SEN. JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR. HOLDS A HEARING ON NATIONAL SECURITY REFORM.
(Broadcast transcript)(Company overview) Publication: Political/Congressional Transcript Wire
Publication Date: 24-APR-08
ARMITAGE: In addition to that, Mr. Chairman, the background of how we had this commission.
In the wake of 9/11, it was our view that we were twice victimized. We were victimized by terrorists and then we victimized ourself.
We started exporting our fear and our anger rather than our hope and our optimism. We starting tying our own hands up. And we felt, Joe and I, Dr. Hamre, CSIS, that it was about time to, sort of, relook this and see if we couldn’t un-victimize ourselves.
A Democrat and a Republican, joined by Senator Hagel, Senator Reed of Rhode Island, Betty McCollum and Mac Thornberry, wanted to make a very graphic point. Not only did we recognize that we needed to do something differently, but we could do this in a bipartisan way and a bipartisan spirit.
And every one of us was motivated, I think, by the following thought: that is that we have dedicated our lives to prolonging and preserving our preeminence as a nation as a force for good as long as humanly possible.
We also, I think, all recognized that we have the premier military in the world, and they fight and win the nation’s battles. And they’re ideally suited to fight an enemy on the battlefield. They’re not ideally suited to fight ideas or climate change or guarantee energy security, et cetera.
ARMITAGE: We’re often asked by members of Congress, “At the end of the day, aren’t you going to be talking about more appropriations, more money for foreign aid? That’s so unpopular.”
Our view is this is not foreign aid, this is not charity, this is a cold calculation of our national security. And that’s the way it ought to be put forward by witnesses today, and, I would argue, by members of the U.S. Congress.
We take the view that the world wants an indispensable nation, and we’re that indispensable nation. But we can only occupy that space when our national values and our words and our actions are in line. We can’t stand against torture and then waterboard. You can’t do it. We can’t be an indispensable nation that way.
We do take the — we want to be, without being too maudlin about it, that shining city on the Hill that Mr. Reagan used to talk about. That should be the image of this country, not the image of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. That’s, kind of, where we started on this endeavor.
We took a look, Mr. Chairman, at public diplomacy. And I think there’s a real misunderstanding about public diplomacy.
It seems in some quarters that there’s a feeling that public diplomacy is just a matter of speaking more loudly, getting people to understand it. So that’s not the problem. There’s not a person in this world that doesn’t understand exactly where the United States is coming from. The question they have is whether we understand them. And I think that’s a good place to begin in public diplomacy.
Now, as I’ve indicated, Dr. Nye is going to talk about the specific big ideas we had. The problem with big ideas, as I’m sure our friends Jim Locher and Gordon Adams will tell you, this may take a long time to bring to fruition, and it’s frustrating. Military actions you can see almost by the minute. These are, by definition, long-term projects. So it’s hard to be gratified.
But I’m going to give you a couple of short-term issues, if you want to feel gratification, that can help on the way to a longer-term solution.
You know the most effective public diplomacy I’ve seen? It’s been basketball. We sent Georgetown graduates around the world, 46 different countries. They never had to talk about Arab-Israeli peace. They didn’t have to talk about anything except growing up black in America and how to balance college sports with college academics. And it was front-page news all around the country, all around the world.
There’s a J.D. Walsh right now in basketball, he’s a Maryland graduate, he’s in India doing this same thing, but he’s expanded on the idea. He’s using it to also, as they teach basketball, to have HIV/AIDS testing, to teach courses in nonviolent conflict resolution. He’s not talking about Arab-Israeli peace issues, or Al Qaida, for that matter, but he’s having more effect in diplomacy than you can imagine.
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