Military

DATE=March 12, 2003

TYPE=Dateline

TITLE=The Democrats and Foreign Policy

NUMBER=7-37279

BYLINE=Carol Castiel

TELEPHONE=619-1101

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Mary Motta

CONTENT=

DISK: DATELINE THEME [PLAYED IN STUDIO, FADED UNDER DATELINE HOST VOICE OR PROGRAMMING MATERIAL]

HOST: The Democratic Party suffered a huge setback in the U.S. midterm election of 2002. They not only lost their one seat advantage in the Senate, but they also failed to gain control of the House of Representatives. As Carol Castiel reports in this edition of Dateline, the Democrats hope to turn their recent legislative loss into a presidential gain in 2004 by emphasizing their differences with the president, particularly in the field of foreign policy.

CC: A diverse field of Democratic contenders is jostling for position in the 2004 presidential race. Nine candidates have declared their intention to seek the party's nomination, and at least four more are mulling a run. With President Bush's popularity falling amid rising public concern over his handling of Iraq, North Korea and the shaky economy, Democratic contenders see optimistic signs for 2004. On the question of Iraq, most challengers have voiced opposition in varying degrees to the Bush administration's position on the use of force to disarm Iraq. On the liberal end of the spectrum is Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Political analysts describe him as a populist and stanch anti-war crusader.

TAPE: CUT 1 KUCINICH :43

"This war will put America's moral standing in the world at risk. This war will make America not more safe but less safe. It will bring more not less terror to our shores. This war will make the entire world less safe and will like all wars, cause other wars to break out. This war will put America's sons and daughters at risk for no good reason. This war illustrates the total bankruptcy of the administration's policiesa trillion dollar tax cut for the rich, a trillion dollars for war in Iraq, but no money for the needs of our people. We are told that we have money to blow up cities in Iraq but no money to rebuild cities in America."

Mr. Kucinich and six of his Democratic rivals spoke about their foreign policy priorities, emphasizing Iraq and the war on terror, at a recent meeting of the Democratic National Committee or DNC in Washington.

Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut stands in stark contrast to Mr. Kucinich. Mr. Lieberman was a cosponsor of the 1991 resolution supporting a war against on Iraq when the elder George Bush was president, and he has been among the current President Bush's strongest Democrat supporters on this issue.

(2:30)

TAPE: CUT 2 LIEBERMAN :40

"I know that some in our party and our nation and many around the world are against the use of force in Iraq. But, the history of the last century teaches us the consequences of unchecked power and unconventional weapons in the hands of an inhumane tyrant. That history moved me to support the use of force in 1991 to turn back Saddam's invasion of Kuwait and a few years later to stop genocide in Bosnia and Kosovo. Now, my friends to protect the safety of the American people and the credibility of the United Nations, Iraq must disarm, peacefully if possible, by force if necessary." (3:10)

CC: Although Senator Lieberman concurs with President Bush's position on Iraq, he sharply criticizes what he calls the administration's "one-sided, go-it-alone foreign policy." He says that approach has made it hard for the President to form an international coalition to disarm Saddam Hussein.

TAPE: CUT 3 LIEBERMAN :31

"By pulling out of the Kyoto global warming treaty, arms control treaties and other international pacts and by issuing an unnecessary and divisive policy of military preemption, George W. Bush has separated us from most of the rest of the world and weakened our alliances just at the time when we need them more than ever to win the global war against terrorism." (3:45)

CC: Longtime Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt who has also thrown his hat into the Democratic ring, echoes Senator Lieberman on Iraq. (4:00)

TAPE: CUT 4 GEPHARDT :52

"I believe we must disarm Saddam Hussein, and I'm proud that I wrote the resolution to help lead the president finally make his case to the United Nations. For all our military might, there are too many threats to our security, too many global challenges for America to simply go it alone. We need the friendship and we need the cooperation of our time-honored allies. We need a president who will lead the world toward that consensus and will lead by real leadership and not merely trying to bully other nations into doing that. (fade applause.) (4:50)

CC: Richard Gephardt is a former House Majority Leader, who failed in a 1988 attempt to capture the White House. According to the latest polls, Mr. Gephardt is among the front-runners for the nomination.

CC: Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts currently tops the polls in New Hampshire, a key battleground state early in the primary elections. Because of recent prostate-cancer surgery, Senator Kerry missed the DNC meeting. However, he is on record as criticizing President Bush's foreign policy approach as "blustering unilateralism."

TAPE: CUT 5, KERRY,:38.

"I would be willing to support the president providing there is an imminent threat that has been shown and that the breach reaches the standard that we all agree on. I will not support the president to proceed unilaterally if it is simply the president's effort to try to do regime change without regard to the legitimacy of the inspection process or the legitimacy of the United Nations process itself. And I believe,very deeply, that that will cost our country in the long term in the war on terror and in many other ways that are going to be extraordinarily complex to undo for years to come."

CC: Senator Kerry stands for what he calls "progressive internationalism backed by military might that commits America and its allies to lead the world toward liberty and prosperity."

