International affairs will take center stage in the coming presidential election, predicts Andrea Mitchell, chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News.
“For years and years, we’ve had campaigns where no one ever asked a presidential candidate anything about the rest of the world. That has changed,” she said.
Mitchell encouraged the audience at the Bakersfield Business Conference to question the motives and actions of the White House in the wake of Sept. 11.
“As we later learned, it was not only the beginning of our war on terror, but the beginning of a retaliatory strike and a war in Afghanistan. And the Pentagon very much wanted it to be the beginning of a war in Iraq,” she said.
Mitchell moderated a panel on foreign policy which included Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland and U.N. commissioner for human rights, as well as former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, who served as chairman of the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland. The panel discussed the rebuilding of Iraq, conflict in the Middle East and the United States’ role in the international arena.
When asked about Bush’s choice to declare war against Iraq, Robinson responded with the fact that the United Nations’ charter recognizes the right of every nation to that kind of self-defense, but that, “the problem, I think, is that for many, many people, in many countries in the world, there was not the conviction that it was necessary to act militarily against Iraq at the time that the war was declared,” she said. She also added that so far, weapons of mass destruction have yet to be found, and that has “aggravated an anti-American sentiment, particularly in that region. That’s very worrying for stability and peace, and indeed the rebuilding of Iraq.”
Mitchell asked why the United States is a terrorism target when it helps other countries financially and militarily.
Sen. Mitchell said that being the dominant military, economic and political power comes with both positive and negative aspects.
“On the other hand, there are disadvantages that come with a dominant position, and one of them is that there is a natural resentment, in some cases envy, and others hostility, toward whoever is the dominant power,” he said.
Robinson explained that Iraqis need to be involved in creating their government.
“I think it is really very important to have a sense, particularly in the region, of legitimacy,” she said. If a strong sense of legitimacy is established, “I think it’s possible to make progress in Iraq.”
Sen. Mitchell related his experience in Ireland to the situation in Iraq.
“I must say that it took two years, two long years of listening. But, ultimately, everyone got a chance to get their view across,” he said. He admits that the situation in Ireland is still not perfect, but believes it has improved.
“What began as an atmosphere of complete hostility gradually became one of discussion. Not friendship, not trust, not respect – they still don’t like each other – but still a real dialogue. I think the same thing can happen in the Middle East.”
Both panelists agreed that women would play a central role in bringing peace to Iraq. Robinson finds that Muslim women’s choices are limited.
“They are being squeezed between a choice of Islamic fundamentalism or a kind of McDonald’s Western culture. They don’t want either of those.” The Iraqi women are finding their own balance between religion, education and family, she said.
Sen. Mitchell noted that women played a large role in bringing peace to Ireland.
“I believe that one reason why we were able to get a peace agreement in Northern Ireland after 30 years of war … is that the public became exhausted with the war and women became an active political force in Northern Ireland for the first time,” he said.