Priorities
Ending the War in Iraq and Bringing the Troops Home
“The problem is not just a military problem. It is political problem and a diplomatic problem.” Gen. Wesley Clark (ret.) Former Supreme Allied Commander
Since we invaded Iraq in 2003, more than 4,000 American troops have lost their lives and almost 30,000 more have suffered serious injuries. An untold number of Iraqi citizens have been killed and more than four million are refugees or displaced in their own country. The cost to the treasury for all this is more than $3 trillion.
A consensus, even among President Bush’s allies, is beginning to emerge that the war was badly conceived, poorly engineered, and a drain on our resources. Our soldiers continue to fight valiantly, but politicians have let them down.
The military surge in Iraq in the middle of 2007 should have been accompanied by a surge in diplomacy. While the level of violence may have fallen because of the surge, there have been no meaningful steps taken toward peace and reconciliation. The political environment in Iraq remains highly unstable. Iraq’s economic and humanitarian crises continue to destabilize the already volatile region. It’s a situation made worse by the lack of international diplomatic efforts.
What we need to do is to bring engagement in Iraq to a responsible end and to restore the damage done to our military, to our reputation as a world leader, and to our Constitution.
And we need to get started immediately. With each passing day, another soldier is killed or injured. With each passing day, our international prestige suffers, a loss precipitated significantly by the continued operation of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.
We need to close the detention center in Guantanamo Bay. That detention center undercuts our moral authority and does tremendous damage to our standing in the world. It has stained our reputation as a defender of the rule of law and an unyielding opponent to torture, and loss of reputation has real consequences.
The loss of American prestige not only hurts our ability to protect American interests, it hurts our ability to help innocent people in desperate need, to rally support international support for a principled foreign policy. The world faces horrors in many forms. Genocide in Sudan is claiming hundreds of thousands of lives while the world watches. A food crisis looms on our horizon, raising the risk of starvation and malnutrition for millions of people in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Disease and natural disasters threaten substantial numbers of people around the world. Our moral authority gives us strength and power, and a strong America can lead the world away from these crises, save lives, and by doing so make our own country safer and more consistent with our values.
So much of what happens depends on what we do in Iraq. In order to best protect our security and promote our interests and values, we need to pressure Iraq’s leaders to resolve their civil war. We need to immediately begin to remove our combat troops, while retaining forces in the region to protect our interests there.
Prioritizing Energy Independence as a Way of Promoting National Security
The Arab oil embargo of the 1970s brought on rising fuel costs, lines at the pump, and pushed America into a deep recession. It also began the country on a conversation about energy independence. It’s a conversation that we are having again today. Oil is now trading at record prices and more and more people are being forced to decide whether to fill their cars or feed their families. The country is on the brink of a recession, and there is a crying need for real leadership.
We must take action. We must finally accept the fact that we can’t have security while we depend on insecure regions to supply our energy needs. We need to understand that when we buy oil from countries that harbor terrorists, we are providing the terrorists the means to hurt us. And we need leadership that isn’t afraid to tell America the exact cost of its dependence on foreign oil.
In this country, and particularly in Alaska, we have everything we need to be energy independent. We can be bold and we can lead the way. Part of the answer is to increase domestic oil production. Alaska’s contributions include opening ANWR, developing our proven heavy oil reserves, expanding NPRA production, and inventorying our offshore potential. We also need to get Alaska’s gas to market, both for instate use and for the rest of the country. Part of the answer is increased production of sustainable and renewable energy resources. And part of the answer is more efficient use of the energy we consume – conservation.
As a state legislator, I led the call for a statewide energy plan and advocated for developing local energy resources. In Washington, D.C., I’ll continue to fight to bring Alaska’s traditional reserves to market, and also fight to explore ways to build the infrastructure to use renewable resource, and make sure that this state and this country become energy independent and energy security.
