A former congressman and a political commentator who teaches at
Pepperdine University butted heads over the effectiveness of the
Bush administration’s foreign policy Friday in a debate
hosted in the James West Alumni Center.
An audience of 80 students and community members attended the
debate, some with questions about the role of the United States in
the Middle East.
The speakers ““ Mel Levine, a partner at the law firm of
Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, and a member of Congress from 1983-1993,
and Bruce Herschensohn, a former deputy special assistant to
President Richard Nixon and a professor at Pepperdine University
““ quickly established themselves on opposite sides of what
have become standard party lines on how American values apply to
current U.S. foreign policy.
Levine criticized what he called the Bush administration’s
“taste for unilateral action,” and “faith-based
intelligence” in the war on terrorism.
“When the Bush administration looks in the mirror, I think
they see Arnold Schwarzenegger, a muscular terminator engaged in
the process of terminating terrorism,” he said.
Levine called for more transparency in U.S. financial dealings
with Iraq, and said the United States should do a better job
“exporting our values,” so the world will respect
rather than fear the United States.
“Our values and our friends will help us defeat terror,
but our administration has ignored both,” he said.
Herschensohn countered by defending the Bush
administration’s policies and praising Bush’s vision
for the war on terrorism.
Herschensohn said the U.S. was right to override the United
Nations because negotiations with authoritarian governments are
ineffectual, and that the United Nations is illegitimate because
some of its members are “tyrannical.”
He said the war on terrorism should be recognized as a war in
which citizens need to make sacrifices.
“I don’t care if every cent of mine goes to the
government to make the United States survive,” he said,
reminiscing about home-front solidarity during World War II.
The two also differed over how the United States should
represent itself to other nations. Levine said the nation should
endeavor to engender respect rather than fear, but Herschensohn
said he had “no problem scaring our enemies to
death.”
Levine and Herschensohn both referred to President John F.
Kennedy’s speeches as exemplifying American values, and the
energy of the debate rose as they fired different JFK quotes at
each other in support of their positions.
The debate was organized to promote public dialogue by bringing
together people with opposite views, said Nancy Mooney, a
California representative for the U.N. Foundation, which hosted the
event in conjunction with the UCLA International Institute.