Arlen: Diplomacy needed, not insults

The United States faces more threats from around the world than at any other time in its history and should be more engaged in diplomatic negotiations with its adversaries, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., told the World Affairs Council in Philadelphia yesterday.

"I think what has been lacking in our foreign policy is our conversations and our dealings with foreign leaders and foreigners with dignity and respect," he said.

"We don't have to agree with them in order to be dignified and respectful with what we have to say, and I think we have by and large earned the title of ugly Americans."

Specter specifically referred to North Korea and Iran - both branded by President Bush as part of an "axis of evil" - as adversaries with whom diplomatic solutions should be pursued instead of military action.

He also said that if intelligence gathering wasn't woefully inadequate, the United States would not have gone into Iraq based on faulty information about weapons of mass destruction.

"Our intelligence is so bad. I mean really so bad," he said. "Had the FBI and CIA talked to each other, 9/11 could have been avoided."

Asked about withdrawing troops from Iraq, Specter suggested a possible showdown between Congress and the president in September.

Several Republican lawmakers in both houses have said they are looking for a significant change in the war by that time, while others in the GOP say they are awaiting a September report from the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, before deciding what to do next.

"Unless there is a light at the end of the tunnel, the financing is going to be very difficult - if not impossible - to get," Specter said, "given the attitude of the American people [is] very much against the war." *