I speak as a proud Cold Warrior who supported ever- greatrnanticommunist initiative from the days of JFK to Reagan. AndrnI support a U.S. defense that is seeond to none and a foreign policyrnwhereby America responds resolutely to any attack on Americanrncitizens, honor, or vital interests.rnBut what purpose is served by our shortening the lives of Iraqirnpeople who have done us no harm? If Desert Storm could notrnremove Saddam Hussein, how are the women, children, and elderlyrnof Iraq, the victims of our sanctions, supposed to o’erthrowrnhim?rnAnd if 78 days of bombing could not eject Slobodan Milosevicrnfrom power, how does forcing the people of Serbia to endurerna brutal winter without fuel or heat advance our goal?rnWhat happened to the moral idea of proportionaliU’, een inrnwar-time, between means and ends?rnWi e are in an election season, and the hvo major partiesrnVcWC made their predictable selccHons. Their debaternover foreign policy is devoid of any fresh thinking. Both partiesrnare frozen in the mindset of a Cold War that ended ten vearsrnago.rnDuring one debate, John McCain singled out Iraq, Libva,rnand North Korea as “rogue states” and advocated the armedrnoverthrow of all three by U.S.-trained and equipped armies.rnPressed on what he would do if his armies were being annihilated,rnthe senator did not respond. But he did not reject the notionrnthat Iran, a nation of 70 million, should also be designatedrna rogue state to be targeted for overthrow.rnThis is hubris; this is triumphalisni; this is the arrogance ofrnpower; this is America’s Brezhnev Doctrine. While I ha’c singledrnMcCain out, such ideas are commonplace among thernglobal gamcsnien in Washington.rnGovernor Bush cried out in angrush when he was comparedrnby Senator McCain to Bill Clinton, but he did not utter a skepticalrnword about McCain’s plans for rogue regimes. Indeed, dierngovernor has exhibited neither absorbing interest nor extraordinaryrnaptitude for foreign policy—to put it generously. His callrnlast year for die war on Serbia to be waged “more fcrocioush”rnwas his one memorable foreign-policy utterance. But notionsrnof “rogue-state rollback” are music to the ears of the self-shiedrn”Vrdcans,” the foreign-policy aides now homcschooling therngovernor.rnAmong the more prominent Vrdcans is Paul Wolfowitz. ArnPentagon aide to Bush the Elder, Wolfowitz produced in 1992rna blueprint for war against Russia that would utilize six carrierrnbattle groups and 24 NATO divisions to rescue Lithuania,rnshould Moscow recolonize that tiny republic.rnRichard Perlc, another of tire “On-to-Baghdad” brigade, isrnpediaps Washington’s premier entiiusiast for using U.S. pow errnto topple rogue regimes. Another tutor to Coxernor Bush is hisrnfather’s former national securih’ advisor. Brent Scoweroft. Arnfew months ago. Gen. Scoweroft advocated ]3utting a division ofrnU.S. troops on the Golan Heights to police peace behveen Syriarnand Israel, thereby ensuring there would be dead Americansrnin any future Syrian-Israeli clash.rnNot one of the Vulcans embraces the new thinking on foreignrnpolicy that has taken root in Congress and the conntr inrndie aftenuath of the Cold War. This new thinking alanus Clintonites,rnwho call it “isolationist,” but even more the neoconservatives,rnwho believe America should convert her hour of powerrninto a “benevolent global hegemony.”rnIndeed, during Clinton’s war on Serbia, one neoconseratiernstrategist w as so disheartened b}’ die lack of war spirit among thernRepublican rank-and-file that he mused about giving up andrnlea ing the GOP altogether.rnBut while man’ L^emocrats and some on the left arc eager tornchallenge the Bush-Clinton Nev’ Wodd Order, Vice PresidentrnGore is not among them. Mr. Gore is a Wilsonian in ftdl. Hernexhibits a New Repiihlic-sh’e lust for cruise-missile strikes onrn”rogue nations.” He was all for the war on Serbia. Nor did hernallow a ray of daylight to open up between himself and Mr.rnClinton on sanctions against Iraq or the strikes against that “poison-rngas factory” in Sudan that turned out to be a pharmaceuticalrnplant.rnMr. Core is also an acolvte of the New World Order, everrnread} to cede American sovercignh’, and an architect of Clinton’srnKoto Treat}’, under which global bureaucrats would dictaternAmerica’s use of fossil fuels. When young Americans perishedrnin a tragic accident over Iraq, Gore reflexively offered hisrncondolences to tiic families of those who “had died in tiie ser-rnice of the United Nations.”rnQuo Vadis? Where are on going, America?rnBecause of oiu” sanctions on various nations, cruise-missilernstrikes upon others, and intervention in the internal affairs ofrnstill others in the wake of the Cold War, a seething resentmentrnof America is brewing all ocr the world. And the haught)’ attitudernof our foreign-policv elite only nurses the hatred. Hearken,rnif ‘ou will, to the voice of our own Xena, Madeleine Albright,rnannouncing new airstrikes on Iraq: “If we have to usernforce, it is because we are America. We are die indispensablernnation. We stand tall. We sec fardier into the future.”rnNow I count nnself an American patriot. But if this Beltwavrnbraggadocio about being the world’s “indispensable nation” hasrnbegun to grate on me, how must it grate upon the luiropeans,rnRussians, and peoples subject to our sanctions because theyrnhave failed, by our lights, to live up to our standards?rnAnd how can all our meddling not fail to .spark some horriblernretribution? Recall: It was in retaliation for the bombing ofrnlaba drat Qaddafi agents blew up Pan Am 103. And it is saidrnto ha”c been in retaliation for the Vincennes’ accidental shootdownrnof an Iranian airliner that Teheran collaborated with terroristsrnto blow up the Khobar towers. From Pan Am 103 to thernWorld Trade Center to the embassy bombings in Nairobi andrnDar—have we not suffered enough to know diat interventionismrnis die incubator of terrorism? Or will it take some catacKsmicrnatroeih’ on U.S. soil to awaken our global gamcsnien tornthe asking price of empire?rnAmerica todav faces a choice of destinies. We can be thernpeacemaker of the world — or its policeman who goes aboutrnnightstieking troublemakers until we, too, find ourselves inrnsome bloodv brawl we cannot handle. I ,ct us use this transitoryrnmoment of American power and preeminence to encouragernand assist old friends and allies to stand on dieir own feet andrnpro ide and pa for their own defense.rnLet me state iiu’ present intent: If elected, I will have all U.S.rntroops out of the Balkan quagmire by ear’s end, and all Americanrntroops home from Europe bv the end of mv first term. Fort}’rnears ago. President F.isenhowcr pleaded widi JFK to bring allrnU.S. troops home from Europe. Certainly, almost 60 years afterrnthe end of Wodd War II and 15 years after the Berlin Wallrnfell is not too soon to get all U.S. troops out of Europe and letrniLuropcans provide and pay the cost of tiieir own defense. If notrnnow, when?rnAnd let ns qincklv adopt a measure of hnmilitv regardingrn14/CHRONICLESrnrnrn