Mr. John Edwards also gave his foreign policy speech today. Thankfully, instead of posting the whole, high-fallutin’-rhetoric-having speech on his website, he presented it in a nutritious little bite-size five-part morsel. But Edwards’ and Dean’s ideas are basically parallel. His five planks, in brief:
1) Global Nuclear Compact: Everyone get together and non-proliferate!
2) UN Resolution: Criminalize terrorism-sponsoring and nuke-developing countries.
3) Secure Loose Nukes: Triple the amount we spend on threat reduction programs. To do this, we’d severely cut back our own nuke-developing efforts.
4) Homeland Intelligence Agency: This new government wing would take over the terrorist-tracking duties of the FBI. We’d also hire more intelligence folks.
5) Non-Proliferation Director: A new high-level administration position.
Dean’s outline was broader; he includes more money for non-proliferation efforts and assorted goodies like $30 billion to combat AIDS. But where does he plan to get these billions from? Edwards’ plan may be more realistic.
Of course, if the Dems lose Congress, neither plan will have much traction now, will it?