Madeleine Albright, Frank Carlucci and Foreign Policy Elites Urge Presidential Candidates to Offer New Visions of U.S. Global Leadership

Bipartisan Statement Urges Greater Investment in Development and Diplomacy
as Critical To National Security and Global Outlook for the Next President

WASHINGTON, July 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A bipartisan group of
top- level former Administration, Congressional, foreign policy and
military leaders including former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright
and James Baker, former Secretaries of Defense Frank Carlucci and William
Perry, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and former Secretary
of the Treasury Robert Rubin released a statement today urging the 2008
presidential candidates to define new visions for U.S. foreign policy and
national security that will prioritize greater investments in international
development and diplomacy.
The statement was released at the launch of “Impact ‘08: Building a
Better, Safer World,” a national campaign by the Center for U.S. Global
Engagement, to elevate support for foreign assistance in the 2008
presidential campaign. The officials called on “all of the 2008
Presidential candidates to elevate and strengthen our non-military tools of
global engagement to build a better, safer, more prosperous America and
world.”
“The next President will have to make important decisions about how to
redefine America’s role in the world and how to restore America’s moral
leadership and global respect,” said Secretary Albright, co-chair of the
Impact ‘08 campaign. “Impact ‘08 wants to ensure that the next President is
committed to greater investment in development and diplomacy to build a
better, safer world. We hope the Presidential candidates and their advisers
are listening.”
“We are only as safe as the world we live in,” said Impact ‘08 co-chair
Secretary Carlucci. “9/11 and events since have demonstrated that we cannot
rely on our military might alone to keep America safe. Increasingly,
foreign assistance and diplomacy are essential levers to exercise American
influence and create a win-win situation for us and for other countries.”
Those endorsing the Impact ‘08 statement, “A 21st Century Vision of
Global Leadership,” include former Cabinet officials, Congressional and
other leaders who agreed that strengthening development, global health and
diplomacy should be a keystone of the next president’s foreign policy and
national security strategy. The full text of the statement and a list of
endorsements to date are attached.
“Impact ‘08 aims to build the political will needed to improve health
and bring an end to extreme poverty around the world,” said Bill Gates,
co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We have affordable,
effective and proven solutions supported by U.S. foreign assistance. But
the next President must make increasing investment and effectiveness in
foreign assistance a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy.”
“The Center for US Global Engagement has got it right: Strong U.S.
moral and pragmatic leadership is required to address today’s complex
global challenges, promote global stability, and protect our national
security,” said former Secretary of State James Baker. “The next president
must continue the use of development assistance and diplomacy as central to
America’s foreign policy and national security.”
“America must focus more of its resources for global engagement on
political and diplomatic solutions, rather than military — as we have
learned in Iraq,” said former Representative Lee Hamilton, Vice-Chair of
the 9/11 Commission. “We know that foreign assistance and diplomacy keep
America safer by combating terrorism, engendering goodwill toward the
United States, and alleviating conditions that leave fragile countries such
as Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan vulnerable to the influence of extremist
groups.”
“As Impact: ‘08 rightly points out, American economic and national
security interests are interconnected with the prosperity and economic
growth of developing countries, and we can best further our interests by
working with the rest of the global community in a spirit of mutual
respect,” said former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin. “I join with
the Center for U.S. Global Engagement in urging the presidential candidates
to discuss and prioritize development and diplomacy in their campaign
agendas. And the next President should put development and diplomacy at the
center of public policy.”
The Impact ‘08 campaign seeks to draw the attention of the candidates
and their advisers to the long track record of development assistance,
global health and diplomatic efforts in bolstering our nation’s security
and moral values. Over the past four decades, U.S. assistance has helped
millions of people feed their families; nearly eradicated river blindness
and polio; helped Bosnia, Mozambique and El Salvador rebound from civil
war; and put hundreds of thousands of HIV/AIDS patients in Africa on
life-saving anti- retroviral treatments.
Through Impact ‘08, the Center for U.S. Global Engagement will be
organizing foreign policy forums in a number of the early primary and key
election states, engaging with candidates and their advisers through
meetings, town halls and other events to encourage greater debate on, and
support for, issues of global health, development, and diplomacy. On the
Center’s new website http://www.usglobalengagement.org, Impact ‘08 will be
tracking the presidential candidates’ statements and positions on foreign
policy and foreign assistance.
The Center for U.S. Global Engagement is the educational arm of the
U.S. Global Leadership Campaign, unites business, foreign policy,
humanitarian, faith-based, community and military leaders around the
country to broaden public understanding of America’s interests in building
a better, safer world.

SOURCE Center for U.S. Global Engagement

Comment: Sounds good, doesn’t it? But, I am not fooled.

This is just PNAC with perfume on it.