He would be a lot more honest if he just called himself a liberal.
On 11/20/2015 11:52 AM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
I heard the first part of his speech last night and it was riveting enough
so that I didn't go to sleep when I should have. I think that what kept me
listening was my sense that he really means what he says and that the things
he says about today's economic situation, are not being said by any other
public figure. The part about foreign policy was not in the video I heard.
Miriam
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Bernie Sanders' 12 Best Reasons for Being a Democratic Socialist
________________________________________
Bernie Sanders' 12 Best Reasons for Being a Democratic Socialist
By Steven Rosenfeld [1] / AlterNet [2]
November 19, 2015
In a highly anticipated speech, Sen. Bernie Sanders passionately detailed
what being a democratic socialist means to him and would mean for Americans
if elected president.
After listing many metrics showing Americans today are working harder than
ever yet facing undue pressures to pay for necessities like housing,
healthcare, higher education and retirement, Sanders said democratic
socialism means reviving the wisdom and policies behind President Franklin
D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and Rev. Martin
Luther King’s call for economic justice.
“Real freedom must include economic security,” Sanders said, quoting FDR’s
1944 speech calling for a second Bill of Rights for economic justice. “That
was Roosevelt’s vision 70 years ago. It is my vision today. It is a vision
that we have not yet achieved. And it is time that we did.”
“People are not free,” he continued. “They are not truly free when they are
unable to feed their family. They are not truly free when they are unable to
retire with dignity. They are not truly free when they are unemployed,
underemployed or when they are exhausted by working 60, 70 hours a week.
People are not truly free when they don’t know how they are going to get
medical help, when they or a family member are sick.”
“So let me define for you, simply and straightforwardly, what democratic
socialism means to me,” Sanders said. “It builds on what Franklin Delano
Roosevelt said when he fought for guaranteed economic rights for all
Americans. And it builds on what Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1968 when
he stated that, 'This country has socialism for the rich, and rugged
individualism for the poor.' My view of democratic socialism builds on the
success of many other countries around the world, who have done a far better
job than we have in protecting the needs of their working families, their
elderly citizens, their children, their sick and their poor.”
Sanders repeatedly reminded the Georgetown University audience that there
was an epidemic of childhood poverty and other unmet needs across America,
while the richest Americans are accumulating unprecedented wealth. He said
the solutions could be funded by wealthly individuals and corporations
paying a fair share of taxes.
What follows are a dozen excerpts from Sanders' speech of what democratic
socialism means to him and could mean for the country. It is a vision of a
better world that starts with improving the economics and the dignity of
Americans at home, which in turn Sanders said would better position America
to face challenges from abroad, such as the terrorist threat posed by ISIS,
which he addressed in the final quarter of his 100-minute speech.
1. Major political and economic reforms. “Democratic socialism means that we
must reform a political system which is corrupt, that we must create an
economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy. Democratic socialism,
to my mind, speaks to a system, which for example during the 1990s—and I
want you to hear this—allowed Wall Street to spend $5 billion, over a
10-year period, in lobbying and campaign contributions in order to get
deregulated. They wanted the government off of their backs. They wanted to
do whatever they wanted to do….
"Then, 10 years later, after the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior
led to their collapse, what our system enabled them to get bailed out by the
United States government, which through Congress and the Fed, provided
trillions of dollars in aid to Wall Street. In other words, Wall Street used
their wealth and power to get Congress to do their bidding for deregulation,
and then when Wall Street collapsed, they used their wealth and power to get
bailed out. Quite a system!
“And then, to add insult to injury, we were told that not only were the
banks too big to fail, we were told that the bankers were too big to jail.
And this is the system. Young people who get caught possessing marijuana,
they get police records—and many many hundreds of thousands have police
records that have impacted their lives in serious ways. On the other hand,
Wall Street CEOs who help destroy the economy, they don’t get police
records, they get raises in their salaries. And this is what Martin Luther
King, Jr. meant when he talked about socialism for the rich and rugged
individualism for everyone else.”
2. An end to corporate welfare. “It is time that we had democratic socialism
for working families, not just for Wall Street billionaires. It means that
we should not be providing welfare for corporations. It means that we should
not be providing huge tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country
or trade policies, which boost corporate profits while they result in
workers losing their jobs. It means that we create a government which works
for all of the American people, not just powerful special interests. It
means that economic rights must be an essential part of what America stands
for.”
