Brent Scowcroft, the national security adviser for President George H.W. Bush at the end of the Cold War, sees deepening anti-Americanism as one of the most worrisome trends, one that puts a constant drag on U.S. initiatives and leadership. "This Bush administration assumed that power is always resented anyway, so they would just use it unilaterally and people would forgive the United States as long as we succeeded. That just runs contrary to human nature," Scowcroft told National Journal. "What surprises me is that the father knew that instinctively. The first President Bush reached out to allies and world leaders so that when he asked them to do things, they were disposed to agree. The son is just the opposite, and that amazes me."
In Scowcroft's view, the danger is that the global opprobrium aimed at the current Bush administration -- and at U.S. policies such as secret "renditions" of terrorist suspects and harsh treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay -- shows signs of becoming a structural distrust of U.S. motives and American leadership.
"That the international community no longer trusts our motives is a new phenomenon, and I see it as one of many warning signs of a possible lasting realignment of global power," Scowcroft said. "I don't think we're there yet, but it's certainly possible that we've created such a mess, and alienated so much of the world, that we can never go back to where we were at the end of the Cold War.
newsblogs.chicagotribune.com |
