Written on February 26th, 2016
Edited on February 28th, 2016
Thanks to Arthur Alves
Table of Contents
1.
Introduction
2.
Iraq and Afghanistan
3.
Elsewhere in the Middle East
4.
Eastern Europe and Africa
5.
National Defense and Other Issues
6.
Monetary Policy
7.
Conclusion
Content
1.
Introduction
Presidential candidate Bernie
Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who describes himself as a
democratic socialist, voted against invading Iraq in 1991 and 2003. Sanders
calls the second war in Iraq a “disaster” which led to widespread
“instability”, and says that he “strongly opposed” the 2003 invasion.
Sanders has criticized C.I.A.-backed coups
of democratically elected governments, such as those in Latin America in the
1970s and 1980s. He has also called for shutting down the Guantánamo Bay prison
facility on U.S. soil on the island of Cuba. Sanders also says that war and
force should be the last resorts that the United States uses, rather than the
first resorts.
However, the senator’s voting record on
U.S. military interventions does not reflect that statement. But Sanders has
been able to hide that fact thus far, as foreign policy is not as frequent a
topic at his campaign events, as is his domestic policy.
2.
Iraq and Afghanistan
Although Sanders voted against authorizing
Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, later that year he supported a resolution
expressing appreciation for George W. Bush’s actions in that war. Sanders has
recently called for withdrawing troops from Iraq as soon as possible; however,
in 2003, he opposed an immediate withdrawal, supporting a gradual withdrawal
instead. Additionally, Sanders voted to fund U.S. operations in Iraq, although
he voted against bills funding that war more often than he voted for them.
Not only that; Sanders supported the use
of sanctions against Iraq during George H. W. Bush’s presidency, which led to
the death of about half a million Iraqis. Sanders also supported the bombing of
Baghdad in 1998 under Bill Clinton, supporting the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998;
and twice in 1998 he supported resolutions expressing the sentiments that the
regime of Saddam Hussein ought to be removed, and replaced with a democratically
elected government.
Sanders supported the invasion of
Afghanistan in 2001, and voted to fund U.S. operations there. In October 2015,
Sanders said he supported Barack Obama’s decision to keep troops there past Obama’s
exit from office.
3.
Elsewhere in the Middle East
In 1996, Sanders supported a bill
calling for sanctions against Iran and Libya. In 2011, he voted for, and
co-sponsored, a resolution that called for the Qadhafi regime in Libya to be
ended, and called for the United Nations to intervene. Sanders also favors
re-imposing sanctions upon Iran if it violates the 2015 nuclear deal that he
supported.
Sanders supported cooperation
between the U.S. and the State of Israel on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
program, which cost taxpayers about half a trillion dollars. In 2014, he told a
Vermont audience to “shut up” when members interrupted him to argue that the
Palestinians have a right to resist the Israeli occupation. In 2014, Sanders
voted – along with Democratic senators Al Franken and Elizabeth Warren – to
support the State of Israel after its attack on, and subsequent invasion of,
the Gaza Strip.
In the last several years, Sanders
has opposed creating a no-fly zone in Syria, and voted against arming rebels in
that country. However, he has also supported removing Bashar al-Assad, whom he
calls a “dictator”, and supports Obama’s efforts to combat I.S.I.S. in Syria.
Sanders has also called for the U.S. and the international community to support
a coalition of Muslim nations to go after I.S.I.S., including Yemen, and Saudi
Arabia, which he says needs to get more involved in the fight against I.S.I.S.
and terrorists in Yemen.
4.
Eastern Europe and Africa
Between 1998 and 1999, Sanders
called Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic a “war criminal”, and called for a
humanitarian action to take place in Serbia. Although Sanders voted to oppose
the invasion of Kosovo, he supported N.A.T.O. bombings of military targets
there, which lasted 78 days. Sanders also supported interventions in Bosnia and
Albania.
Although Sanders has opposed sending
weapons to the government which took control of the Ukraine in a coup, he says
the U.S. must confront Vladimir Putin over Russia’s involvement there. Sanders
supported sending $1 billion in aid to the Ukraine’s new government, and he
supports using sanctions against Russia, and the freezing of Russian assets.
