FOREIGN POLICY AND THE REPUBLICAN FUTURE (II)
FOREIGN POLICY AND THE REPUBLICAN FUTURE (II) A month ago, we noted in this space the obvious fact that Bill Clinton's foreign policy is in tatters. We urged Republicans in Congress to put forward...
...Either Saddam is allowed to acquire weapons of mass destruction or he isn't...
...The bad news is that things have gotten worse for American foreign policy over the last month—continued retreat in Iraq, inaction in the Balkans, drift elsewhere...
...That vision and strategy, we further argued, should be a Reaganite one, organized around the principles of military strength, morality, and mastery ("Foreign Policy and the Republican Future," September 7...
...As we wrote a month ago, "there is no middle ground between a decline in U.S...
...Such action should not be confined to pinprick air and cruise-missile strikes against a handful of targets in Kosovo...
...Last Tuesday's extraordinary hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in which the Joint Chiefs belatedly "discovered" that current spending levels are entirely inadequate to maintain military capabilities and defend American interests around the world, was a watershed...
...Now Republicans, led by Bob Dole and John McCain, are rallying support for decisive NATO military action...
...But national security is above all a presidential responsibility...
...The good news is that Republicans have begun to rise to the challenge before them...
...inspections aimed at uncovering its programs for developing weapons of mass destruction...
...We urged Republicans in Congress to put forward an alternative vision and strategy for the nation...
...Morality...
...The first question for every prospective Republican and Democratic candidate for president should be: How do you plan to reverse the dangerous decline in American military power and international leadership...
...For six months, the Clinton administration has degraded American credibility with hollow threats of action to stop Milosevic's offensive...
...Republicans (and Democrats) should rally behind this effort and thereby deprive the president of any excuse that he lacks congressional support for doing what needs to be done in Iraq...
...Meanwhile, in the Senate a letter signed by Democrats Carl Levin and Joseph Lieberman and Republicans John McCain and Kay Bailey Hutchison urges the president "to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs...
...In the past, some Republicans have shied away from the use of force in the Balkans...
...On August 5, Iraq suspended all meaningful U.N...
...power, a rise in world chaos, and a dangerous twenty-first century, on the one hand, and a Reaganite reassertion of American power and moral leadership, on the other...
...They understand that the real problem is that we have foolishly squandered the military power built up in the Reagan era, with direct and dangerous consequences for American interests and the world...
...In no other area has it been more important for Congress to step forward and try to force action...
...This is not only a moral but also a strategic challenge: Are we, with our NATO allies, actually able to maintain stability on the European continent...
...Military strength...
...Of all the instances of Clinton-administration dithering and dissembling, this is the most dangerous...
...Any serious military response should inflict severe damage on Milosevic's military machine in Serbia, with the ultimate goal of weakening his grip on power in Belgrade...
...Iraq is the test of whether we can reverse our current failed foreign policy and establish a policy of American leadership and, yes, mastery...
...William Kristol and Robert Kagan...
...Republican senators, led by majority leader Trent Lott, are now committed to pushing for a serious boost in military spending next year...
...Failure to act decisively on Iraq would stand as a dramatic abdication of American responsibility to prevent aggressive dictators from acquiring weapons of mass destruction...
...Republicans should stake out a clear position that what is needed is not just the "threat of force"—as the administration prefers—but the actual use of force against Milosevic, before he comes with his latest deal in hand...
...Sustained pressure from Republican senators has forced the service chiefs to admit that they will need substantial increases over the current $270 billion defense budget...
...And now, members of Congress are doing just that...
...Even now, there is reason to fear that the Clinton administration is prepared to cut a last-minute deal with Milosevic that will permit him to consolidate his ill-gotten gains in Kosovo...
...Lott and congressman Ben Gilman introduced legislation in both houses last week to provide the Iraqi opposition with almost $100 million in military equipment so they can establish control of "liberated zones" in Iraq and, ultimately, undermine Saddam Hussein's power...
...interests, it falls to the Republican Congress to do so...
...We hope that Republicans will make foreign and defense policy an issue over the next month in the congressional elections...
...In the meantime, in light of the Clinton administration's unfortunate failure to advance U.S...
...And it is not easy to support military action by this administration, given its track record...
...The immediate challenge is in Kosovo, where repression and ethnic cleansing sponsored by Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic have once again raised the specter of genocide in the heart of Europe...
...Mastery...
...And few Republicans any longer cling to the conceit that the basic problem is that we are "overcommitted" around the world...
Vol. 4 • October 1998 • No. 5
