Tikkun Magazine, January/February 2008

The Presidential Primaries

Dear Senator Clinton

by Glen Stassen

When Jesus was asked, "Which commandment is first?," he answered, "'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.' The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these" (Mark 12:28-31). Jesus was quoting Moses' teaching in the Hebrew Scriptures (Deut. 6:4-5 and Lev. 19:19).

In a remarkable statement on October 13, 2007, 138 Muslim scholars from around the world, representing diverse traditions of Islam, reached out to Christians and Jews—on our ground. They affirmed the double love command as also the heart of Islam. Christian scholars responded with gratitude, saying, "For Christians, humanity's love of God and God's love of humanity are intimately linked. As we read in the New Testament: We love because he [God] first loved us'" (1 John 4:19). God loves all on whom God gives sunshine and rain (Matthew 5:45). You can read the texts at www.acommonword.com/ and www.yale.edu/faith/abou-commonword.htm.

Loving God and loving our neighbors means we need to try to find ways to cooperate with our neighbors. Our complex world, where problems are global and too complex for one nation to solve alone, requires international cooperation. Senator Clinton, if you make restoring international cooperation your theme in this presidential campaign, you will get great appreciation. Just say "Moses and Jesus are right. And many good Jews, Christians, and Muslims are right, too. We need to restore realistic and specific international cooperation because it is right. And because a world hostile to the United States is not a world of real security."

The past seven years have brought so much unilateralism that many don't think of the U.S. as a historically cooperative nation. But World War II was nothing if not cooperation with allies. And the United Nations began as a U.S. initiative—the product of bipartisan cooperation here and international cooperation worldwide. When the UN's charter-writing assembly in San Francisco was finished, the world press who were there took a vote on which delegate did the most for achieving unanimous international agreement for the UN Charter. The winner was the ambassador from Australia, tied with an American (and a Republican)—my father, Harold Stassen. Dad came home from the U.S. Navy, fighting in the South Pacific, and said: "Glen, war is so destructive that we have to do all we can to prevent WWIII and nuclear war." His hope was that the United Nations would help prevent that kind of war, and, before he died at age 93, he said, "so far it has." After World War II, the United States devised the Marshall Plan for the recovery of Europe from WWII, helped organize regional treaty organizations in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America, and entered into numerous treaties to support trade relationships and prevent wars. Tikkun and the Network of Spiritual Progressives are now advocating a Global Marshall Plan to help alleviate poverty and strengthen economies in the developing world. A United States known for spiritual generosity and international cooperation is a much less likely target for terrorism than an arrogant United States. And it's just plain right.

Americans know that recent unilateral and militaristic policy has cost us enormously in international reputation and has earned us anger from potential recruits to terrorism. In a Gallup Poll from June 9-11, 2006, the worst result by far came when they asked about "the image of the U.S. around the world." Sixty percent of those surveyed believed the international image of the United States was worse off and only 11 percent thought it was better off. Even Republicans know our international image is worse than it was. If you focus on this widely agreed problem, you are on highly persuasive ground. Your attention needs to be international cooperation as the correction for go-it-alone domination.

Two of my students were planning a summer trip to Europe. They got backpacks with Canadian flags on them. They did not want anyone to know they were Americans.

A recent Pew Global Survey reported: "An important factor in world opinion about America is the perception that the U.S. acts internationally without taking account of the interests of other nations. Large majorities in every nation surveyed (except the United States) believe that America pays little or no attention to their country's interests in making its foreign policy decisions."

The Iraq War, on top of the Afghanistan War, the declaration of a "War on Terrorism," and threats of war on Iran, have greatly increased the anger of Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East The increased Arab anger is directly related to the increased recruits for terrorism. The U.S. State Department reports that the number of terrorist incidents and deaths has increased exponentially since the United States invaded Iraq. In 2003, the first year of the Iraq war, 208 international terrorist attacks caused 625 deaths. The next year, 3,168 attacks caused 1,907 deaths. In 2005, the number skyrocketed to 11,111 attacks and 14,602 deaths. And last year the number of attacks increased to just over 20,000,100 times as many as in 2003. Unilateral policies are causing anger, recruitment to terrorism, and terrorist attacks to increase, and security to decrease. Americans know the rest of the world is either angry at arrogant U.S. policy or shaking their heads at this administration's unwillingness to listen to other nations. Condoleezza Rice knows this, and, to her credit, is doing what she can within the limits of her situation to correct it.