3. A national public healthcare system. “It means that health care should be
a right of all people, not a privilege… I know that there are some people
out there who think this is just an incredibly radical idea—imagine, in the
United States of America, all of us, having health care as a right. But I
hope all of you know this is not a radical idea. It is a conservative idea.
It is an idea and a practice that exists in every other major country on
earth.
"Not just in Scandanavia—in Denmark, in Sweden, in Finland or Norway. It
exists in Canada—I live 50 miles away from Canada; not a radical idea. It
exists in France, Germany, Taiwan. All over the world, countries have made
the determination that all of their people are entitled to health care, and
I believe the time is long overdue for the United States to join the rest of
the world… And by the way, what a Medicare-for-all system will bring about
is ending the absurdity of the American people paying, by far, the highest
prices in the world for prescription drugs.”
4. Tuition-free public colleges and universities. “Now, when I talk about
democratic socialism, what that means to me, is that in the year 2015, a
college degree today is equivalent to what a high school degree was 50 years
ago. And what that means is that public education must today allow every
person in this country, who has the ability, the qualifications and the
desire, the right to go to a public college or university tuition-free. Is
this a radical socialistic idea? I don’t think so. It exists today in many
countries all over the world. You know what, it used to exist in the United
States of America. Great universities, like the University of California,
the City University of New York, were virtually tuition-free.”
5. A government that creates jobs, not prisoners. “Democratic socialism
means that our government does everything it can to create a full employment
economy. It makes far more sense to me to put millions of people back to
work rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, than to have a real
unemployment rate of almost 10 percent. It is far smarter to invest in jobs
and educational opportunities for young people who are unemployed, than to
lock them up and invest in jails and incarceration.”
6. A living minimum wage and real family leave. "Democratic socialism means
that if someone works 40 hours a week, that person should not be living in
poverty; that we must raise the minimum wage to a living wage—$15 bucks an
hour over the next several years. It means that we join the rest of the
world and pass the very strong Paid Family and Medical Leave legislation now
sitting in Congress.
“I want you to think about this, and I want you to really see what goes on
in our country today. It’s not only that every other major country—I’m not
talking about Europe or Scandanavia—virtually every country in the world,
poor countries, small countries, reach the conclusion that when a woman has
a baby she should not be forced to be separated from that newborn baby after
a week or two and have to go back to work. Making sure that moms and dads
can stay home and get to love their babies is a family value that we should
support. And that is why I want, and will fight, to end the absurdity of the
United States being one of the only countries on Earth that does not
guarantee at least three months of paid family and medical leave.”
7. Stopping climate change-causing industries. "Democratic socialism to me
means that we have government policy, strong government policy, which does
not allow the greed and profiteering of the fossil fuel industry to destroy
our environment and our planet. And it means to me that we have a moral
responsibility to combat climate change and leave this planet healthy and
inhabitable for our kids and grandchildren.”
8. The wealthy must pay a fair share of taxes. "Democratic socialism means
that in a democratic, civilized society the wealthiest people and the
largest corporations must pay their fair share of taxes. Yes, innovation,
entrepreneurship and business success should be rewarded. But greed for the
sake of greed is not something that public policy should support.
“It is not acceptable to me that in the period of time, the last two years,
15 of the wealthiest people in this country—15 people—saw their wealth
increase, in this rigged economy, by $170 billion. Got it? Two years.
Fifteen people, $170 billion increase in their wealth. That is more wealth
than is owned by the bottom 130 million Americans. Let us not forget what
Pope Francis has so elegantly stated and I quote: ‘We have created new
idols. The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless
image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is
faceless and lacking any truly humane goal.’ End of quote.
“In other words, we’ve got to do better than that. It’s not a political
issue. It’s not an economic issue. It’s a cultural issue. We have got to
stop worshipping people who make billions and billions and billions of
dollars, while we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major
country.”
9. America’s political system must be a democracy. “Democratic socialism, to
me, does not just mean that we must create a nation of economic and social
justice and environmental sanity. Of course, it does mean that. But it also
means that we must create a vibrant democracy based on the principle of one
person, one vote. It is extremely sad—and I hope all of you will pay a lot
of attention to this issue—it is extremely sad that the United States, one
of the oldest, most stable democracies in the world, has one of the lowest
voter turnouts of any major country, and that millions of young people and
working-class people have given up on the political process entirely.
“In the last midterm election, just a year ago, 63 percent of the American
people didn’t vote, 80 percent of young people did not vote. Clearly,
despite the efforts of many Republican governors, who want to suppress the
vote, to make it harder for people of color and old people to participate in
the political system, our job together is to make it easier for people to
vote, not harder to vote. It is not a radical idea—and I will fight for this
as hard as I can as president—to say that everyone in this country who is 18
years of age or older is registered to vote: end of discussion.”
