The George W. Bush foreign "non-policy"

by

Gerald Plessner

October 14, 2006 - Americans are now seeing the results of a wrong-headed and all but non-existent George W. Bush foreign policy, and it's not a pretty picture.

Since taking office almost seven years ago, George W. Bush has done next to nothing to use American prestige and resources to reduce or eliminate tensions with North Korea or Iran, or between Israel and the Palestinians.

Rather than reach out to change attitudes about American power, the right of Israel to exist, or the need to control nuclear development, the president launched his foreign policy with a bellicose State of the Union speech that branded North Korea, Iran and Iraq an "Axis of Evil".

Since then, the president has conducted a campaign of speeches and press events chastising states we should have hoped to change, ridiculing friendly states which could have done more to fight terrorism, and discounting states which are "soft on terrorism" or just not acting enough like us.

The problem with the president's foreign "non-policy" is as simple as those of a playground fist fight: The teacher can't reason with the combatants if they can't talk to her and they can't talk to her if they are calling each other names or worse. By the same token, other nations are not likely to listen to us if our president does little more than recite platitudes and call them names.

Let's look at the most critical of our foreign affairs problems and how the Bush administration has dealt with them:

NORTH KOREA - The idea that we can change North Korea by isolating and ostracizing it is ludicrous! Their "Great Leader" is intractable, their people are starved and brainwashed, their military is firmly in control, getting most of the benefits of the tyranny, and any group that might rebel against the Great Leader would be committing suicide.

There is no country more difficult, intransigent nor duplicitous than North Korea. But that shouldn't cause the most powerful country on the planet to refuse to communicate directly with them. A multi-front effort to engage North Korea through the six-nation talks moving towards eventual one-on-one talks on the sidelines, might have enticed North Korea into getting realistic. But we may never know.

The Bush administration loves to find a reason why the problems they have created were caused by the previous administration. But in the case of North Korea, that ploy doesn't work. President Clinton worked on the North Koreans and he was beginning to have some success. The new Bush administration trashed that idea because it didn't fit their neo-conservative ideology, and the rest is history, a much more dangerous history.

Putting more pressure on North Korea and making China "uncomfortable" because of their tolerance of North Korea, as neo-conservative speech-writer David Frum, who thought up the "Axis of Evil" language, recently suggested in a Los Angeles Times commentary, is exactly what we should not do.

Chinese money is financing our national debt through the purchase of U. S. notes and that goes to pay for our war on Iraq! Why would we want to make China uncomfortable when we need all the friends we can get?

ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS - President Bush staunchly refused to engage Yasser Arafat or any of his people in the Fatah organization because "we don't negotiate with terrorists." The results were that after Arafat died, Hamas became the defacto government in the West Bank and Gaza. They won an election and now a group sworn to destroy Israel has replaced the Fatah government, which at least had acknowledged Israel's right to exist.

As has been the president's way of doing business from day one, the Bush administration, whose foreign policy is controlled by a group of neo-conservative ideologs, refused to do anything that looked like something that president Bill Clinton had done, even if it advanced peace.

This administration branded as a failure Clinton's modest successes at getting the Palestinians to talk to the Israelis, while in fact, the Clinton administration had advanced negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel in a positive way. It wasn't a great dialog but it was better than what has happened since.

IRAN - Americans need to get used to national leaders who we think talk crazy but really aren't. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the president of Iran and we must assume that he says what his fellow national leaders --- politicians and clerics --- also believe.

They are Persians and, if you will look in the Old Testament, you will be reminded that they have been a nation and an on-and-off regional power for a very long time.

Study how they have used Syria, Hezbullah, Hamas, Iraqi religious leaders and militias to attack Israel and confound our efforts in Iraq, and you will see that when it comes to the Middle East, they know a lot more about geopolitics than anyone in the current Bush administration.

Although it is tempting to think about bombing Iran's nuclear resources back to the Stone Age --- which Dick Cheney is probably doing as you read this --- it would be the worst possible thing to do. Attacking Iran would put our military, which faces terrible danger every day in Iraq, at greater risk. Thousands of Iranian soldiers could be sent into Iraq to attack our troops. After all, bombing another country is an act of war.

No matter what the president and his staff may think about Ahmadinejad, we should be talking to him and the people around him --- quietly, out of public view and off the record --- right now.

But once again, that probably won't happen because the neo-conservatives with White House passes will undercut Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's efforts, just as they did to delay the cease fire in Lebanon.

Some months ago, the Congress voted to establish a commission to evaluate our efforts and options in Iraq. It is co-chaired by Republican James Baker, the former Secretary of State and Treasury, and chief of staff to the elder president Bush, and former Democratic Congressman Lee H. Hamilton, an expert on foreign affairs.

The commission has been studying how to get the United States out of Iraq with some dignity and a minimum loss of lives.

Hopefully, the commission will work more as an overseer of the administration's strategy and actions in Iraq than as a one-time observer.

If the United States is going to get out of the presidency of George W. Bush without going into another war, a commission should be given oversight for all of the White House's war plans and diplomatic activities.

Liberals may have no affection for James Baker. He got the Supreme Court to appoint George W. Bush president of the United States. But Baker is probably the best person in America for this kind of task.

Let's just hope he gets it done in time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gerald Plessner is a Southern California businessman who writes regularly on issues of politics and culture. He would be pleased to hear from you and may be contacted at gerald@geraldplessner.com.