Here's a Slogan: Less Shooting Wars

As we wait for tonight's debate, I imagine those tuning in will be a little confused about the foreign policy focus. Jim Lehrer will probably ask about the bailout and the economy to a certain extent, but foreign policy was the agreed topic. So foreign policy we will see. I wrote about the key issues a couple days ago, but we can add the terrifying prospect of a third shooting war in the Pakistani frontier.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 25 -- Pakistani troops and a U.S.-Afghan ground patrol exchanged fire Thursday near a frontier checkpoint, U.S. and Pakistani officials said, in a new heightening of armed tension between allies in the war against Taliban insurgents [...]

The United States has been urging Pakistan to move forcefully against Taliban havens in its mountainous border regions, complaining that guerrillas cross into Afghanistan to stage attacks. At the same time, U.S. forces have stepped up their own attacks on suspected hideouts in the restive tribal region of Waziristan, mostly using Predator drones; this month, helicopter-borne commandos went in for a ground strike.

This has led to deep anger in Pakistan's ruling circles. Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani on Wednesday told journalists that Pakistan would not tolerate any act against its sovereignty and integrity in the name of the war against terrorism. Earlier, an army spokesman said any U.S. troops crossing into Pakistan would be fired on.

This results from the failure to have any kind of agreed policy with the Pakistanis, and the continued failure of policy in Afghanistan, which is as unlikely to bear fruit as all the other Western power grabs which failed in the Kush.

The National Security Network has a good primer on the global challenges. But it's very simple. George Bush and the neocons have been wrong about virtually every foreign policy issue, catastrophically wrong, of the past 50 years. The correct response is to make that argument and advocate for a completely new direction, one that gets us in less shooting wars and making us a more secure nation, and by the way those goals go hand in hand.