notsoforeignpolicy

Congressional Spotlight: Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles)

Today the Congressional Spotlight shines on Representative Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles). Waxman's work as the ranking member of the House Government Reform Committee is a textbook example of how an individual member of Congress can cut through the spin and keep our government focused on its solemn responsibilities.

Waxman played a key role in getting the State Department to revise its assesment of the status of global terrorism.

The administration has proudly claimed that under Bush, the United States was winning the Global War on Terror. Indeed, much of Bush's reelection campaign has been staked on his high approval ratings on the GWOT. The claim that we are winning is based, in part, on a report from the State Department showing that the incidence of terrorism had reached a new low.

As it turns out, the numbers were wrong, and terrorist activities may have actually reached a new HIGH! According to this article in the LA Times, the State Department acknowledged having significantly understated the number of fatal attacks in 2003.

Whether the errors were an oversight or an intentional manipulation, our government cannot make informed policy decisions, nor can the electorate make informed decisions at the polls, based on faulty information.

Waxman has been relentless in insisting on facts and transparency, and he deserves credit. You might also want to check out his investigation into price gouging by contractors in Iraq, and his database of misleading statements made by administration officials regarding the Iraq war.

The Business of the Day

It had been my intention to draw your attention to the proceedings in the Senate. They were supposed to take up the 2005 Defense Authorization bill again this week, with debate beginning on Monday and votes on amendments scheduled to begin today.

A list of amendments to be considered is available here.

Obviously, real world proceedings have been interrupted to bring you a week of Regan eulogies. Thus, House and Senate activities not dealing with Reagan-memorial-type resolutions have been put off until next week.

So, considerations of legislative matters that ostensibly address the current foreign policy morass have been suspended in favor of memorializing a man who, among many other things, brought us Osama bin Laden.

By way of a mission statement

Very quickly, in order to compose my own thoughts and establish some parameters, I thought it would be useful to set forth for all to see the basic thrust of this blog.

For the last five years I have worked, in various capacities, for a progressive, grassroots, nonprofit advocacy organization whose goal, in the most general terms, is to change US foreign policy.

Without going into too much detail, the experience has left me exhausted, and somewhat bitter, with a growing distaste for certain sectors of the American left. While I imagine that I will wade, in some editorial capacity, into the substance of this distaste, my purpose in creating this blog is not critical. In the most straightforward terms, I want to make US foreign policy more accessible.

There are any number of excellent political weblogs, some of which are links here, and I don’t seek to duplicate their work. Participating in these communities, I have been troubled by a) the degree to which much of the FP coverage has been topical, and b) the lack of attention paid to legislative matters that set policy.

To the extent that I have seen a focus on process, it has been in broad, partisan, electoral terms. From a movement or advocacy perspective, an electoral strategy is great, but it is meaningless absent a coherent policy vision and legislative strategy.

So. With that rationale, I propose to give you, with indefinite regularity, some or all of the following:

-Timely links and coverage of Congressional activity that bears on US foreign policy (we’ll go into my areas of specialization later, though they should be clear soon enough)

-Opinion/discussion of topics that bear on policy in the broader sense

-No small number of random observations