Our foreign policy is a reflection of our nation's values. It's time for a new foreign policy that reflects our commitment to justice, not militarism and exploitation.

background

I was just a kid when my opponent, Brad Sherman, voted for both the war in Afghanistan and war in Iraq. I remember seeing my grandparents - who lived through the bloody Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s - shaking their heads in disbelief when our congressman cast his vote in favor of a protracted war that has taken the lives of tens of thousands of U.S. troops, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghani citizens, and cost taxpayers $2.4 trillion and counting. The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Afghanistan - that Sherman voted for - has been invoked to justify military action in places as far away as the Philippines, South Sudan, Yemen, Jordan, Kenya, Somalia, Turkey, and more - nations that we are not at war with, and that Congress has not sanctioned military action to take place in. In fact, it is this same AUMF that has been used to justify detaining and torturing individuals at Guantanamo Bay - actions that did not make us safer, but did unequivocally provide a hub for further radicalization. 

We spend over $740 billion annually on defense - more than the next ten countries combined - while we neglect housing, education, and healthcare for working-class people at home. The trillions we have wasted on endless wars are not about protecting democracy abroad or national security at home. They are about corporate profit and propping up our military-industrial complex - the very scourge that Five-Star General and former President Dwight Eisenhower warned America about in his farewell address in 1961. Decades later, lawmakers like Brad Sherman have still failed to heed that prophetic warning. Across his 24 years in office, Rep. Sherman has received over $241,000 from weapons manufacturers and defense contractors - including Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Aerojet Rocketdyne. Over a third of Rep. Sherman’s campaign contributions from the defense industry have been during the course of Trump’s presidency alone, where he has consistently voted alongside hawkish pro-war Democrats and Republicans alike to finance endless conflict.  

In 2016, my opponent Brad Sherman was one of only 16 Democrats to vote against an amendment that would have banned the sale of cluster bombs to the Saudi government - bombs they have used to murder Yemeni civilians in a disgraceful war we continue to finance. He also failed to support a 2018 Resolution from Rep. Khanna which would have directed the President to remove U.S. troops involved in the war in Yemen. Rep. Sherman also proudly touts his support for legislation that would directly infringe on free speech and 1st Amendment rights by seeking to silence the voices of Americans rightfully concerned about our government’s role in the continued occupation of the Palestinian people. Sherman has also repeatedly voted to extend the federal government’s authority under the PATRIOT Act to engage in massive, unfettered surveillance of American citizens.

As an Iranian American, I am deeply ashamed of Rep. Sherman’s anti-diplomatic stances on Iran. To this day, Rep. Sherman repeatedly boasts his opposition to the 2015 Iran Deal, and was one of only 25 Democrats joining virtually every Republican in that vote against diplomacy. He was also the ONLY Democrat that spoke at a 2019 rally hosted by the radical Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) - a violent far-right Iranian opposition group that was a designated terrorist organization until 2012. Indeed, Rep. Sherman’s foreign policy stances share more in common with hawkish neoconservatives like John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani - who also spoke at the 2019 MEK rally - than with his own party. 

vision

We need a new foreign policy grounded in public health, human rights, diplomacy, and democracy - not imperialism and militarism. We need a foreign policy that isn’t led by the interests of multinational defense corporations seeking to maximize profit, but by leaders who wish to engender robust diplomacy, partnership, and mutual aid. That is why our platform calls to:

Fully restore Congress’s constitutional authority over authorization of military force.

• Since 9/11, Congress has extended near carte blanche authority to presidents to send our troops into endless foreign conflicts in the name of national security. We must restore accountability in our foreign policy, and ensure Congress - and only Congress - has the ability to authorize military action abroad. 

Defund our military-industrial complex and endless wars.

• Our $740 billion annual defense budget eclipses the military spending of the next ten countries combined. Due to the profligate greed of the defense industry aided and abetted by hawkish bipartisan neoconservatism, the United States continues to fund endless, morally vacuous, brutal, and destructive foreign wars. 

• Modern-day imperialism and colonialism takes the form of federal financing of anti-democratic and anti-humanitarian political factions that create more destabilization, abuse, death, and social and economic turmoil - all of which are antithetical to public health. In a modern and just world, there is zero room for endless wars and destruction.

Repeal the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs and Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act. 