CC: Peace, prosperity and progress is the motto of the only female candidate in the Democratic race: former Illinois Senator Carol Moseley-Braun. (5:40)

TAPE: CUT 6, MOSELEY-BRAUN :20

//opt// "Women can show America that we are clever enough to defeat terror without destroying our own liberty, that we can provide for long-term security by making peace everybody's business. We can show the world that we are creative enough to brave today's challenges to our planet, to our safety, to our future with the boldness that is America's middle name. //opt// (6:00)

CC: Carol Moseley-Braun is the first African-American elected official to seek the presidency since then-Representative Shirley Chisolm in 1972. She also served as US Ambassador to New Zealand during the latter half of the Clinton administration.

CC: While Ambassador Moseley-Braun holds no brief for Saddam Hussein, she deplores what she calls the saber-rattling of the Bush Administration. (6:30)

TAPE: CUT 7 MOSELEY-BRAUN :45

"As a candidate for our nation's highest office, I will make the case that our domestic security is ultimately tied up in how well we work with others to fight terrorism around the world. We inherited almost universal good will following the tragedy of 9-1-1. And the world joined us in denouncing the fanaticism that gave rise to such horror. Rather than fritter away the good will in a rush to preemptory, unilateral military action, and in the process isolate us in a country on perpetual alert, we would do well to foster cooperation to freeze the very ground in which extremism and terrorism festers. We are ultimately all in this together. And this new form of worldwide chaos can only be contained and eliminated with worldwide support." (7:15)

TAPE: CUT 9 MUSIC FOR SHARPTON UP AND FADE UNDER

CC: Then there's the Reverend Al Sharpton. The veteran African-American activist is known for his fiery, passionate oratory.

TAPE: CUT 10 SHARPTON :43

"I've opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning. I've said that clearly Saddam Hussein is not a man that any of us would support and clearly has done grave atrocities. But, I do not believe that we have seen the case that the only way to deal with Hussein is military action. What is strange to me is that the Administration's case has been that they possess in Iraq weapons of mass destruction and they're an imminent danger. Yet there are weapons in North Korea, and they lied about the weapons. But we're not going there, we're going to talk in Korea." (8:00)

CC: To illustrate his disagreement with the Bush White House foreign policy priorities and approach, Reverend Sharpton lampooned the administration's inability to capture Osama bin Laden.

TAPE: CUT 11 SHARPTON :30

"Secretary of State Powell made a great delivery, great case to the UN, showing tapes and video tapes and audio tapes, showing how our intelligence works, but I don't understand why our intelligence can take conversations in Baghdad but can't find a man hiding in a cave in Afghanistan. (fade applause..)" (8:30)

CC: North Carolina Senator John Edwards who also spoke at the DNC meeting, sounds a more moderate note. On Iraq, he agrees that Saddam Hussein needs to be disarmed including, if necessary, by force. He says the real test for America will come in a post-Saddam Iraq.

TAPE: CUT 12 EDWARDS :30

"Will we make the commitment to give the Iraqi people a real chance for success, a real chance for a democratic government? Or will we have the same kind of follow-through that we had in Afghanistan once we got rid of the Taleban. The world is watching us. They know we are powerful. They know we are strong. Now they want to know do we care. Not just about our peace, not just about our prosperity, but about theirs." (9:00)

CC: Leadership on domestic defense and national security are Senator Edwards' main foreign policy concerns. He has taken the controversial stand in favor of a creating a domestic intelligence agency.

TAPE: CUT 13 EDWARDS :22

"We need a domestic intelligence agency that can track down terrorists in our midst, infiltrate their ranks, and stop them before they do harm. We need more border patrols to keep terrorists out, we need more port inspections to keep weapons out. //opt//And we need to improve domestic readiness so police, firefighters and EMT's have all the resources they need to deal with any threat that may come up. //end opt//"

CC: Despite his centrist views and stand on families values that could attract a broad base within the Democratic Party, Senator Edwards has garnered less than 10% in national polls.

CC: Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean also lags far behind in the national polls. He, like Congressman Dennis Kucinich, is vying for support among the party's ultraliberals. A medical doctor, Howard Dean is considered by many political observers to be far to the left on foreign policy issues. He opposes US-led military action against Iraq. At the DNC meeting, he voiced an impassioned plea for change.

TAPE: CUT 14 DEAN (WITH MUSIC) 1:20

"We're gonna change this party and then we're gonna change this country and we're gonna take back the White House and we're gonna balance the budget. And we're gonna have health care for everybody and we're gonna have an America with the best institutions right up to the cabinet that looks once again like America. We're gonna bring hope to America, jobs to America, peace to America, we're gonna bring pride to the Democratic Party. I need your help, let's go get it, let's go do it, let's win the White House in January of 2004, thank you very much (applause and music)."

MUSIC: FADE UNDER:

CC: Since that Democratic National Committee meeting, Florida Senator Bob Graham announced his candidacy. And several more presidential prospects are likely to join in. Of course, it is far too early to tell how Iraq will play out in the 2004 elections; by then, a war may have been averted, or one could be ongoing or completed. But the candidates' positions on Iraq give some indications of how they would react to a real-life situation involving decisions between war and peace. For Dateline, I'm Carol Castiel in Washington.

MUSIC: [FROM DNC MEETING OR COMING TO AMERICA]