Sydney Liu

JOUR-J200
12-2-13
David Ignatius Speech

Better political leadership and more people like Lee H. Hamilton are needed
if America is to improve its foreign policy, according to Washington Post
correspondent, David Ignatius, who spoke Monday at Indiana Universitys
Whittenberger Auditorium.
Lee H. Hamilton is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives and
is currently a professor at Indiana Universitys School of Public and Environmental
Affairs. In the past decades, he has played an important role in Americas
international relations and national security.
In a speech titled, Lee H. Hamilton Fellowship Lecture, Ignatius, who has
spent 35 years as an editor, reporter, and columnist writer, spoke to a crowded
room of attentive listeners where he praised Hamiltons work and addressed the
issue of Americas growing isolationism and retreat from the world.
The US is seen as arrogant and weak We are neither feared nor loved
today, said Ignatius.
He believes that our generation of leaders needs more people like the figures
who all helped shaped American foreign policy in the past, such as Dwight
Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Dean Rusk, George H.W. Bush, and Bill
Clinton, in addition to Hamilton.
Ignatius spoke highly of Hamilton, citing his two most important
accomplishments: the 9/11 Commission and the Baker Hamilton Report. The 9/11
Commission was a work of surpassing clarity and honesty and told the truth of
why the disastrous catastrophe of 9/11 occurred. It was everything a traumatized
country needed at the time, said Ignatius.
The Baker Hamilton Report told the truth the consequence of the U.S.s
invasion of Iraq in 2003. The report made it clear that the invasion was a
catastrophic mistake for this country to make and clearly demonstrated its failing
foreign policy.
However, Ignatius believes that with his Hamilton Commission, an imaginary
commission that embodies the idea of Lee H. Hamilton, our foreign policy can be
improved. My commission would insist on demand for better political leadership,
said Ignatius.
The Commission has three main ideas of what this countrys government
should do: be unsparingly honest about our problems today, be bipartisan in foreign
policy, and think about how to repair our alliances and friendships abroad.
Ignatius believes that when American surveillance technology was let loose
on foreign citizens and foreign leaders, it really affected our relationships abroad. In
order to fix this, Ignatius recommended that our intelligence agencies should apply
some kind of reasonable cost benefit analysis and extend to the world, ways to
respect the privacy rights of people overseas, similar to the 4
th
Amendment in U.S.
Ignatius concluded that this countrys problem is that the generation of great
leaders, including Henry Kissinger, did not regenerate and as a result, we need more
people like Lee H. Hamilton to lead our country to a better future.