Say Anything Blog

EM: Senator, what do you see as the most pressing foreign policy issue outside of Iraq for the next administration to deal with?

ST: Two things that we need to think about and they’re overlapping. One is the United States’ role in the 21st century. We have been bulwark and the symbol for hope and freedom to the people of the world for a long time. We’ve helped people achieve freedom and economic prosperity for a long time in this world and led the way toward democracy. But there’s a false dichotomy going on right now between idealism and realism. We need both. We need to learn from our mistakes; we can’t go everywhere and be all things to all people and solve everybody’s problems. We got to be smart as to what we’re capable of doing. We’ve got to make sure that the people are together for any tough engagements. On the other hand if that’s all we care about, we’ll no longer be the United States we’ve known in times past. We can’t lose the traditional role that we played in assisting and helping those who want freedom. And so, to me,

EM: Right.

ST: It’s both. The second part is, Iraq is not the war. Iraq is a part of the war. Iraq and Afghanistan are current fronts in a global war that I don’t think we yet totaling appreciate the dimensions of. How long it’s going to last, how much resources we’re going to have to commit to it and how resolute we’re going to have to be.