HERE'S WHY DEMOCRATS AREN'T TRUSTED ON FOREIGN POLICY :

Democrats Speak Up on Foreign Policy Reluctance to Criticize Bush Fades (Dan Balz, July 15, 2002, Washington Post)

After months of hesitancy, leading Democrats have begun to challenge President Bush directly on his conduct of foreign affairs, offering pointed criticisms of his policies on the Middle East, U.S. relations with key allies and even the war in Afghanistan. [...]

Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) and Gore have sharply questioned the administration's commitment to nation-building in Afghanistan. Gore charged recently that Bush's policies threaten to bring a return to chaos and control by regional Afghan commanders.

On the Middle East, Democrats have criticized the administration's initial decision to disengage from the region, and some said Bush's most recent speech, in which he called for Palestinians to replace Yasser Arafat and others in the leadership, set out conditions that would be so difficult as to be impractical. But they have been reluctant to offer public pressure on Israel to alter any of its tactics, either in combating terrorist attacks or halting settlement activity.

Beyond that, Democrats have challenged the administration's tendency toward unilateralism in its approach to foreign policy.

"One of the things the Bush campaign said was it was going to carry itself humbly in the world," said Leon Fuerth, who was national security adviser to Gore when he was vice president. "But if anything, the administration has shocked the rest of the world because of its disregard for the opinions of the rest of the world, its sense that trusted alliances have become irrelevant, its projection of the idea that the United States can go it alone and will go it alone unilaterally."

There's a winning strategy : Vote Democrat for nation building in Afghanistan, increased support for Palestine, and kowtowing to the Europeans. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 15, 2002 1:49 PM