• For decades, Congress has enabled the federal government to engage in massive, imprecise, and unabated surveillance of the American people. Many of those same tools are now used by local police to terrorize and target Black, Brown, and Muslim communities. In addition to banning police forces from using DNA and facial recognition technology - which my criminal justice platform calls for - we must restrict the federal government’s ability to conduct unfettered surveillance in violation of individual liberty and privacy. 

Strengthen the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and hold the Iranian regime accountable for their extensive human rights abuses and international financing of terrorism.

• The 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal is a testament to the power of diplomacy - which is necessary to achieve peace. Donald Trump’s ransacking of that deal has further destabilized the region, empowered Saudi Arabia, and left the Iranian people more vulnerable than ever.

• Make no mistake - U.S. economic sanctions have directly harmed the Iranian people and led to massive economic inflation while achieving very little in defanging the despotic Iranian regime. Indeed, economic sanctions have done nothing to limit Iran’s financing of terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

• Instead, we must re-enter the JCPOA but strengthen various provisions by requiring greater transparency, permitting more frequent and extensive International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections, reevaluating the sunset provisions, and holding Iran fully accountable for its extensive human rights abuses. 

End the War on Drugs and establish true diplomacy with Central America.

• U.S. imperialism in Central and South America takes many forms - through our overthrow of duly-elected and democratic administrations; our financing of and political support for despotic puppet regimes in Chile, Nicaragua, Panama and other nations that work to serve the profits of corporations over the needs of their citizens; and through our neglect of true diplomacy and mutual aid. 

  • We must recognize and cease our direct role in destabilizing democracy in Latin America, which undergirds the massive migration of Central American immigrants to our borders. 

Cease foreign and military aid to the Saudi and Emirati governments indefinitely.

• For years the U.S. has financed the Saudi and Emirati led genocide against the Yemeni people.

• From billions in annual weapons sales (including for cluster bombs) to provisions of US intelligence to Biden’s recent decision to resume the transfer of antimissile interceptors to the despotic Saudi regime, our government has aided and abetted the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

• Worse yet, is that Biden reimposed sanctions on Yemen in the wake of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as a way of enticing the Saudi regime to increase oil production. These unconscionable decisions expose a selective concern for human rights that directly undermines international human rights.

• We must immediately and permanently end our military support for despotic regimes.

Advocate for a permanent peace in Israel-Palestine that ensures Israelis and Palestinians live with dignity, justice, equality, and self-determination.

• When I was a teenager, I visited Israel with my parents on pilgrimage to the Baha’i Temples and gardens in Haifa. I witnessed first-hand the tolerance, empathy, and mutual cooperation that exists between Baha’i and Israeli leaders - the very qualities absent from the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians.

• Our support for Israeli sovereignty must not come at the direct expense of self-determination for the Palestinian people. I vehemently oppose imperialism, colonialism, and apartheid in all forms. The United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and the Jerusalem-based B’Tselem have all released statements declaring Israel an apartheid state, accompanied by extensive reports about state-sponsored segregation, displacement, and violence against Palestinians. Our tax dollars should not be financing state-sponsored oppression at home or abroad. Just as I intend to hold our government accountable for its sordid history of colonialism and imperialism, we must hold our allies to the same standard.

• According to the World Health Organization, the average life expectancy of Palestinians living in the occupied territories - including Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem -  is roughly nine years less than for Israeli citizens. Rates of infant mortality, congenital disease, exposure to violence, and infectious disease are exponentially higher for Palestinians - who also face significant restrictions in access to employment, education, healthcare, and food security. 

• The actions taken by former President Trump that Brad Sherman strongly supported - such as moving the American embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 497 - directly undermine any chance for permanent peace between Israel and Palestine. 

• We must turn a new chapter by ensuring no military aid to Israel is ever used for settlement expansion, illegal annexations, demolitions and displacement of Palestinian people, and the incarceration of Palestinian children.

• We must also ensure that Palestinians and Israelis are the ones deciding their collective future - not any foreign entity. But any peaceful resolution must include a right of return for Palestinians.

Establish trade policies that protect workers’ and Indigenous rights, fully address climate change, disempower multinational corporations, and truly honor human rights.

• For too long, the United States has ratified trade agreements that violated workers’ rights, triggered the displacement and exploitation of Indigenous peoples, worsened climate change, and allowed corporations to plunder and steal the natural resources of developing nations all across the globe. 

  • These disastrous trade deals have allowed corporations to externalize their costs, move their production overseas, and drain jobs from American at home. We must work towards new agreements that bring living wage jobs back to our shores and protect the interests of workers at home and abroad.