‘We’re Just Not Able to Function Right Now’

As U.S. allies on two different continents find themselves locked in war, House Republicans have failed to elect a new speaker all week. Meanwhile, a deadline looms next month for a government shutdown, and crucial ambassador positions remain unfilled. How is a dysfunctional Congress impacting Washington’s foreign policy?

I spoke with Democratic Rep. Andy Kim on FP Live, the magazine’s forum for live journalism. Kim has worked in the past in the State Department and in the National Security Council. What follows is a condensed and lightly edited transcript. Subscribers can watch the full discussion, which includes a segment on how to reboot U.S. policy on China, in the video box atop this page.

Ravi Agrawal: I just want to give you a chance first to comment on Hamas’s brutality last weekend.

Andy Kim: You know, I served as a civilian out in Afghanistan at the height of the war. I worked in Iraq. And still, after having seen all of that and the war against the Islamic State, I was still stunned and shocked by what I saw, the brutality with which it happened, and the indiscriminate targeting of civilians. It was shocking even for those of us who have seen a lot.

RA: The Israelis are admitting at this point that this was an intelligence failure on their part. Do you think that the United States, too, has some culpability in not seeing any of this?

AK: That’s something we need to dive into. It’s definitely alarming to me. And it’s a stark contrast to what we saw when it came to Ukraine, where we did have a lot of information about a troop buildup, and we could anticipate and actually get ahead of it. So it worries me.

I’m sure the Israeli people will demand answers. And we, as the strongest security partner of Israel, also need to have those answers.

RA: Israel has demanded that 1.1 million Gazans evacuate the north end of the strip. That is almost half of the entire population of Gaza. Already, there have been attacks on Gaza. Upwards of 500 children have died so far as Israel’s siege of Gaza expands. How concerned are you about the unfolding humanitarian crisis there?

AK: It’s long been a humanitarian crisis. We’ve seen how challenging day-to-day life has been in Gaza. There’s going to be a lot more violence, a lot more challenges ahead.

I’ve been reflecting on this and actually talking to some of my colleagues who worked over the last 20 years in some capacity in national security on the war on terror—whether in uniform or as a civilian like myself—and we’ve been reflecting on the lessons learned. We talked about how it’s so important that we show a sense of attention to preventing civilian casualties, because that was what undermined so much of the legitimacy of what the United States was trying to do in Afghanistan and Iraq. And it just muddied up and prevented people of the countries that we’re in from understanding what we were doing. It gave legitimacy to some of the grievances and the propaganda of organizations such as the Shiite militia groups or the Islamic State or the Taliban and others. So it’s important not just what you do, but how you go about doing it.

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RA: The war on terror was a response to 9/11. Many commentators are describing Saturday’s attacks as Israel’s 9/11. Are you saying that they shouldn’t be doing that?

AK: Well, I’m saying that they need to be very mindful. Everyone needs to be very mindful about what comes next. I want the United States to be mindful about what options we’re considering and to take into account the lessons learned of what we went through.

Look, I don’t have all the answers. I come at with a lot of humility. Of seeing, you know, just so many failed strategies in our wars of the last two decades. But I do hope that we try to reflect on that and bring some of those lessons learned back in.

RA: I appreciate the humility. U.S. President Joe Biden, when he addressed the world about last weekend’s atrocities, showed great emotion and empathy, which is really important. But he did not call for restraint on Israel’s part. Do you think he should have?

AK: I feel like I’ve heard the administration say this, which is that we are democracies, and democracies need to be countries that follow the rule of law. We have to show how we are different, how we act in a certain way. And so, yes, I do think we need to be making those types of statements and saying that we absolutely are going to support Israel’s right to defend itself. But we are also urging our partners to think about how they go about doing that and trying to do so in a way that is not going to undermine their legitimacy. Being able to do that in alignment with the rule of law is the best way to go about doing it.

RA: Let me give you a specific example. Human Rights Watch is criticizing Israel for using white phosphorus in Gaza. White phosphorus is a substance that burns people’s skin on contact. It can instantly kill people. How do you think the United States should respond to an allegation like that from Human Rights Watch?

AK: I would be alarmed by that. I’d be worried about that and certainly want to get answers myself to what’s going on.

RA: We’re discussing an ongoing war in the Middle East. There is, of course, another war going on in Europe, which the United States has an important role to play in. And meanwhile, there is no speaker in the House. How is that impacting Congress’s ability to mobilize U.S. support?

AK: It would be a huge problem for our country no matter what was happening in the world. To be in a situation where we do not have a functioning U. S. Congress is absurd.

I’ve been here at the Capitol all week. I have not done a single vote. We’ve just been trying to figure out what in the world is going on. We’re just not able to function right now, not able to do the work that we need to. There’s so much congressional committee work and armed services work, other things like that that we need to do, that we just cannot do because we’re paralyzed right now. So, yes, we should move forward with a joint resolution condemning the attack. We should have done that immediately.

The Senate’s coming back next week. I hope they confirm Jack Lew [nominated to be the ambassador to Israel] and other ambassadors. We have to show that we are operating at full capacity. And right now, we’re not able to do that. Thankfully, the administration has said that they have enough runway with existing authorities and resources to be able to provide some initial immediate support to Israel. But they all say that more is going to be needed. So I hope we get our act together as soon as possible.

The other aspect of this is, what kind of signal does this send to the rest of the world? When we’re in this kind of situation right now where we have a war in Europe, a war in the Middle East, challenges around the world, tensions in the Indo-Pacific, and the United States is unable to elect a speaker of the House. And just constantly showing, in the full view of the rest of the world and the American public, just how dysfunctional things are right now, what kind of signal does that send to our adversaries and our competitors?

RA: You tell me. What signal do you think it sends?

AK: Well, I think it sends a terrible signal. I think it sends the kind of message that only further weakens us. You know, we are at a place right now where [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is trying to present this message that the United States is in decline and [Chinese] President Xi Jinping and others are talking about how democracy doesn’t work. And we are just making that argument so easy for them right now, not just about the speaker vote, but you know, how we were so on the brink of defaulting on our debt.

When we see the mayhem and chaos of Jan. 6 [2021] and the “big lie” [former U.S. President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that he won the 2020 presidential election], how can we present to the rest of the world the sense that democracy is the shining example of governance, if we ourselves are not able to show the kind of foundation of stability that is needed for this?

That’s what I think is so alarming about our situation. And it just brings a deep sadness to me.