Heard part of an interview with Gary Hart on CBC radio yesterday - he seems to have some concrete, interesting ideas on world and national security.

On point he made: Terrorism isn't an enemy, it is a tactic - trying to fight a war against terrorism is like (in WW II) trying to fight a war against blitzkreig.

Also, that "shock and awe" type weapons might be effective in fighting a conventional enemy, but are not effective (and perhaps counterproductive in some ways) against a diffuse enemy using terror tactics.

Can Monkeybusiness be put in the past and left there?

Gary Hart Feature

You'd think, with the way things have been going for the Republicans, that Democrats would be clapping their hands with glee. First there was the uproar over a White House-approved domestic eavesdropping program. And the criticism over the Bush Administration's failure to respond to Hurricane Katrina victims doesn't seem to be abating.

But it's the war in Iraq that has dragged the US into a quagmire--with no end in sight. Now sectarian violence threatens to upend any democratic progress in Iraq, just as new photos from Abu Ghraib have surfaced. Add a vice-presidential hunting accident into the mix, and you've got fodder for comedians for months to come.

Our next guest knows much about being the target for derisive finger-pointing. Gary Hart was once a Colorado senator and the 1988 Democratic front-runner for the presidential nomination. He was considered a Kennedy-esque shoe-in, until photos surfaced of a sexual romp aboard a boat called Monkey Business. His political fortunes came crashing down amid questions about bad judgment.

But those days are far behind Gary Hart. Since then, he's been involved in forming US foreign policy strategies. He was also co-chair of the US Commission on National Security for the 21st Century, a group which predicted a 9-ll-type attack, before it even happened. And, now, he's hoping to help Democrats turn Republican misfires into their own political fortunes.

CBC - The Current

I can't listen to RealAudio from work, so I'm not sure if the Hart interview was there, but you can try listening to
the segment in RealAudio.

Hart has a new book:

Security can only be achieved, Hart argues, by applying new tactics, new players, and a nuanced understanding of the radical changes in the security environment. The old security required massive weapons in massive numbers. The new security requires special forces, individual warrior teams seeking out terrorists in the most remote corners of the world and in the heart of American cities, as well as cooperation among intelligence services. The old security required economic dominance. The new security requires economic integration in a world of international markets, trade, and finance. The new security will be both national and international, defensive and offensive, and will require a shield for the homeland as well as a cloak of non-military security.
At a time when the Democratic Party is searching for a platform on security issues, and the Republican strategy of preemption appears increasingly flawed, Gary Hart once again leads the discussion with this far-ranging vision of how a true security of the commons can be achieved.

From Oxford University Press