Clark Wants More Foreign Aid [View All]

[DoveTurnedHawk]

A new book by Wesley K. Clark, the retired Army general running for president, calls for a major expansion in U.S. foreign assistance programs and establishment of a Department of International Assistance to manage the initiative.

"Focusing our humanitarian and developmental efforts through a single, responsible department will help us bring the same kind of sustained attention to alleviating deprivation, misery, ethnic conflict and poverty that we have brought to the problem of warfare," Clark writes.

In a searing critique, Clark accuses the Bush administration of carrying out a wrenching turn in U.S. foreign policy away from traditional American principles. He cites what he says has been an overemphasis on unilateralism and overreliance on the U.S. military to pursue the notion of "a new American empire."

Clark argues for adoption of "a more collaborative, collegiate" U.S. strategy marked by renewed cooperation with such international organizations as the United Nations and NATO and backed by substantial economic and political development aid.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14400-2003Sep28.html

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