Won't Somebody Talk About Foreign Policy?

Tuesday mornings at 10:30. How I hated that day and time. I can still feel the same tightness in my stomach. As a kid growing up in Chicago in the '50s, Tuesday mornings at 10:30 meant the testing of the city's air raid sirens. People seemed to get used to the ear-piercing wails, but I always remember thinking that if I were a clever Soviet official -- I had never heard of the word oxymoron at that time -- I would attack Chicago at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning. No one would know or care until it was too late. Such was the Cold War psyche of a fairly typical pre-teen in America.

So why has that tightness in my stomach come back, especially as I tuck my two young children in at night? The Cold War has ended. I have long since left Chicago, and I suspect that the weekly testing tradition was discontinued years ago.

The answer struck me as I watched the Republican candidates jockey for position during the recent Iowa straw poll. Not a word was said about foreign policy. Perhaps I missed it. Perhaps it was not all about tax cuts and family values and personal responsibility and "compassionate conservatism" and restoring faith in our leaders. Maybe someone mentioned North Korea or Iraq or China (beyond fundraising scandals) or any of a number of fanatical groups anxious to pick up a spare nuclear device from Russia. If so, I missed it.

In truth, Bill Clinton's most egregious distortion of the presidency has been to emphasize those areas where our government is unimportant to our lives -- I'll feel my own pain, thank you -- and to de-emphasize those areas where our government is singularly important. Not being atomized comes to mind. Oh sure, as the leader of the Free World grasps for a legacy, we bomb a country or two, but foreign policy for the last eight years or so has been, to put it kindly, an afterthought. Call me cynical, but I suspect those concerns don't show up in the polls. As a great electioneering machine once said, "It's the economy, stupid."

It's probably unfair to blame Bill Clinton. As I said, I don't hear much from Republicans either. And, ultimately it probably reflects on us voters. After all, if international relations did show up in the polling data, it would be on the lips of George W. and Al G. and every other serious candidate on the right and left.

I don't want to be Gloomy Gus, or even Pessimistic Pat, but the world is a very dangerous place -- much more dangerous, I believe, than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis. I would rather have my President know how to put together an international coalition to resist the naked aggression of a rogue state (as another Bush once did) than to understand how a supermarket scanner functions (as that same candidate allegedly failed to do, much to his detriment).

We need a plan, a vision. Careening along from crisis to crisis won't cut it any longer. To borrow a bumper sticker, one nuclear explosion can ruin your day. I wish someone -- anyone -- would talk about this. It's not sexy, nor does it demonstrate what a caring and compassionate person you are. But one day, foreign policy will become a very, very important subject whether we like it or not. I'd rather see that day come by design than because a horrible incident has thrust it to center stage where it simply can't be ignored.

This article was written on September 15, 1999, almost exactly 2 years before 9-11-01. In retrospect, it is a fitting indictment of both political parties at that time...especially in view of what was to come... Pat Sajak did a great job...unfortunately...of predicting the future. He was exactly right in so many ways. That's why I wanted to post this nearly 4 year old article here.

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If this is the "game show" host, then he's also the man who introduced me to Rush Limbaugh. Pat Sajek had a talk show on CBS back when David Letterman was still on NBC.

One week, Pat let Rush fill in for him (it may predate his radio sydication and it was an early bit of national exposure).

ACT UP protested in the audience.

Good post - I had heard that Pat was Republican, but this article really serves to get a handle on him - another hero, a TV Celeb that has values and isn't afraid to say so...

As a kid growing up in Chicago in the '50s, Tuesday mornings at 10:30 meant the testing of the city's air raid sirens. People seemed to get used to the ear-piercing wails, but I always remember thinking that if I were a clever Soviet official -- I had never heard of the word oxymoron at that time -- I would attack Chicago at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning.

That's funny. I have written of exactly the same experience. I had exactly the same idea. I was about 8 years old. I didn't know about "Soviets"; I thought it would be "the enemy."

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