Below are excerpts from a
foreign policy speech Governor Dean gave
February 17, 2003 at Drake University.
Ask yourself how much safer our world would be today if this nation had followed his advice.
Then go vote for the Democratic candidates who will start to nudge us back towards the right path.
I firmly believe that the President is focusing our diplomats, our military, our intelligence agencies, and even our people on the wrong war, at the wrong time, when our energy and our resources should be marshaled for the greatest threats we face. Yes, Saddam Hussein is evil. But Osama bin Laden is also evil, and he has attacked the United States, and he is preparing now to attack us again.
What happened to the war against al Qaeda?
Why has this Administration taken us so far off track?
More goodies below:
To this day, the President has not made a case that war against Iraq, now, is necessary to defend American territory, our citizens, our allies, or our essential interests. The Administration has not explained how a lasting peace, and lasting security, will be achieved in Iraq once Saddam Hussein is toppled.
Secretary Powell's recent presentation at the UN showed the extent to which we have Iraq under an audio and visual microscope. Given that, I was impressed not by the vastness of evidence presented by the Secretary, but rather by its sketchiness.
It is possible that Iraq will try to force our troops to fight house to house in the middle of cities - on its turf, not ours - where precision-guided missiles are of little use. Iraq is a divided country, with Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions that share both bitter rivalries and access to large quantities of arms. Iran and Turkey each have interests in Iraq they will be tempted to protect with or without our approval.
And, perhaps most importantly, there is a very real danger that war in Iraq will fuel the fires of international terror. Anti-American feelings will surely be inflamed among the misguided who choose to see an assault on Iraq as an attack on Islam, or as a means of controlling Iraqi oil. And last week's tape by Osama bin Laden tells us that our enemies will seek relentlessly to transform a war into a tool for inspiring and recruiting more terrorists.
We must remember, though, that Iraq is not the greatest danger we face today. Consider, to begin with, North Korea. We have the most dangerous situation in East Asia in a decade - perhaps in five decades, and the Administration is treating it as a sideshow. The reason is that North Korea doesn't fit into any of the Administration's preconceived little boxes.
They haven't wanted to talk to North Korea because a solution requires negotiation - and sitting at the bargaining table is something Bill Clinton used to do. They do not see themselves as negotiators; they see themselves as pre-emptors.
Instead of a serious policy, they have wasted time, alienated our allies and engaged in a pointless war of words with Pyongyang. North Korea is a far greater danger to world peace than Iraq.
But there is, of course, an even greater danger. It is not, after all, because of Saddam Hussein or North Korea that our government has recommended that we prepare safe rooms in our homes sealed off with plastic sheeting and duct tape.
The President sounds like a war President, but I must ask whether he is focused on the right war. And do not doubt; we are in a war. More than 17 months (note: now 5 years) after September 11, Osama bin Laden and most of his top associates are alive and threatening more attacks.
I ask you to work for change - to stop the reckless policies of this Administration - because we need economic and foreign policies that reflect both the interests and the values of the American people. On this President's Day, I ask you to have faith with Abraham Lincoln that "right makes might," and in that faith to join me in daring to "do our duty as we understand it." I ask you to exercise your rights as citizens and with others in Iowa to help put America on the right path to a secure and proud future.
Vote. Vote for the people who are ready to transform American foreign policy into the methods and values articulated by Howard Dean.