(HOST) The war in Iraq has taken a back seat to the economic crisis in the Presidential campaign. But commentator Barrie Dunsmore, a thirty year veteran diplomatic correspondent for ABC News, reminds us this morning that on the significant issues of national security and foreign policy, the voters have two very different choices.
(DUNSMORE) The key questions for voters are: What qualities do you want in the next man to sit in the Oval Office? And how is he likely to behave in the face of new international crises?
John McCain has much more experience. He’s the son and grandson of Navy admirals. He lived through torture and five and a half years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. He has years of service as a Senator, during which he travelled extensively and got to know world leaders.
Barack Obama has no hands-on foreign policy experience, and that has been troubling. But watching him for the past two years I have been impressed with his nuanced understanding of complex world problems. He has a calm demeanor and is evidently not rattled by crisis or adversity. His handling of the Wall Street melt-down has helped him considerably, according to the latest polls.
Senator Lindsay Graham, a close friend and travelling companion of McCain, recently said this about him: "He believes that some political problems have military solutions." This would be true in cases of wars of survival; but that philosophy is not entirely comforting. To me and many analysts McCain still seems to be fighting the Cold War. For instance, he has proposed forming a new group of the world’s democracies – which by definition would exclude Russia and China. He wants to punish the Russians for invading Georgia by kicking them out of the Group of Eight Industrial Nations. He also wants to offer Georgia and Ukraine membership in NATO. Voters must consider that this could possibly result in a serious military confrontation between Russia and NATO.
As a post-Cold War thinker, Obama would try not to alienate Russia and China, especially at a time when this country needs them both in dealing with North Korea and Iran. Voters may or may not like the fact that he is not afraid to talk to America’s adversaries – or that he can be tough. If the U.S. gets its sights on Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, and the Pakistanis won’t move immediately – Obama says he would not hesitate to order American forces to take Bin Laden out.
Another thing to consider is that given his evident dislike for the leaders of North Korea and Iran, McCain might not have the patience for a lengthy, serious diplomatic dialogue to resolve the nuclear issues that make each of those two countries a threat to their neighbors.
Finally, McCain’s first Presidential-like decision was to make Sarah Palin his running mate. And, whatever her attributes, many are concerned that she lacks a rudimentary knowledge of the world, which she would need if McCain were to die in office.
As has been dramatically illustrated by the global financial crisis – and will be even more so, with the advancing cliimate crisis – we live in a totally interdependent world. Voters will have to decide which candidate seems best equipped to handle a future crisis based on their experience and temperament.