John Kerry says "I think it's an insult that when the world is twice as large as it was in the cold war, I mean half the world was shut to us during the cold war, the Peace Corps is smaller today than it was when President Kennedy started it. That tells you a lot.
Excerpts From an Interview With John Kerry on Diplomacy and Defense
Published: May 30, 2004
ollowing are excerpts from an interview Friday with Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee:
On President Bush's focus on Iraq to the exclusion of North Korea and Iran, which he describes as "more compelling threats":
"This administration has been almost myopic in its view on Iraq itself, to the exclusion of those things that are necessary to in fact make the world safer. I think that this administration is high on rhetoric and high on ideology and low on actual strategic thinking and truth. And the fact is that they have broken alliances across the planet that have served us well for years, they've left our reputation in tatters. There's no one who deals with the global community who doesn't understand the degree to which we've isolated ourselves, and I think we're less safe because of that."
On negotiating with hostile powers:
"We have to be more artful in seeing what they see, not just thinking about it from our point of view. War is the ultimate failure of diplomacy; or use of force is the ultimate failure of diplomacy. But I know the difference between when you've really tried to give meaning to the words `last resort' and when you haven't."
On comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam:
"Sure, there are increasing similarities. It's never been Vietnam. It's not Vietnam. It doesn't have to be. But there are growing similarities. Whether or not it becomes that is truly up to this administration and the leadership over the course of the next months."
On the possibility that a new Iraqi government would push American forces from the country:
"There's an enormous crapshoot in the approach of this administration on this, which is not exactly the best way to be approaching something like this. Which is why I am saying that as president I would want to be proceeding from the greatest position of strength. I would want to be proceeding from the best prospects of success in the mission. And the best prospects of success and the greatest position of strength come from a maximum number of countries on the ground and involved, and come from a maximum share in local responsibility. None of which this administration has yet embraced or truly pushed for."
On America's role in the world:
"I think it's an insult that when the world is twice as large as it was in the cold war, I mean half the world was shut to us during the cold war, the Peace Corps is smaller today than it was when President Kennedy started it. That tells you a lot.
"Our budget today for foreign policy, for everything we do — for drugs, for embassies, for foreign commercial service, for all of our efforts, including foreign aid — is smaller than it was under Ronald Reagan in 1986. We need some leadership to project our country into the world in a way that shows our values and our ideas and restores our influence and reputation. I think this administration has taken us to a low point unlike anything that I've seen in the entire time I've been in public life."
On nuclear containment and Russia's missile stores:
"I mean either this is deadly serious, or it's not. Now when you sit with any expert they'll tell you it's the most serious thing in the world. Well if it is, why aren't we treating it as if it were? And we're not. There's bureaucratic hassles with Putin now. There's been a complete inattention. This wasn't even on the agenda of the last meeting of our president and President Putin. Not even on the agenda to talk about the nuclear reduction, that threat. That's not serious when only 22 percent has been contained. I'm going to make it serious. It's going to be the top priority."
