An Exemplary Nation

Did you use this theme to guide your own presidency?
Yes. I'm not bragging, but we kept the peace—not only for ourselves. We also tried to promote peace for others. We protected our nation's interests; we had to compete with the Soviet Union in the cold war. But we never launched a missile, we never dropped a bomb, we never shot a weapon against anybody else.

Let me ask about humanitarian intervention. When the world's sole superpower follows a policy of pursuing human rights around the world, as you advise, there will be times when it will find it necessary to intervene militarily.
I don't disagree. But I think it ought to be a last priority.

Given the public's isolationist mood today, will such interventions be possible after Iraq in the next administration?
I think, with two provisos, the answer is yes. One is that it must be apparent to the American people that peaceful intercession has been unsuccessful. And the second thing is to bring in the global community. That's what we established the United Nations for. If we can't marshal global support, we ought to look askance at any decision to go to war.

But say the next administration was able to assemble a broad coalition for intervention in Darfur or in eastern Congo. Do you really think the American public would support sending 20,000 more kids into danger?
Not now—after Iraq and Afghanistan, we don't even have 20,000 troops left. But in the future, I think that if the American people were convinced that we were protecting U.S. interests, that others are severely suffering, that we've exhausted all peaceful avenues, and that we have the support of the international community, they would be in favor of it.

So you think the American public still has the stomach for an interventionist, moral, values-based foreign policy?
Precisely. I don't think there's any doubt about it.

© 2007