hours. When the governor of a small, beautiful desert state does more to advance humanitarianism in our foreign policy than the entire U.S. government, hey, kudos to the guv, but shame on the administration.

Sadly, stupidly, not one of the above has been tried in earnest for almost eight years, and we’ll pay the price for generations to come.

Fortunately, most of the above isn’t all that hard to at least try – lots of what the consultants like to call “low-hanging fruit” or “win-wins” here. In other words, it can only get better. Maybe.

P.S. Happy DOJ Independence Day!

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME in New Mexico. The opinions in his column are personal and in no way reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com.