I have seen a lot of comments stating that Bernie is somehow weak on foreign policy so I thought I would post this. Ezra brings up foreign policy and Bernie shows, yet again, that he is in full command of the subject.
Vox Interview
They transcribed it on the site but I will cut and paste the relevant parts.
War in General:
I was elected in 1990 to the House. You remember the first Gulf War once Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait? The first Bush was telling us the only alternative was war. The only way we can get them out — you have your whole world united against Saddam Hussein, and President Bush was saying the only way we can get him out is an invasion of that region. I voted no. That was a tough vote, because most people believed that we should go to war.
In 2003 the second Bush told us that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, that it was absolutely imperative that we invade Iraq, that our soldiers would come home in six months, that we would establish democracy in Iraq and perhaps the whole region, everything would be wonderful. I didn't believe it, and if you check the speeches I gave on the floor of the House, sadly much of what I said about the destabilizing impact of that invasion turned out to be true.
I'm not a pacifist, and I understand that sometimes you do have to go to war. I think war is the very, very, very last option. In terms of Iran, which is what we're dealing with right now, I applaud the President and I applaud Secretary Kerry for their enormously difficult work of trying to reach out an agreement with the P5+1 in Iran, to try to figure out how we can prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, which to me is an absolute imperative, but you do it in a way that doesn't go to war. I get very nervous listening to many of my Republican colleagues who apparently have learned nothing from the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, and they're ready to go to war again, that's the simple truth.
On Rwandan Genocide :First politician I have ever seen that has called this whole issue of us getting involved everywhere around the world for what it is.
Ezra Klein
Let me ask you, then, not a hypothetical but a retrospective. Should America have intervened to stop the Rwandan genocide?
Bernie Sanders
Yes, but it's not just America. This is the damn problem that we face. We are spending more money on the military than the next nine countries behind us. Where is the UK? Where is France? Germany is the economic powerhouse in Europe. They provide health care to all of their people, they provide free college education to their kids. You know what? Germany and France and the UK and Scandinavia and the rest of Europe, all of us have got to work together to prevent those types of genocide and atrocities, and we have to strengthen the United Nations in order to do that.
HOLY SHIT!! DID HE JUST SAY THAT!! Yes it is NOT OUR RESPONSIBILITY to always be running off and sticking our nose into other country's issue. ABOUT DAMN TIME SOMEONE BRINGS THAT UP!
On Palestine and Israel:
Ezra Klein
Do you view yourself as a Zionist?
Bernie Sanders
A Zionist? What does that mean? Want to define what the word is? Do I think Israel has the right to exist, yeah, I do. Do I believe that the United States should be playing an even-handed role in terms of its dealings with the Palestinian community in Israel? Absolutely I do.
Again, I think that you have volatile regions in the world, the Middle East is one of them, and the United States has got to work with other countries around the world to fight for Israel's security and existence at the same time as we fight for a Palestinian state where the people in that country can enjoy a decent standard of living, which is certainly not the case right now. My long-term hope is that instead of pouring so much military aid into Israel, into Egypt, we can provide more economic aid to help improve the standard of living of the people in that area.
There is a lot more good stuff in that 40 minute interview. Bernie is not in this to just win the office, he is doing this to actually change the damn country and he needs us to help.
Spinning off from that I want to call attention to "criticisms" and I use the word somewhat sarcastically of Bernie I have seen.
1. I have seen people state "Well he's only been Mayor what could he know?"
Um: Obama hadn't even been that and I think he turned out rather well.
2. He has no real foreign policy experience.
Um: Neither did Obama but let's expand that shall we? Bernie was a ranking member on the Budget Committee and has been on the Veterans Affairs Committee, I am quite sure he has taken part in discussions of foreign policy as part of those seeing as how the Budget Committee has to go through every expenditure of this country and, as he has stated, he knows the actual costs of going to war because he has dealt with trying to finance the aftermaths. So, has he been wrangling treaties? No. Is he very aware of what goes on in the world on how it affects us, yes. If we wish to compare experience levels of our last Obama and Sanders let's make it clear, Sanders has been in politics since '81 and been in Congress since '90 which gives whereas Obama didn't enter politics until '98, so experience, or lack thereof should not be a conversation people here, many of whom supported Obama should be having.
