Former U.S. Senator and political mainstay Gary Hart told members of the UNM community Monday that to secure our future in these uncertain times, we must revive and restore the values of the public.
Hart, who stopped at UNM as part of a national tour designed to gauge the country's support for his ideas as he explores a possible candidacy for president in 2004, gave the lecture "The Iraq War and America's Role in the World." During the presentation, he criticized what he called the Bush administration's corruption of the sovereignty of our nation and the decline in the American public's participation in government.
"The American government is by and large very hypocritical," Hart told a crowd of about 100 people at UNM's School of Law. "We are waging war in Iraq to impose the same system that only 40 percent of the American public participates in here at home. This unfortunate fact is not lost on the people of the world. They see it as a weakness."
Hart served as a U.S. senator from 1975-87 and was co-chairman on the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st century. He spearheaded a report from the commission in 1999 that warned the United States was highly susceptible to a terrorist attack on American soil that could result in massive loss of life.
"Two years later there was 9-11," said Hart, giving the security of the U.S. a two on a scale of one to 10, even after the development of the Department of Homeland Security. "This was due in part to the fact that there was no coherent security of foreign policy. Up to that point, all contingent plans revolved around the threat from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. After it's collapse in 1991, all of our policies became irrelevant."
Hart, who is the author of more than a dozen books, said that while there is no such thing as absolute security in a democratic nation such as the U.S., a problem that has undermined the entire system was the lack of accountability from governmental agencies.
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"The fact that no one took the blame for 9-11 was a sign of the disarray that our government was in," Hart said. "While we have come a long way in changing that, both the private sector and governmental agencies have a lot of work to do before we are safe from terrorism."
Hart added that the American public must play a more substantial role in preserving the livelihood and prosperity of the nation if it is to exist for generations to come.
"We all have to earn our rights through the performance of our civic duties," Hart said. "By doing this, the people will assume the leadership and control of our country. This is the only way to ensure the safety of our nation."
He said a president who lacks strong leadership qualities and a very corrupt government is to blame for many of the predicaments the U.S. is facing, including the erosion of loyalties from other countries and an inability to adjust to the globalization of commerce.
"Let's be realistic, many of the most influential organizations and people in our country favor individual goals over the best interest of the American public," Hart said. "This is widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots, and is weakening our nation at its core."
