Where We Go From Here, by Bernie Sanders: on Foreign Policy
Bernie Sanders:
Development aid isn't charity; it avoids military later
Development aid is not charity, it advances our national security. It's worth noting that the U.S. military is a stalwart supporter of non-defense diplomacy and development aid. Starving diplomacy and aid now will result in greater defense needs later
on. US foreign aid should be accompanied by stronger emphasis on helping people gain their political and civil rights to hold oppressive governments accountable to the people.
Ultimately, governments that are accountable to the needs of their people will make more dependable partners.
Here is the bottom line: In my view, the United States must seek partnerships not just between governments, but between peoples.
A sensible and effective foreign policy recognizes that our safety and welfare is bound up with the safety and welfare of others around the world.
Source: Westminster College speech in Where We Go From Here, p. 109
Sep 21, 2017
Bernie Sanders:
Foreign policy is directly related to military policy
Let me be clear: Foreign policy is directly related to military policy and has everything to do with almost seven thousand young Americans being killed in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and tens of thousands coming home wounded in body and spirit from a war we should never have started. That's foreign policy.
And foreign policy is about hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq and Afghanistan dying in that same war.
Foreign policy is about U.S. government budget priorities. At a time when we already spend more on defense than the next 12 nations combined, foreign policy is about authorizing a defense budget of some $700 billion.
Source: Westminster College speech in Where We Go From Here, p. 92
Sep 21, 2017
Bernie Sanders:
UN is bureaucratic, but does enormously important work
One of the most important organizations for promoting a vision of a different world is the United Nations. It has become fashionable to bash the UN. And yes, the UN needs to be reformed. It can be ineffective, bureaucratic, too slow or unwilling to act,
even in the face of massive atrocities, as we are seeing in Syria right now. But to see only its weaknesses is to overlook the enormously important work the UN does in promoting global health, aiding refugees, monitoring elections, and doing
international peacekeeping missions, among other things. All of these activities contribute to reduced conflict, to wars that don't have to be ended because they never start. At the end of the day, it is
obvious that it makes far more sense to have a forum in which countries can debate their concerns, work out compromises and agreements. Dialogue and debate are far preferable to bombs, poison gas, and war.
Source: Westminster College speech in Where We Go From Here, p. 98-9
Sep 21, 2017
Bernie Sanders:
1991: We give $7B to feudalistic dictatorships in Mideast
As a freshman congressman in 1991, I voted against the first Persian Gulf War, which laid the groundwork for our future involvement in the Gulf. In one of my earliest speeches in Congress, I went to the house floor and said, "Despite the fact that we
are now aligned with such Middle Eastern governments such as Syria, a terrorist dictatorship, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, a feudalistic dictatorships, and Egypt, a one-party state that receives $7 Billion in debt forgiveness to wage this war with us,
I believe that, in the long run, the action unleashed last night will go strongly against our interests in the Middle East. Clearly, the United States and its allies will win this war, but the death and destruction caused will, in my opinion, not be
forgotten by the poor people of the Third World and the people of the Middle East in particular... I fear that one day we will regret that decision and that we are in fact laying the groundwork for more and more wars in that region for years to come."
Source: Where We Go From Here, by Bernie Sanders, p.88-9
Sep 21, 2017
Page last updated: Apr 10, 2019