Responsibility to the world

America's responsibility to the world is to exert moral leadership. Because of our commitment to human rights, we must demonstrate to the world how a free society behaves, and that a democracy has nothing to fear and much to offer its citizens. As the world's creative engine, we bring new ideas and technologies into the world and use them to better the human condition.

With regard to the use of military power, most Democrats believe in the concept of Just War, a part of Christian theology since the fourth century. In order for a war to be Just, it must be for the purpose of redressing an actual wrong, such as an attack or imminent threat of attack, it must be purely for the purpose of restoring peace, must have a reasonable chance of accomplishing this objective, and must be a last resort after all other options are tried.

Many Democrats believe the Iraq war was not Just, because there was no imminent threat of attack, because our intelligence capability was not used effectively first, and because it was foreseeable that the current situation almost two years later is no more peaceful than the situation in 1992. This is still a very relevant question because of the danger of using it as a precedent for future foreign policy. The imposition of hegemony or empire is not a just cause for war. A society can't be made to adopt our values by force.

Democrats need to re-establish our credibility to defend the nation, in a manner consistent with our values and moral leadership obligation. We can do this by developing all our resources, including the military, intelligence, diplomacy, economic power, and the power of our values. Without these, we're fighting blindfolded with our hands bound, able only to lash out with our boots.

The military is a very blunt instrument, not the right solution to every problem. What we spend on intelligence is a tiny fraction of what we spend on the military, and that will have to change now that the inadequacy of our intelligence system has been exposed. We should be the leading supporter of statesmanship and international peace-keeping institutions. As the world's most powerful nation by far, we have nothing to prove about our military capability.

The impulse to react to every problem with violence is a serious problem in our culture, exacerbated by media and political leaders like Arnold Schwartzenegger, and is contrary to American values. The time-honored tradition of using our brains and ingenuity must be restored. We need to hold such leaders accountable for the damage they cause to the culture, the harm to the value of responsibility.

Part of our responsibility to the world, as its richest nation, is to foster economic development. In the Middle East, this is not only an altruistic obligation, but a national security imperative. Even the Islamic world has a competition of ideas. We need to make a serious effort to counter-balance the Islamic madrassas, which crank out a continuous stream of new terrorists by teaching a hateful ideology, with quality, secular schools and infrastructure that give the people of the Middle East some real hope, a real chance at joining the world economy and thriving in it. This will cost far less than the Iraq war. Failing to do this is both irresponsible and anti-security.

Political themes: Intelligence as a superior alternative to preemption: brains over brawn. Five pillars of security: military, intelligence, diplomacy, economy, and values. Just War. Give the Islamic world hope, not hate.