As turmoil overseas escalates, one Democratic presidential hopeful plans on turning America’s enemies into friends.

New Mexico’s Gov. Bill Richardson spoke Thursday in Des Moines.

“President Bush doesn’t understand that success in foreign policy requires both a strong military and smart diplomacy,” Richardson said. “Because diplomacy without power is weak, and power without diplomacy is blind.”

Richardson said he dealt with Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro and the North Koreans while he was in Congress.

“We must repair our alliances,” he said. “This means restoring respect and appreciation for our allies and for the values which unite us.” Africa was another focus of Richardson’s speech.

“The two most horrendous recent genocides have taken place in Rwanda and now Darfur,” Richardson said. “History teaches us that if the United States does not take the lead on genocide, no one else will. We act now on Darfur, and let the world know that when genocide threatens, the United States will lead the world to stop it.”

Richardson said we need better international intelligence and law enforcement coordination to prevent nuclear trafficking.

“If we want other countries to take the nuclear non-proliferation treaty seriously, we need to start taking it seriously ourselves,” Richardson said. “This means halting new American nuclear weapons programs, and leading a global effort to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world, including our own.”

As the governor of New Mexico, Richardson said, he dealt with the United States border problem.

“Illegal trafficking of drugs and persons across the Mexican border threatens our national security,” Richardson said. “We need both better border security and comprehensive immigration reform.”

Richardson said we must shift our aid to poor countries from loans to grants.

“To reduce both illegal immigration and anti-American populism in Latin America, we must work with reform-minded governments to alleviate poverty and promote equitable development,” Richardson said. He said we need to learn from the failures of the Bush administration and see the world as it is.

“We can lead others to make it a better, safer place,” Richardson said. The presidential candidate was welcomed to Des Moines by the Greater Des Moines Committee on Foreign Relations and the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy.

“Most of us are very, very tired of some of the political commentary, especially the ads that we’ve seen,” said Dick Goodson, secretary of the Greater Des Moines Committee on Foreign Relations. “I think our speaker today has broken the mold on that and hopefully he’s created a tipping point that may take us in a different direction.”