10. Democratic socialism is not a government takeover. “The next time that
you hear me attacked as a socialist—like tomorrow—remember this: I don’t
believe government should take over the grocery store down the street, or
own the means of production. But I do believe that the middle class and the
working families, who produce the wealth of this country, deserve a decent
standard of living, and that their incomes should go up, not down.
“I do believe in private companies that thrive and invest and grow in
America, companies that create jobs here, rather than companies that are
shutting down in America and increasing their profits by exploiting low-wage
labor abroad. I believe that most Americans can pay lower taxes—if hedge
fund managers who make billions manipulating the marketplace finally start
paying the taxes that they should."
11. Equal treatment by government, not racism. “I don’t believe in special
treatment for the top 1 percent, but I do believe in equal treatment for
African Americans who are right to proclaim the moral principle that black
lives matter. I despise appeals to nativism and prejudice, a lot of which we
have been hearing in recent months. And I do proudly believe in immigration
reform that gives Hispanics and others a pathway to citizenship and a better
life.
“And while I am on that subject, let me say a real word of concern to what I
have been hearing from some of the Republican candidates for president in
recent months. People can have honest disagreements about immigration or
about anything else. That’s called democracy. But people should not be using
the political process to inject racism into the debate. And if Donald Trump
and others refer to Latinos, people from Mexico, as criminals and rapists,
if they want to open that door, our job is to shut that door and shut it
tight.”
12. Do not become cynical; work for change. “Do not, do not, do not become
cynical… I am running for president in order for all of us to be able to
live in a nation of hope and opportunity, not for some, but for my seven
grandchilden, and for all of you.
“Nobody understood better than Franklin Delano Roosevelt the connection
between American strength at home and our ability to defend America around
the world. And that is why he proposed a second Bill of Rights in 1944, and
said in that very same State of the Union, and I quote again, ‘America’s own
rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and
similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens. For
unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace—lasting
peace—in the world.'"
Foreign Policy and the Use of Force
The final section of Sanders’ speech concerned foreign policy and whether
the U.S. should use military force abroad. Sanders said, “I am not running
for president to pursue reckless adventures abroad, but to rebuild America’s
strength at home. I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will
never send our sons and daughters to war under false pretense, or pretenses
about dubious battles with no end in sight.”
Sanders said George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq and war of choice was one of
many examples where a foreign policy decision led to serious unanticipated
consequences that unfolded over many years and destabilized entire regions.
In that context, he said ISIS must be defeated by military and other
policies, but, “we cannot, and should not, do it alone.” He said that could
only happen when other Muslim countries in the region, especially wealthy
nations like Saudi Arabia, became more involved and see this as a fight for
"the soul of Islam," which is not an appropriate role for America.
“While the U.S. and other western nations have the strength of our
militaries and political systems, the fight against ISIS is a struggle for
the soul of Islam, and countering violent extremism and destroying ISIS must
be done primarily by Muslim nations—with the strong support of their global
partners,” Sanders said.
Unlike any of the other 2016 presidential candidates, Sanders said the U.S.
must learn from past mistakes and not repeat them—such as using military
force or intelligence agency coups for short-term political gains that
backfire in the long run.
“Our response must begin with an understanding of past mistakes and missteps
in our previous approaches to foreign policy,” he said. “It begins with the
acknowledgment that unilateral military action should be a last resort, not
a first resort, and that ill-conceived military decisions, such as the
invasion of Iraq, can wreak far-reaching devastation and destabilization
over regions for decades. It begins with the reflection that the failed
policy decisions of the past—rushing to war, regime change in Iraq or
toppling Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in 1953: Mossadegh was the president.
The CIA and others got rid of him, to protect British petroleum interests.
The Shah of Iran came in, a brutal dictator, and he was thrown out by the
Islamic revolution, and that is where we are in Iran today.
“Decisions have consequences, often unintended consequences,” he continued.
“So whether it was Saddam Hussein, or Mossadegh, or Guatemalan president
Árbenz in 1954, Brazilian president Goulart in 1964, Chilean president
Allende in 1973—this type of regime change. This type of overthrowing
governments we may not like, often does not work, often makes a bad and
difficult decision even worse. These are lessons we must learn.”
