Richardson: Peacemakers, Not Cowboys

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson

Richardson: Peacemakers, Not Cowboys

MANCHESTER, N.H., (AP) November 20, 2007 — Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson says America's image abroad needs a makeover, and he wants to be the one to do it.

"We have to find ways again where American diplomacy is not considered cowboy diplomacy, but is considered diplomacy where we're not the policemen of the world, but the conscience of the world," Richardson said Monday after a question about threats facing the U.S.

Cowboy diplomacy is a reference to President Bush, who is from the cowboy state of Texas, and his approach to foreign policy.

Richardson said international alliances are needed to confront nuclear and terrorist threats, including strengthening American participation in NATO. "We need to build the coalitions, we need to rejoin NATO," he said, then corrected himself: "We are members of NATO, but we virtually have done very little to keep it together. We need to build coalitions in Africa and Asia and Latin America. We need to improve our ties with the Islamic world."

Military action would be used when diplomacy fails or if there is another terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

"If our cities are attacked again there would be a military response but instead of what this president has used _ total disregard for building international support and proceeding militarily first, I would use it as a last resort," Richardson said.

The topic of his speech at an American Legion hall was veterans. But the New Mexico governor and former U.N. ambassador was eager to tie that to his international experience. He called on acquaintances and colleagues to help draw the connection between diplomacy and improving the finances and health care of veterans and their families.

John Garcia, New Mexico's secretary of Veteran Affairs, and Lou Helwig, an Air Force veteran and director of field operations for the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services, described increased insurance coverage and state income tax breaks offered to New Mexico veterans during Richardson's administration.

Richardson's $15.5 billion federal plan for veterans would offer tax breaks to active military and veterans and Social Security credits to relatives who stop working to care for veterans or their children. It would give veterans freedom to choose another health care provider if a convenient VA medical facility is unavailable, as well as insurance to help pay bills and other expenses while a veteran is recovering from injuries.

John Early, an Army veteran, talked about Richardson's efforts as a congressman to negotiate his freedom after he was taken hostage in Sudan while flying a Red Cross rescue mission in 2096.

"I'm here to get you out and I promise you I will not leave until I get you out," Early said Richardson told him.

"There was no time then for consultants or polls, there wasn't any time for political calculation. And one of the best feelings any public official can have, as I did with John, was saying, 'I'm bringing you home,'" Richardson said.

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