Bernie Sanders’ Refreshingly Sane Foreign Policy

[Nanjeanne]

This is from end-November but might be a good time to revisit this article by: Sean Illing is a USAF veteran and a former political science professor.

Sanders gave a major speech last week at Georgetown University, the central theme of which was democratic socialism. Understandably, much of the coverage focused on Sanders’s efforts to situate his brand of socialism in the broader American tradition. However, Sanders also used his speech to talk about our foreign policy dilemma in the Middle East.

His remarks were what we’ve come to expect from Sanders: honest. Because he doesn’t spin the way other politicians do, Sanders brings a kind of clarity to this conversation, a clarity that’s desperately needed in our current climate. Conservatives will likely dismiss Sanders as a dovish liberal who doesn’t understand foreign policy, but that’s because they don’t want to hear what he has to say.

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http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/bernie-sanderss-refreshingly-sane-foreign-policy#.VrWAHMfCo3l.twitter

[pangaia]

1. Bernie understands more about what is going and what

sane policies are needed than Clinton ever will.

"Our response must begin with an understanding of past mistakes and missteps in our previous approaches to foreign policy. It begins with the acknowledgement that unilateral military action should be a last resort…and that ill-conceived military decisions, such as the invasion of Iraq, can wreak far-reaching devastation and destabilize entire regions for decades. It begins with the reflection that the failed policy decisions of the past – rushing to war, regime change in Iraq, or toppling Mossadegh in Iran in 1953, or Guatemalan President Arbenz in 1954, Brazilian President Goulart in 1964, Chilean President Allende in 1973. These are the sort of policies that do not work, do not make us safer, and must not be repeated."

I hope some time he brings up the School of the Americas, now known as Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC),, in an attempt to hide what it is.