Hearing of the House International Relations Committee - 9/11 Commission Recommendations for U.S. Diplomacy

Federal News Service August 24, 2004 Tuesday

HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE HOUSE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE

SUBJECT: 9/11 COMMISSION RECOMMENDATIONS FOR U.S. DIPLOMACY

CHAIRED BY: REPRESENTATIVE HENRY HYDE (R-IL)

WITNESSES: THOMAS KEAN, CHAIRMAN OF THE 9/11 COMMISSION; LEE HAMILTON, VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE 9/11 COMMISSION

BODY:

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REP. BETTY MCCOLLUM (D-MN): Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I started reading a book, and it's called "All the Shah's Men." And it talks about the CIA coup in Iran. And it talks about how people went back and forth with choices, and then the choice was made, and the United States was involved in the coup.

I think we need to understand our history to understand where we want to go. And that is what I found so engaging about chapter 12 in the commission's report, because you do start saying we need to understand each other so much better than we do.

So I want to know what our benchmark should be for success. And I know you kind of lay some issues out, but is it being more engaged with countries on people's ability to feed themselves; teaching them how to have some of the technology available; health care for women and children, in many of these countries?

What I see us do as a Congress-and I realize it is the president that sets foreign policy, but it is the Congress that provides the sustainability. So we have to be part of the discussion. We have to be part of the oversight.

Other than that, as you so eloquently put it, we're in, we're out, we're in, we're out, because we can wash our hands and say we have no ownership in this; it is the president's sole responsibility.

What I see us doing more often than not is debt relief, military aid. Those things are important, but they don't touch the lives of the everyday person.

And so that's maybe why 15 percent of the people of Egypt think we do a fantastic job-because they're either involved in the government or they're involved in the military. But it doesn't affect the regular population. In other words, you and I have no connectivity with the people in the Islamic world.

So what should be our benchmarks? What should be our key to success? And although the government's foreign policy, as it is laid out in our Constitution, is the executive branch, unless there is bipartisan support moving forward and support between the administration and the Congress, we won't solve this problem. And I think you do speak to it in chapter 12, and I would like you to refocus and redirect it, as long as I'm one of the last questioners. Thank you.

MR. KEAN: Yeah. First of all, I'm glad you recognize the historical emphasis in our report. We-Congressman Hamilton and I made a point, actually, to pick a number of very good historians to be part of that from the very beginning, because this was history. We were writing history and trying to learn lessons from history.

As far as benchmarks go, I think the underlying thing we're trying to establish for people is hope. People in those countries who don't have anything at all want much the same thing as your constituents want. I mean, they want some sort of an education, which will enable them to have a better life. The women in those societies would like to participate more fully than they do. They'd like to have a home and some food. Not unusual or difficult kind of things.

And where the United States can be seen as participating in helping them in that regard, and the United States takes credit for that, which we should when we do those things, and we don't always do, it's very important. Health, education, economic growth-this is what we've got to do. And we've got to get countries to work closely with us to achieve those ends for their own people. And we've got to be seen as somebody who wants that and establish that hope and that glimmer of hope, so that you don't have these societies where 50 percent of the people are young men living without jobs or education or hope. And out of that climate of despair comes the climate for terrorism.

MR. HAMILTON: I think the point you made about benchmarks is a good one. You know, Secretary Rumsfeld asked: What are the metrics about the war on terrorism? It's a very good question. What are the metrics?

I think we would answer that some of the metrics are:

How many women are being educated? What's the educational impact? What about the illiteracy rate? Is that being improved? What about health care? In other words, very measurable things, at least in our country, maybe not as well measured elsewhere.

So those metrics become enormously important, and we set out one of them, I think, in our report-in our statement earlier on literacy by 2010. Those are important things to do.

I use the analogy-I hope it's not too simplistic-about your role as a politician and American foreign policy. Every politician is met with a-meets a constituent from time to time who asks you to do something that is totally beyond your ability to achieve. You can't do it. It's impossible to do.

One of the political tricks is to say to that person or to convey to that person, "I'm on your side. I want to try to help you." I must have done it 150 times a year. I'd be surprised if you haven't done it.

In the same way, American foreign policy has to convey to these people, "We're on your side. We want you to have a better life. We want you to have educational opportunity."

We have to recognize that we can't do this. As big as we are, as rich as we are, as powerful as we are, we cannot solve the educational problem in Pakistan.

I think you folks have appropriated or made available $100 million to help improve the schools in Pakistan. I've been told that, anyway; I don't know whether the figure's exactly right. I think that's the right move, but $100 million for the schools in Pakistan is a drop in the bucket, a mere drop in the bucket, but it's an important drop because it lets those people know that we want to improve your educational system.

And so I think we have to encourage these governments to do not what is in our interest-they're not going to buy that. No country is going to do something because we want them to do it. We have to persuade them that it is in their interest to do it. And if Saudi Arabia, let's be specific, doesn't begin to change, doesn't begin to move towards reform, doesn't begin to become more accountable and transparent and open, then all of these masses of people that the governor referred to a moment ago who now know what the good life is because they can see our life on television and know they don't have it-if the Saudi government doesn't begin to understand those forces that are arising now in that area of the world and if they don't begin to adapt to it, they're not going to be there.

So it's in their interest to change, not just our interest to change. And what we want to do is push and prod those governments in the right direction, towards accountability, towards transparency. And we want to push them and prod them in the right way on education and health care systems and say, okay, we'll give you a modest amount of money to help you if-IF-you're prepared to move in the right direction.

REP. HYDE: Mr. McHugh. Is Mr. McHugh here?

Mr. Smith of Michigan.

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