Steven Rosenfeld covers national political issues for AlterNet, including
America's retirement crisis, democracy and voting rights, and campaigns and
elections. He is the author of "Count My Vote: A Citizen's Guide to Voting"
(AlterNet Books, 2008).
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Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Bernie Sanders' 12 Best Reasons for Being a Democratic Socialist
Bernie Sanders' 12 Best Reasons for Being a Democratic Socialist
By Steven Rosenfeld [1] / AlterNet [2]
November 19, 2015
In a highly anticipated speech, Sen. Bernie Sanders passionately detailed
what being a democratic socialist means to him and would mean for Americans
if elected president.
After listing many metrics showing Americans today are working harder than
ever yet facing undue pressures to pay for necessities like housing,
healthcare, higher education and retirement, Sanders said democratic
socialism means reviving the wisdom and policies behind President Franklin
D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and Rev. Martin
Luther King’s call for economic justice.
“Real freedom must include economic security,” Sanders said, quoting FDR’s
1944 speech calling for a second Bill of Rights for economic justice. “That
was Roosevelt’s vision 70 years ago. It is my vision today. It is a vision
that we have not yet achieved. And it is time that we did.”
“People are not free,” he continued. “They are not truly free when they are
unable to feed their family. They are not truly free when they are unable to
retire with dignity. They are not truly free when they are unemployed,
underemployed or when they are exhausted by working 60, 70 hours a week.
People are not truly free when they don’t know how they are going to get
medical help, when they or a family member are sick.”
“So let me define for you, simply and straightforwardly, what democratic
socialism means to me,” Sanders said. “It builds on what Franklin Delano
Roosevelt said when he fought for guaranteed economic rights for all
Americans. And it builds on what Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1968 when
he stated that, 'This country has socialism for the rich, and rugged
individualism for the poor.' My view of democratic socialism builds on the
success of many other countries around the world, who have done a far better
job than we have in protecting the needs of their working families, their
elderly citizens, their children, their sick and their poor.”
Sanders repeatedly reminded the Georgetown University audience that there
was an epidemic of childhood poverty and other unmet needs across America,
while the richest Americans are accumulating unprecedented wealth. He said
the solutions could be funded by wealthly individuals and corporations
paying a fair share of taxes.
What follows are a dozen excerpts from Sanders' speech of what democratic
socialism means to him and could mean for the country. It is a vision of a
better world that starts with improving the economics and the dignity of
Americans at home, which in turn Sanders said would better position America
to face challenges from abroad, such as the terrorist threat posed by ISIS,
which he addressed in the final quarter of his 100-minute speech.
1. Major political and economic reforms. “Democratic socialism means that we
must reform a political system which is corrupt, that we must create an
economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy. Democratic socialism,
to my mind, speaks to a system, which for example during the 1990s—and I
want you to hear this—allowed Wall Street to spend $5 billion, over a
10-year period, in lobbying and campaign contributions in order to get
deregulated. They wanted the government off of their backs. They wanted to
do whatever they wanted to do….
"Then, 10 years later, after the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior
led to their collapse, what our system enabled them to get bailed out by the
United States government, which through Congress and the Fed, provided
trillions of dollars in aid to Wall Street. In other words, Wall Street used
their wealth and power to get Congress to do their bidding for deregulation,
and then when Wall Street collapsed, they used their wealth and power to get
bailed out. Quite a system!
“And then, to add insult to injury, we were told that not only were the
banks too big to fail, we were told that the bankers were too big to jail.
And this is the system. Young people who get caught possessing marijuana,
they get police records—and many many hundreds of thousands have police
records that have impacted their lives in serious ways. On the other hand,
Wall Street CEOs who help destroy the economy, they don’t get police
records, they get raises in their salaries. And this is what Martin Luther
King, Jr. meant when he talked about socialism for the rich and rugged
individualism for everyone else.”
2. An end to corporate welfare. “It is time that we had democratic socialism
for working families, not just for Wall Street billionaires. It means that
we should not be providing welfare for corporations. It means that we should
not be providing huge tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country
or trade policies, which boost corporate profits while they result in
workers losing their jobs. It means that we create a government which works
for all of the American people, not just powerful special interests. It
means that economic rights must be an essential part of what America stands
for.”
3. A national public healthcare system. “It means that health care should be
a right of all people, not a privilege… I know that there are some people
out there who think this is just an incredibly radical idea—imagine, in the
United States of America, all of us, having health care as a right. But I
hope all of you know this is not a radical idea. It is a conservative idea.
It is an idea and a practice that exists in every other major country on
earth.
