Now is the time for an honest post mortem of Bush foreign policy. Bush foreign policy has failed not just because of incompetence or bad luck in Iraq. The entire intellectual edifice of Bush foreign policy – such as it is – is deeply flawed. And let’s be clear. The Bush administration’s grand strategy is not simply a variation on earlier postwar liberal internationalist grand strategies – as some conservatives and liberals suggest. It was a radical departure from America’s postwar liberal hegemonic orientation – and the world has bitten back.…The signal feature of this administration has not been merely its incompetence, but its rejection of the principles on which U.S. foreign policy was built after the Second World War. The administration’s strategy has been based, instead, upon four ideas: the primacy of force; the preservation of a unipolar order; the unbridled exercise of U.S. power; and the right to initiate preventive war in the absence of immediate threats.The response to the terrorist outrage of September 11, 2001, reinforced the hold of all these principles. The notion of an indefinite and unlimited ‘war on terror’ became the fulcrum of U.S. foreign policy. It led to the idea of an "axis of evil" connecting Saddam Hussein’s Iraq to theocratic Iran and Kim Jong-il’s North Korea. It brought about the justified invasion of Afghanistan, but also the diversion into Iraq. Not least, the idea of the war on terror led to the indefinite imprisonment of alleged enemy combatants without judicial oversight, toleration of torture, "extraordinary rendition" of suspects, the extra-territorial prison at Guantánamo Bay, and, by indirect means, the abuses at Abu Ghraib. All this has been bad enough.…A belief in the primacy of the military naturally led to the transfer of responsibility to the Department of Defense; a belief in the efficacy of force created the conviction that victory meant peace and a swift transition to democracy; and disdain for allies guaranteed the absence of co-operation in postwar occupation.
I’m not ever sure it’s fair to talk about the incompetence of the Bush Administration in running this war. Even that argument, though true, gets away from the original flaw which is much deeper. Nor is it fair to continue the myth of Operation Iraqi Freedom, that the authors of this war were carrying Freedom and Democracy to Iraq. This war had two goals, American Dominion [the "sole" superpower] and conquest [or plunder]. In the process, we threw away a reputation of being a moderately well-meaning nation and joined the throng of power-mongers. We can no longer be leaders in the world, we’re just players in the nasty game of global chess. And Mr. George Bush and Mr. Dick Chjeney went way out of their way to put us there.
What were their mistakes? Mistakes doesn’t do them justice. What were their fundamental flaws?
- They ignored the threat from Al Qaeda before 9/11.
- They waited way to long to strike in Afghanistan after 9/11.
- They abandoned the War against the Terrorists for their War on Terrorism.
- They used 9/11 as an excuse to effect their preconceived Bush Doctrine.
- They lied to the people who they serve [and the world] to start the Iraq War.
But the biggest flaw of all was to think that they could change other governments by invasion and have those changes accepted. It’s an anachronistic idea that ran out of juice in previous epochs of history. Hussein was pretty awful, no question. And keeping up the pressure for inspections and on his human rights abuses was a fine idea. But lying to incite a war of American aggression that was doomed before it started was treasonous. Nothing less…
Victory? What would that be? I still can’t fathom it. It was just bullyism in response to a bully [and the wrong bully, at that]. Nothing more….
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.