Barry Rubin: An Open Letter to the Foreign Policy Establishment: If You See Something Disastrous, Say Something

An Open Letter to the Foreign Policy Establishment: If You See Something Disastrous, Say Something

Please feel free to send this to any appropriate people you know personally.

By Barry Rubin

Dear Distinguished Reader:

You have spent years working for the interests of the United States and years thinking about international affairs. Perhaps you have served in the State Department, Defense Department, National Security Council, or intelligence. Perhaps you are a member of the Council of Foreign Affairs or the Foreign Policy Association. Or maybe you are a university professor or work in a research center.

The time has come to speak out because the U.S. national interest is in danger and you know it.

You are reluctant, though, to say anything publicly about the perilous state of U.S. foreign policy today. Perhaps you are a Democrat or see yourself as a liberal (I know you don’t see yourself as a radical or Leftist). Possibly you believe in always supporting the government publicly. No doubt many of your friends and the newspapers you read tell you that everything is going great. And then there’s the matter of your prestige and, if you are still in government, of your career.

I understand all that but surely you see how badly, how mismanaged, is American diplomacy right now.

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Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). His latest book is Israel: An Introduction, to be published by Yale University Press in January 2012. You can read more of Barry Rubin's posts at Rubin Reports, and now on his new blog, Rubin Reports, on Pajamas Media

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