If we want to match him to Clinton, well is her time as First Lady counting or not? Many Clinton supporters want to state that we cannot hold her time as First Lady against her regarding the policies that Bill put forth so if that is the case she has even less political experience than Obama, 2001-2009 Senator and 2009-2013 as Secretary of State. If we are taking into account when she was First Lady both of Arkansas and the country than she technically has more. However, if those years count as experience then we must therefore assume she and Bill agreed on many of the same issues and his stance would be similar to hers since she never publicly spoke against him. Even not counting those years many of the stances he advocated she has also agreed with even as Senator. Either way, Sanders has plenty of experience in politics.
3. He is "not electable." Le sigh, the fun one. Let's be honest, who in 2007 honestly thought Obama would be a serious contender against Hillary and Edwards? He had the same charges levied against him, not enough experience, plus he's Black and has a funny name, then there was the whole birther issue etc. etc. etc. yet who ended up as President? There is no legitimate reason at all that Bernie is "unelectable." So can we please stop with that whole line of attack?
4. Minorities don't like him. Uh-huh. Go here and take a look at what he has done.
6. Condemned And Opposed Welfare Reform and Dog Whistle Politics:While President Bill Clinton and most Democrats in Congress supported so-called welfare reform politics, Sanders not only voted against this policy change, but wrote eloquently against the dog whistle politics used to sell it, saying, “The crown jewel of the Republican agenda is their so-called welfare reform proposal. The bill, which combines an assault on the poor, women and children, minorities, and immigrants is the grand slam of scapegoating legislation, and appeals to the frustrations and ignorance of the American people along a wide spectrum of prejudices.”
10. Achieved High Ratings From Leading Civil Rights Organizations: A frequent critique of Sanders is that he is from a very white state. While this is true, he certainly has not ignored issues that matter to people of color. In 2002, he achieved a 93 percent rating from the ACLU and a 97% rating by the NAACP in 2006.
13. Traveled to Costa Rica to Defend Exploited Workers:Sanders traveled to Costa Rica to help organize workers opposing the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). While many critics of trade agreements do so on the grounds that Americans deserve jobs that could be lost to foreign countries, Sanders instead practices a form of solidarity politics, saying that workers in both countries are being exploited by corporations and so we must organize workers in both countries.
14. Endorsed Jesse Jackson, Spoke Up For Palestinians: In 1988, Jesse Jackson was the first competitive black candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. He came under fierce attack for his advocacy of Palestinian statehood. Sanders came to his aid, organizing Vermonters and winning the state for Jackson. Sanders was asked about Jackson’s comments on Palestine and defended him, saying that the Israeli assault on Palestinians was “reprehensible.”
16. Embraced Immigrants When Hillary Clinton Refused To Talk To Them: In 2014, young immigration activists repeatedly tried to talk to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton to ask her about executive action. While Clinton did not talk to them, Bernie Sanders was not only willing to talk, but agreed with their call for executive action.(links in the article)
So, I am quite sure the more exposure Bernie's record gets, the more and more you will see minorities come to his side. He has a very, very good track record as people will be made aware of. We are still months out from the primaries and as we saw, Bernie pulled serious crowds in the Red States.
All of this aside, let's be honest about a couple of things, if Hillary's donor list belonged to a Republican every person here would be condemning her as a corporate owned politician, her expensive fundraisers, her advisors etc are all things that we on Dkos have actively condemned forever. I don't think there is a single person here who would state that corporate donors are a positive influence on politicians. We have, and only one, candidate who is bucking the system when it comes to money, one, and only one who is speaking all the same truths that we, on this site, have been doing for decades. So the question is, do you want the system to be challenged or not? More and better Democrats right? How can we get better if we keep allowing the ones who follow the same patterns as the bad ones access to power?