Posted on 09/22/2003 6:07:52 AM PDT by chambley1
When foreign policy becomes a local concern
It has been two years since the Sept. 11 tragedy struck in New York and here in Arlington, killing scores of citizens and terrifying the rest.
Having experienced this tragedy first-hand, Arlingtonians have a special stake in doing what's necessary to be sure that this kind of tragedy never revisits here - or anywhere else. We have an especially strong interest in focusing attention on what truly makes us more secure today.
Most of us supported the Bush administration's initial focus after the tragedy. The administration presented compelling evidence of al- Qaida's guilt to the world, and targeted the Taliban in Afghanistan. The United States received sympathy and support from around the world. The world was, for the most part, on our side.
The Bush administration then adopted a dangerous policy of unilateral preemptive military action, claiming the policy would make us more secure. It failed to develop a broad base of international support for our pre-emptive attack on Iraq.
And now, two years later, world sympathy has all but disappeared. Help from other nations must be bought at a high price, if it's available at all.
We are now among the most hated nations on earth. We are less secure than ever because security in the 21st century is not maximized by brute strength alone. Weapons of mass destruction can, and already have, spread around the globe through loss, theft or secret manufacture.
When any two-bit dictator or well-funded terror group can gather WMDs, no one is safe. In this new era, our security depends not on military strength alone, but on the friendship and cooperation of many allies around the world who respect us, not fear or hate us.
For this reason, we have spent the last seven months collecting signatures on a petition that praises our men and women in uniform, but asks the Arlington County Board to tell the president and the Congress that unilateral, pre-emptive strikes like the one on Iraq are bad for Arlington's physical and financial well-being.
The policy must be renounced. More than 1,000 Arlingtonians have signed our petition. The full text is available at: www.Arlington4Peace.org.
Some people say that foreign policy is not a local government issue. We say foreign policy can't get more local than an attack on the Arlington community.
PETER ROUSSELOT
PFROU@aol.com
Arlington
If that's true then why the hell are people flooding across our borders to get here. You would think they would be going the other way. Guess I'm just not cerebral enough to understand what this guy is trying to say.
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