In 1993, Sanders supported the U.S.
intervention in Somalia. It has been reported that Sanders also supported
interventions in Sudan, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then
Zaïre), although this information is difficult to find. Sanders also may have
voted to support intervention in Haiti.
5.
National Defense and Other Issues
Sanders has stated that many of his
votes supporting these military interventions were cast because the passage of
the resolutions was unanimous and virtually inevitable, although that is not
accurate in all cases.
Also, Sanders said recently that he
supports the use of drones in warfare, and would use them to fight terrorists.
In 2006, he opposed impeaching George W. Bush, saying that to do such a thing
would be “impractical”.
Although Sanders has opposed most of the
National Defense Authorization Acts (N.D.A.A.s) since 1996, he supported the
N.D.A.A.s for 2011 and 2013, which opponents criticized on Fourth Amendment
grounds. Rand Paul, the Republican senator from Kentucky, expressed such
concerns, but voted for the 2013 N.D.A.A. after amending some of the language
in the bill which he felt threatened civil liberties and inappropriately
extended executive power.
Additionally – although he has denounced
mass incarceration, and denounced the War on Drugs, as well as other policies
which have disproportionately affected minorities – Sanders voted to support
the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, and the Omnibus
Crime Bill of 1994. Sanders criticized the former, but voted for it.
6.
Monetary Policy
Additionally, in 2015, Sanders introduced
the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, which proposed an audit of the Federal
Reserve System. Critics called it a watered-down version of the Audit the Fed
bill which Texas Congressman Ron Paul had supported while serving in the House
of Representatives.
Sanders’s bill would have reduced Paul’s
plans for a full audit, to a one-time
audit of the emergency actions taken by the Federal Reserve in 2008. The bill
would have exempted the Fed’s agreements with other nations’ central banks from
an audit by the General Accountability Office. The bill would have additionally
exempted audits of decisions on monetary policy, and audits of discount window
operations; operations which allow institutions to borrow money from central
banks on short-term bases in order to meet temporary liquidity shortages caused
by disruptions.
In 2016, Sanders voted to support Rand
Paul’s Audit the Fed bill. Neither Sanders’s 2015 bill, nor the younger Paul’s
2016 bill, nor any of Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed bills, ultimately passed.
7.
Conclusion
Republican candidate Donald Trump’s bloviating
xenophobia, belligerence, unpredictability, and braggadocious macho bravado,
seem to provide American nationalists with everything they want in a candidate
for commander-in-chief; namely, the ability to stare-down foreign world
leaders. However, these traits – in addition to Trump’s calls for increasing
the harshness of our military’s torturous interrogations – are not what is
needed, if the U.S. is to engage in serious, level-headed diplomacy, giving the
country a solid foundation of respect for human rights and civil liberties,
from which to criticize and urge change of totalitarian regimes.
Neither does the possibility of a
Hillary Clinton presidency bode well for the level of respect and trust of the
U.S. around the world. Clinton presided as Secretary of State over a scandal in
which several of our strongest allies in Europe discovered that the U.S. was
spying on their leaders. Nor does the prospect of peace under Clinton’s watch look
good, given her flip-flop since supporting George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of
Iraq, her support for invading Afghanistan and bombing Libya, her support for
backing rebels in Syria, her close friendship with former Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger, her animosity towards Iran, and her steadfast alliance with
political and business leaders in the State of Israel.
Bernie Sanders has inspired a
generation of young voters, and has reinvigorated the anti-war and
anti-corporate left, by calling for a “political revolution”, as well as
serious reform of Wall Street. Additionally – although critics question whether
Sanders can deliver on financing his domestic policy – he has promised the
American people plenty. Thus, he seems like the most honest candidate still in
the race for the White House.
However, given 1) his agreement with
Hillary Clinton on some of these issues; 2) his support for multiple
interventions under Bill Clinton; and 3) his poor – and, arguably, calculating,
and perhaps even duplicitous – record, supporting bombing, after intervention,
after funding, of war after war, since taking office (and increasingly so, as his tenure continues); it appears that not only
might Sanders’s domestic policy be fiscally unsound; but also that his foreign
policy is only a few shades more pacifist than Clinton’s.
And as difficult and disappointing as it
is to say, it just might be that the senator’s record opposing American
intervention, aggression, and imperialism, is more bark than bite.
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