"Not just in Scandanavia—in Denmark, in Sweden, in Finland or Norway. It
exists in Canada—I live 50 miles away from Canada; not a radical idea. It
exists in France, Germany, Taiwan. All over the world, countries have made
the determination that all of their people are entitled to health care, and
I believe the time is long overdue for the United States to join the rest of
the world… And by the way, what a Medicare-for-all system will bring about
is ending the absurdity of the American people paying, by far, the highest
prices in the world for prescription drugs.”
4. Tuition-free public colleges and universities. “Now, when I talk about
democratic socialism, what that means to me, is that in the year 2015, a
college degree today is equivalent to what a high school degree was 50 years
ago. And what that means is that public education must today allow every
person in this country, who has the ability, the qualifications and the
desire, the right to go to a public college or university tuition-free. Is
this a radical socialistic idea? I don’t think so. It exists today in many
countries all over the world. You know what, it used to exist in the United
States of America. Great universities, like the University of California,
the City University of New York, were virtually tuition-free.”
5. A government that creates jobs, not prisoners. “Democratic socialism
means that our government does everything it can to create a full employment
economy. It makes far more sense to me to put millions of people back to
work rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, than to have a real
unemployment rate of almost 10 percent. It is far smarter to invest in jobs
and educational opportunities for young people who are unemployed, than to
lock them up and invest in jails and incarceration.”
6. A living minimum wage and real family leave. "Democratic socialism means
that if someone works 40 hours a week, that person should not be living in
poverty; that we must raise the minimum wage to a living wage—$15 bucks an
hour over the next several years. It means that we join the rest of the
world and pass the very strong Paid Family and Medical Leave legislation now
sitting in Congress.
“I want you to think about this, and I want you to really see what goes on
in our country today. It’s not only that every other major country—I’m not
talking about Europe or Scandanavia—virtually every country in the world,
poor countries, small countries, reach the conclusion that when a woman has
a baby she should not be forced to be separated from that newborn baby after
a week or two and have to go back to work. Making sure that moms and dads
can stay home and get to love their babies is a family value that we should
support. And that is why I want, and will fight, to end the absurdity of the
United States being one of the only countries on Earth that does not
guarantee at least three months of paid family and medical leave.”
7. Stopping climate change-causing industries. "Democratic socialism to me
means that we have government policy, strong government policy, which does
not allow the greed and profiteering of the fossil fuel industry to destroy
our environment and our planet. And it means to me that we have a moral
responsibility to combat climate change and leave this planet healthy and
inhabitable for our kids and grandchildren.”
8. The wealthy must pay a fair share of taxes. "Democratic socialism means
that in a democratic, civilized society the wealthiest people and the
largest corporations must pay their fair share of taxes. Yes, innovation,
entrepreneurship and business success should be rewarded. But greed for the
sake of greed is not something that public policy should support.
“It is not acceptable to me that in the period of time, the last two years,
15 of the wealthiest people in this country—15 people—saw their wealth
increase, in this rigged economy, by $170 billion. Got it? Two years.
Fifteen people, $170 billion increase in their wealth. That is more wealth
than is owned by the bottom 130 million Americans. Let us not forget what
Pope Francis has so elegantly stated and I quote: ‘We have created new
idols. The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless
image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is
faceless and lacking any truly humane goal.’ End of quote.
“In other words, we’ve got to do better than that. It’s not a political
issue. It’s not an economic issue. It’s a cultural issue. We have got to
stop worshipping people who make billions and billions and billions of
dollars, while we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major
country.”
9. America’s political system must be a democracy. “Democratic socialism, to
me, does not just mean that we must create a nation of economic and social
justice and environmental sanity. Of course, it does mean that. But it also
means that we must create a vibrant democracy based on the principle of one
person, one vote. It is extremely sad—and I hope all of you will pay a lot
of attention to this issue—it is extremely sad that the United States, one
of the oldest, most stable democracies in the world, has one of the lowest
voter turnouts of any major country, and that millions of young people and
working-class people have given up on the political process entirely.
“In the last midterm election, just a year ago, 63 percent of the American
people didn’t vote, 80 percent of young people did not vote. Clearly,
despite the efforts of many Republican governors, who want to suppress the
vote, to make it harder for people of color and old people to participate in
the political system, our job together is to make it easier for people to
vote, not harder to vote. It is not a radical idea—and I will fight for this
as hard as I can as president—to say that everyone in this country who is 18
years of age or older is registered to vote: end of discussion.”
