The CBC "Message to America" is distributed nationwide to the American Urban Radio Network’s (AURN) affiliate stations.

WHO:        U.S. Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY)

WHEN:      Saturday, July 8, 2006; 12:06 p.m. EST

WHERE:   American Urban Radio Network Affiliate Stations

"Hello, America! This is Congressman Gregory W. Meeks. I represent the Sixth Congressional District of New York, serve on the House International Relations Committee and am a proud member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

"I would like to talk with you about the newest link in the Bush Administration’s long chain of foreign policy failures.

"A couple of days ago, North Korea, ignoring the pleas of the international community and the warnings of the Bush Administration, tested seven missiles. It may test another batch of missiles any day now.

"The tests included an intercontinental missile capable of reaching Alaska or the West Coast. President Bush and other Administration officials mocked the North Korean capabilities because this missile failed shortly after it was launched. However, we should remember that in the 1950s people laughed at our space program. They weren’t laughing when we put a man in orbit in the early 1960s and a man on the moon a few years later.

"The North Koreans could quickly turn their failure today into success tomorrow. The President won’t be mocking them then.

"Our challenge is to turn his foreign policy failures into foreign policy successes. The North Korean missile crisis is the latest manifestation of six years of foreign policy failures. It’s hard to name a single major foreign policy achievement by this administration.

"The Administration has been advised to change course on this and other issues, but has stubbornly and arrogantly stuck to unilateralism, preemption and regime change.

"In fact, the quagmire the Administration has gotten us into in Iraq has greatly restricted and reduced our options, resources and credibility for dealing with North Korea. It was always clear that North Korea and Iran were greater threats than Iraq, but he chose to go after Iraq and now we have more than we can handle there plus deeper crises with Iran and North Korea.

"North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programs have to be addressed. It’s not just that one day it may have missiles capable of reaching our shores. It’s short-range and medium-range missiles can reach South Korea and Japan, allies we are obligated by treaty to defend. More than 30,000 of our soldiers are stationed in South Korea. Seoul, South Korea’s capital, is just 45 miles from North Korea’s border. We also have thousands of military personnel stationed on Japanese territory.

"North Korea has a very unpredictable regime. Either we manage this crisis effectively now or we will have to manage it in a much bigger and more costly way in the future.

"An effective foreign policy also requires a Congress that will hold the Administration accountable, exercise its oversight and budgetary authority as a co-equal branch of government and not give the President a blank check in foreign policy like it has done with Iraq. This is the kind of Congress and the type of practices and policies that the Congressional Black Caucus is trying to bring about. You voters out there have the power to elect a responsible Congress. This is how you can empower yourselves to directly influence the course and conduct of American foreign policy."