The Breathtaking Magnitude of George Bush’s Foreign Policy Incompetence
Well, if it wasn’t for the deadly seriousness of everything that’s going on in the Middle East, it would almost be funny. George Bush, the world’s most notable champion of Democracy, got his wish this week. He had been pressuring the Palestinian people to embrace democracy for years and they have finally responded by giving a great electoral victory to Hamas, a political group that our government has identified as a terrorist organization.
So instead of seeing Democracy transform the Middle East into a land of helpful allies who might be eager to assist us in our war on terror, it has instead helped to legitimize the stature of Islamist militants in the region. Like it or not, it is now far more believable that Iran’s current ‘radical’ President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was elected in a fair and democratic manner.
Bringing democracy to Muslim nations has simply served to add greater legitimacy to their complaints about us. What kind of foreign policy is that? Please help me to understand, George. I’m having difficulty grasping why a policy (the ‘Bush Doctrine‘) that ends up enhancing the stature and reputation of radical Islamic militants is supposed to be helpful to us in our efforts to protect ourselves from the actions of Islamic militants?
(Some would say your actions are those of a traitor. I’m simply accusing you of the kind of incompetence that gets people killed unnecessarily.)
So tell me again, George, why it is so important for us to sacrifice American lives and treasure to bring Democracy to the people of the Middle East? Was it to help the Muslim nations in the region to become democratically united in expressing their contempt for the role we have played in their affairs? This was to help further American interests how? If your magic elixir ‘Democracy’ doesn’t work, then why are we letting you continue to embarrass us before the world?
Except for his early strike into Afghanistan, almost every foreign [Middle East] policy decision George Bush has made has served only to help the recruiting efforts of Al Qaeda. His idiotic regime-change war in Iraq was supposed to ‘send a message’ to states like Iran that they’d better help us in our fight against terrorism, or we’re coming in to impose our will on them. Sadly, the message they received was quite the opposite.
In bogging us down in Iraq, Bush has sent an unintended message to ‘our enemies’ that our current military resources are stretched so thin, the only way the Americans could successfully pull off a regime-change invasion of Iran is if the American people consented to a military draft. Thanks, George. You were supposed to be scaring them into submission, weren’t you? Instead—-because you and your cohort are incompetent—-you have given them encouragement to ignore our threats. Your actions are what made us vulnerable in this way.
Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the Iranians do not need a crystal ball to see that the American people are quite unlikely to support a military draft for the invasion of Iran. All they have to do is read the poll numbers that show that around 70% of the American people are opposed to a military draft. It would take an attack worse than Nine Eleven to get the American people to support a draft now. Why worse? Because after Nine Eleven, George Bush got the benefit-of-the-doubt from the press. He had not yet had a chance to display his incompetence in defending our nation from terrorism.
Now time has revealed to us that his reasons for invading Iraq were not just illegitimate, which is bad enough, but they were also catastrophically foolish and damaging to America’s interests. The sad truth is that, instead of speaking for us in a way that earns the world’s respect and gratitude, George Bush has done more to damage America’s reputation than any other President in modern history. His incompetence is killing us…literally.
James Kroeger