10. Democratic socialism is not a government takeover. “The next time that
you hear me attacked as a socialist—like tomorrow—remember this: I don’t
believe government should take over the grocery store down the street, or
own the means of production. But I do believe that the middle class and the
working families, who produce the wealth of this country, deserve a decent
standard of living, and that their incomes should go up, not down.
“I do believe in private companies that thrive and invest and grow in
America, companies that create jobs here, rather than companies that are
shutting down in America and increasing their profits by exploiting low-wage
labor abroad. I believe that most Americans can pay lower taxes—if hedge
fund managers who make billions manipulating the marketplace finally start
paying the taxes that they should."
11. Equal treatment by government, not racism. “I don’t believe in special
treatment for the top 1 percent, but I do believe in equal treatment for
African Americans who are right to proclaim the moral principle that black
lives matter. I despise appeals to nativism and prejudice, a lot of which we
have been hearing in recent months. And I do proudly believe in immigration
reform that gives Hispanics and others a pathway to citizenship and a better
life.
“And while I am on that subject, let me say a real word of concern to what I
have been hearing from some of the Republican candidates for president in
recent months. People can have honest disagreements about immigration or
about anything else. That’s called democracy. But people should not be using
the political process to inject racism into the debate. And if Donald Trump
and others refer to Latinos, people from Mexico, as criminals and rapists,
if they want to open that door, our job is to shut that door and shut it
tight.”
12. Do not become cynical; work for change. “Do not, do not, do not become
cynical… I am running for president in order for all of us to be able to
live in a nation of hope and opportunity, not for some, but for my seven
grandchilden, and for all of you.
“Nobody understood better than Franklin Delano Roosevelt the connection
between American strength at home and our ability to defend America around
the world. And that is why he proposed a second Bill of Rights in 1944, and
said in that very same State of the Union, and I quote again, ‘America’s own
rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and
similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens. For
unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace—lasting
peace—in the world.'"
Foreign Policy and the Use of Force
The final section of Sanders’ speech concerned foreign policy and whether
the U.S. should use military force abroad. Sanders said, “I am not running
for president to pursue reckless adventures abroad, but to rebuild America’s
strength at home. I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will
never send our sons and daughters to war under false pretense, or pretenses
about dubious battles with no end in sight.”
Sanders said George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq and war of choice was one of
many examples where a foreign policy decision led to serious unanticipated
consequences that unfolded over many years and destabilized entire regions.
In that context, he said ISIS must be defeated by military and other
policies, but, “we cannot, and should not, do it alone.” He said that could
only happen when other Muslim countries in the region, especially wealthy
nations like Saudi Arabia, became more involved and see this as a fight for
"the soul of Islam," which is not an appropriate role for America.
“While the U.S. and other western nations have the strength of our
militaries and political systems, the fight against ISIS is a struggle for
the soul of Islam, and countering violent extremism and destroying ISIS must
be done primarily by Muslim nations—with the strong support of their global
partners,” Sanders said.
Unlike any of the other 2016 presidential candidates, Sanders said the U.S.
must learn from past mistakes and not repeat them—such as using military
force or intelligence agency coups for short-term political gains that
backfire in the long run.
“Our response must begin with an understanding of past mistakes and missteps
in our previous approaches to foreign policy,” he said. “It begins with the
acknowledgment that unilateral military action should be a last resort, not
a first resort, and that ill-conceived military decisions, such as the
invasion of Iraq, can wreak far-reaching devastation and destabilization
over regions for decades. It begins with the reflection that the failed
policy decisions of the past—rushing to war, regime change in Iraq or
toppling Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in 1953: Mossadegh was the president.
The CIA and others got rid of him, to protect British petroleum interests.
The Shah of Iran came in, a brutal dictator, and he was thrown out by the
Islamic revolution, and that is where we are in Iran today.
“Decisions have consequences, often unintended consequences,” he continued.
“So whether it was Saddam Hussein, or Mossadegh, or Guatemalan president
Árbenz in 1954, Brazilian president Goulart in 1964, Chilean president
Allende in 1973—this type of regime change. This type of overthrowing
governments we may not like, often does not work, often makes a bad and
difficult decision even worse. These are lessons we must learn.”
Steven Rosenfeld covers national political issues for AlterNet, including
America's retirement crisis, democracy and voting rights, and campaigns and
elections. He is the author of "Count My Vote: A Citizen's Guide to Voting"
(AlterNet Books, 2008).
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Best Reasons for Being a Democratic Socialist
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