WHAT IF WE DON'T SHARE VALUES?:

Bridging the partisan gap in foreign affairs: Can US set aside political differences to meet the terror threat in an election year? (Howard LaFranchi, 6/21/04, CS Monitor)

Among political leaders, one of the more forceful voices for making the global fight against terrorism less an American military fight and more a multilateral "war of values" is Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D) of Connecticut. In a recent speech before the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, the senator warned that Osama bin Laden and other Islamic extremists are determined to establish what he called a "new evil empire" in the Middle East. "What we are fighting for in Iraq and around the world is freedom," says the Democratic 2000 vice-presidential candidate. "What we are fighting against is an Islamic terrorist totalitarian movement which is as dire a threat to individual liberty as the fascist and communist totalitarian threats we faced and defeated in the last century."

By the 80s neither Mr. Lieberman's party nor the international community were any help in fighting the original Evil Empire, why would this time be any different? And why shouldn't American voters have a choice between one party that advocates fighting evil and one that counsels accommodating it?

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 21, 2004 10:29 AM