“I spoke out against it starting in 1992 — the president made a different decision. I think now with 14 years of experience under our belt, we can see that in some parts of our country there have been, perhaps, some economic advantages, but in other parts of our country, like where we are right here in northwest Indiana, it hasn’t worked as it was promised, and therefore I think we need to renegotiate it.”

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Zbigniew Brzezinski, a foreign policy adviser to Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) campaign, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed Sunday that a “sensibly conducted disengagement will actually make Iraq more stable over the long term.” He also called for engagement with Iran and said the United States should push Israelis and Palestinians to “start making the mutual concessions without which a historic compromise cannot be achieved.”

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“It is imperative that our new President knows how and when to use force and diplomacy judiciously, to know how to deploy the olive branch and the arrow. The President needs to be ready to act swiftly and decisively in a crisis. And we think our next President must restore our moral authority and leadership around the world with the courage to meet with our adversaries when appropriate, and the wisdom to pursue diplomacy wisely.”

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Regarding the debate over NAFTA in the 2008 presidential campaign, reader Ron Jauregui writes:

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Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) responded to President Bush’s statement that he intends to negotiate a “long-term strategic partnership” with the Iraqi government. “We cannot allow President Bush to tie the hands of his successor to his failed Iraq policy,” Clinton said.

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“Our trade mentality dates back to the ’60s and the early ’70s when we were so dominant in the world economy that basically if people sent their goods into this country without reciprocity, it wasn’t really going to have a dent on our economy. Well, the fact is China, Brazil, Korea, you know, they’re not your dad’s China, Brazil or Korea. They are now major competitors of ours. We should want real trade with them, but it’s got to be on a reciprocal basis. And we should put some pressure on them to improve how they treat workers, to deal with issues of environmental standards, to deal with safety standards. And part of the problem that we’ve got right now in our trade agreements is that US companies may move over there, get out from under basic safety standards that are important to US consumers, then the goods get shipped back into the United States and suddenly we’ve got toys with lead paint on them.”

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Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) laid out his broad foreign policy agenda in a speech Wednesday at the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

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Sen. Hillary Clinton told reporters Tuesday the Bush administration should be “much more forceful” in pressuring China to ease its crackdown on Tibetan activists. She said U.S. officials should not wait (Reuters) until the Olympics this summer to make their views known.

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Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) released a statement Monday congratulating Taiwanese President-elect Ma Ying-Jeou and calling on China to “reduce the military threat to Taiwan by drawing back the missiles it has deployed in southeast China and by other security confidence-building measures.” He also said the United States should “reopen blocked channels of communication with Taiwan officials.”

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“The 21st century American economy is more complex and more interconnected with the global economy than ever before. It is shaped each day by billions and billions of individual transactions and interactions on every continent, subject to crises or even just speculation in one country can move markets in dozens of others with the blink of an eye or a flick of a mouse. In today’s economy, trouble that starts on Wall Street often ends up on Main Street, sometimes within minutes, sometimes over the course of months or even years.”

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