In less than three years, the neo-cons in the Bush administration-Wolfowitz, Perle, Cheney and Rumsfeld-have thoroughly degraded America's relationship with the world. Any potential successor to President Bush will have a good deal of his or her work plan dictated by this indisputable fact. The Bush administration has dragged our country and the world down a path of "might makes right." The next US President must implement a new foreign policy to take us off this dangerous course and remedy the damage done.

In the areas of arms control, multi-lateral security, global warming, terrorism, world health-all aspects of foreign policy-a new president would need to offer strong leadership and a compelling vision. Yet, with a few notable exceptions, the Democratic presidential challengers have been loath to articulate how they would approach this work. This shows the profound lack of leadership that the voters perceived in the last election (and we know how that turned out) and given the grave state of world affairs, it is unconscionable.

The Bush foreign policy has not worked. The goodwill that the world held for the U.S. after September 11th has been squandered by Bush's pre-emptive attack policy and his takeover of Iraq. The introduction of a Pew Charitable Research Center poll released in June states, "The war [in Iraq] has widened the rift between Americans and Western Europeans, further inflamed the Muslim world, softened support for the war on terrorism, and significantly weakened global public support for the pillars of the post-World War II era - the U.N. and the North Atlantic alliance." Many Muslim nations fear that they might be next on Bush's hit list.

The Bush administration's foreign policy shoots first and asks questions later. The results are not pretty.

Everyday it seems that another American is killed in occupied Iraq by a resentful people whose country's transition to a promised representative government seems to have been indefinitely put off. Meanwhile back in Afghanistan, (remember Afghanistan?) our troops oversee an increasingly lawless country that is ruled once again by warlords and drug smugglers.

In order to gain support for wars and empire building, the President has wasted our country's resources providing arms and military training to governments that abuse human rights. According to the Federation of American Scientists, these countries include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Tajikistan, and Uzebekistan.

Proving that security is secondary to loyalty when it comes to weapons makers, the administration has put us on a road toward reviving the arms race through its plans for new breeds of nuclear weapons and Star Wars missile defense. Along the way, a host of international agreements have been thrown out the window and international institutions, such as the UN, that promote non-violent conflict resolution and international cooperation, have been crippled.

The Bush administration has turned our country into the rogue nation. The Bush administration extorts other nations into giving them what they want while using an increasingly heavy hand to quash dissent here at home.

Our country is still a world leader. Unfortunately, given the administration's foreign policy, it's not the kind that we can be proud of.

Recently, Under Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz contradicted months of deception coming out of the White House spin machine about the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. In a moment of candor in an interview in the July issue of Vanity Fair he stated, "For bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason that everyone could agree on."

Bureaucratic agreement, based on a lie, might be nice if you're a right wing hawk in Washington who's pushing war. However, if you are a U.S. soldier stuck in Iraq, an Iraqi child maimed or killed by "shock and awe" or an American citizen duped by your government, you may not be so blithe about this detail.

If the administration's self-perpetuating war is allowed to dominate the political landscape, other issues that matter to us such as the sorry state of the economy, health care, the environment, education, civil liberties, and real security will not be addressed.

We can't allow this to go on. For the sake of our country, and for the sake of a world dangerously destabilized by the administration's unilateral attack policy, we need a new foreign policy based on core democratic values and the rule of law.

Anyone who runs for president in 2004 must understand this.

We need leaders that will pursue a better vision of our country's role in the world; a vision that upholds human rights and democracy by ending arms sales to dictators; a vision that will lead us to a new era free from the threat of weapons of mass destruction; a vision that cherishes international cooperation as both the means and the end.

This is an absolutely crucial time to demonstrate to all presidential candidates that millions of Americans demand a better direction for our country. We want positive, constructive leadership toward a foreign policy that isn't foreign to our values.

This is no time to be silent. Anyone who runs for President must advocate a new foreign policy if they want our support.

Kevin Martin is the Executive Director of Peace Action and the Peace Action Education Fund. As part of Peace Action's Campaign for a New Foreign Policy, you can sign a petition and automatically email the presidential candidates to show your support for a foreign policy better aligned with American values.

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