Hey guys! Look what I found! It makes the DLC look very militaristic!!

[RichM]

Let me first make clear what I am citing. The WSWS, a SOCIALIST website, has today published an article (actually, a transcript of a speech) which quotes material taken from a DLC document. I will paste the relevant passage below.

Let's assume for the moment that the WSWS has accurately quoted the DLC document. The topic I propose for discussion is whether or not you feel comfortable with the philosophy expressed in the document. Do you, for example, think it offers a healthy alternative to the Bush style of militarism? Or are you disappointed to see that there isn't really a perceptible difference?

PS - I have noticed that when WSWS material unflattering to Democrats is posted on DU, it is regularly attacked by ad hominem red-baiting, rather than by refutation of argument. (I'd certainly expect to see some good old-fashioned red-baiting here, for example.) But FWIW, please note that what I'm posting from the WSWS article is mostly just their quoting of the DLC. There's only a modest amount of commentary (and of course quote selection) mixed in - so unless you want to argue that the quotation is inaccurate or the selection unfair, the fact that this comes from WSWS seems not to have much bearing on the subject.

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The perspective of the DLC

A revealing glimpse into the policies that would be followed by an incoming Kerry administration can be obtained through a reading of a series of documents drafted by the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), with which Kerry is affiliated.

Kerry distinguished himself from the majority of his rivals for the Democratic nomination by adopting the DLC’s position that the Democratic Party could not win elections by concentrating solely on domestic economic and social issues, but had to attack the Bush administration on the issue of national security—from the right.

The main document, entitled “Progressive Internationalism: Democratic National Security Strategy,” embraces the framework set by the Bush administration of a never-ending “war on terrorism.” It states: “Like the Cold War, the struggle we face today is likely to last not years, but decades. Once again, the United States must rally the forces of freedom and democracy around the world to defeat this new menace and build a better world.”

The document explicitly embraces the Bush administration’s doctrine of preemptive war, declaring, “Democrats will maintain the world’s most technologically advanced military, and we will not flinch from using it to defend our interests anywhere in the world.” It goes further, declaring, “Instead of relying only on military preemption of the use of WMD, Democrats would focus on preventing the acquisition of WMD.”

On the issue of the military budget, the document affirms: “We reject the left’s perennial complaint that America spends too much on the military. This is no time to cut the Pentagon’s budget.” This under conditions in which the annual spending on the US war machine is approaching half a trillion dollars, exceeding that of the world’s next 25 largest military powers combined. As the Washington Post pointed out last week, even Republican lawmakers are concluding that the current levels of military spending—which exceed those reached during Reagan’s massive nuclear arms buildup against the Soviet Union in the 1980s—are economically unsustainable.

The document elaborates in chilling terms a military strategy for global imperialist intervention in a section entitled, “Transform the Military and Use it More Effectively:”

“The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have shown that we need to enhance our ability to project power with deadly accuracy over enormous distances.”

The document calls for investment in “the next generation of precision munitions; unmanned aircraft and long-range bombers; light, mobile and more lethal ground forces, especially special operations; and on a new generation of naval vessels that can bring greater and more accurate firepower to distant theaters of conflict.”

In addition to demanding expanded operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq, the document calls for US to threaten North Korea that if it “resumes production of nuclear weapons, the United States would be prepared to use force to protect its interests.”

Finally, the document states, “Democrats will bring an overdue sense of urgency to defending our homeland. We will not let bureaucratic inertia and turf-consciousness prevent us from creating America’s first-ever domestic intelligence organization.”....

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/mar2004/bvan-m18.shtml