I certainly wasn't attempting an "analysis of the last 21 yrs of forgein policy" as you put it...
I was only looking at the Iran/Iraq, and then South Asia situations... and I called 'em as I saw them: Massively counter-productive actions in that region undertaken during Reagan/Bush and then under Bush the First.
And, not that I thought it relevant enough to the discussion to bring it up but, foreign policy was in pretty shaky hands early on during the first Clinton administration. Could be we were lucky no foreign calamity fell upon us during that period... but we'll never know.
(He ran on the motto of "It's the Economy, Stupid" as I recall). Foreign policy was not high on his addenda those first two years, so there were no big forays into "the Great Beyond". Later on though, the efforts regarding Ireland, Israel and the Palestinians, trade negotiations, etc., were pretty credible. The Yugoslavian campaign looks much more effect when measured against the humanitarian failure with the Hutu massacres.
And, by the way, I didn't conclude things were "f***ed up again the past 8 months" as you said. I only pointed out that in May, Bush the Second sent $43 million to the Taliban, and I didn't think that was such a good idea. (I believe I called it "idiotic".)
Time will tell on Bush the Second. |