I bet some of your advisors say you need to look tough on national security in order to beat Republicans, who manipulate attention away from their own greed and mess by saying they are tough on terrorism. But those advisors lost the last two presidential elections. Speak from your own knowledge, experience, and passion. Point out what most people know from life experience: when "tough" means go-it-alone domineering, it causes anger and retaliation, and increases recruitment of terrorists. We have survived these many generations by finding ways to cooperate against threats, not by beating our breasts and declaring how macho we are. You will be tough and focused in recruiting cooperation by other nations.

To find terrorists, to cut off their funding, and to build cultures that oppose becoming a recruit to terrorism, requires international cooperation. The U.S. army can't do it alone. To get international cooperation, the United States needs to start being internationally cooperative. We need a president who can restore a United States that works with other nations, not one who just lectures them.

In most recent elections around the world, whether in Australia, Latin America, Iran, Gaza, or Lebanon, the candidate more opposed to U.S. policy won. Leaders do not want to be seen as doing what the U.S. government is asking; it's the kiss of death. So we cannot get other countries to do what we think is good. Our influence has sunk to rock bottom. Americans know this and we do not like it.

You could say: "We are going to rebuild community at home. We are going to rebuild community in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We are going to rebuild community in our cities. We are going to rebuild a sense of whole community with healthcare insurance for all. We are going to rebuild community and a cooperative spirit in Congress. We are going to use the Global Marshall Plan to help rebuild community for those living in poverty. And we are going to rebuild community with other nations. Americans are a people who value community and cooperation, not arrogance and going it alone."

I hope you say that, "It's all about the basic commandment of the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as of Jesus, now affirmed by Muslim leaders: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" We need you to help win people of faith away from the ideology of hate, fear, and self-centeredness that is infiltrating our nation. Suppose you win the nomination and Huckabee is your opponent. Will you give us language to win people of faith away from that ideological infiltration?

We don't get cooperation by fuzzing issues so that people don't know where we stand. We get cooperation by spelling out clearly the ground on which we can stand together. We can stand together for a little humility, a lot of listening, and a restored spirit of working with other nations. This includes respecting international law on torture and working together to overcome poverty worldwide. We need real security through international cooperation and human rights.

You could say clearly and specifically: "The Bush administration has withdrawn from or blocked five international treaties designed to prevent the spread of WMD's: the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Nuclear Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty, the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, the Treaty Banning Landmines, inspections for the Chemical Weapons Treaty; and the International Criminal Court and the Kyoto Accords. Shockingly, in a time of threat from terrorism and climate crisis when we should be cooperating with other nations to prevent the spread of WMD's, this go-it-alone, unilateralist, lone-ranger administration is tearing up the fabric of international treaties that our elders worked so hard to knit together. I will work to ratify these treaties that prevent the spread of WMD's and the destruction of our beautiful planet."

Frame the campaign to get out of Iraq responsibly in terms of international cooperation: "The current administration made the war as a go-it-alone action while ignoring the checks and balances of the UN and the other nations of the world. They said that WMD's were in Iraq while ignoring the reports of the international inspectors who said that no weapons could be found. They gave the reconstruction contracts to greedy U.S. corporations while ignoring international corporations. They ignored the warnings of international inspectors that 350 tons of high-intensity explosives in sheds at Al Qa'Qa needed guarding, and left them unguarded, so all those high-intensity explosives are now probably in the hands of IED-makers for use in killing our troops and the people of Iraq. They ignored the warnings of the International Red Cross that torture and abuse were taking place, so now the world despises the United States and children become terrorist recruits. They lifted the protection of international law and the Geneva Convention from defenseless prisoners. The Iraq policy needs a multinational security force under the UN or Iraq's neighbors. As the bipartisan Baker-Hamiltion report says: We must seek a new path in Iraq that relies on international cooperation to meet the needs of the Iraqi people. A little neighbor-love could go a long way.

Glen Harold Stassen is the Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary. He has published a number of books, including Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War, Living the Sermon on the Mount, and Kingdom Ethics, which won the Christianity Today award for best book of 2004 in theology or ethics.

Source Citation

Stassen, Glen Harold. 2008. Dear Senator Clinton. Tikkun 23(1):39.