Foreign policy suggestions for Elizabeth Warren

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) brings shards of light and political awakening to current days and an ability of the senators’ art like we have rarely seen. We are at a political turning today to which we go reluctantly, calling on old families and familiar names and faces rather than cross that river. But Warren, like former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb (D), suggests a true turning. She brings thinking, ability and personality to which a rising generation can hold on to and not let go. I hope she runs for president. She knows what she is doing on the domestic front — but seems weak on foreign policy.

Perusing some of the recent work of the Council of Foreign Relations brings a chill. It is still 1956 in the foreign policy establishment. So here are a few suggestions to start again from scratch.

{mosads}Regarding Europe: As George Kennan, the architect of that abstraction which we call “the West” suggested when Vice President Gore led the advancement of NATO into every nook and cranny on Russia’s border, it would be a “fateful error.” In an open letter to President Clinton, he called it “a policy error of historic proportions.” A suggestion for today: Get rid of NATO entirely and let the Europeans defend themselves against those they fear. A historic meeting took place last week between Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia to talk of peace in Ukraine. What was historic about it was that the Americans were not invited. In this, abstraction of “the West” yields again to the real place which is “Europe.” The Americans have been doing the heavy lifting for Europe to keep the wolf from the door. Let the wolf come to the door and let the Europeans defend against it. As it is in Yosemite and the great plains, the wolf is key to the overall health and welfare of the entire ecosystem.

Regarding Asia: Same. Let those in the South China Sea region defend themselves against China or come to an agreement and accommodation with China. Free Tibet, but meet China with historic accommodation as the Dalai Lama peacefully proposes.

Regarding the Commonwealth: We fought a revolution to divide from Britain. We fought two world wars to get back together. This relationship should not go away. The U.S. and the Commonwealth form the yin and yang of what former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called “the English-speaking people.” At the recent demonstrations in Hong Kong, some demonstrators said they did not want to be part of China. They related to Britain. This is a unique Anglo-Asian post-empire situation some in India and other realms must feel as well. These connections should be nurtured. They have evolved naturally over time since Queen Elizabeth I.

Regarding Israel: Israeli liberty activist Moshe Feiglin has said that today, more Jews live in Israel than outside of Israel. “The exile is over,” he said. What Israel tries to do today is unique in the world. The fiercely and blindly extroverted American political establishment does not grasp its substance and potential. Israel should now turn its back on any aid from President Obama’s radicalized, unpredictable, strange and random U.S. Department of State. And Israel must definitively let the world know that it is not the external American agent and colony that most think it is. That is what has brought the vast worldwide, but particularly European, anti-Semitic popular front. It is not a secondary, external borough of New York City and it is not a toy to increasingly dangerous and dystopian American foreign policy. Cut all aid to Israel, as Feiglin has suggested.

This piece has been corrected to reflect the importance of maintaining the Anglo-American relationship.

Quigley is a prize-winning writer who has worked more than 35 years as a book and magazine editor, political commentator and reviewer. For 20 years he has been an amateur farmer, raising Tunis sheep and organic vegetables. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and four children. Contact him at quigley1985@gmail.com.