THE BUSH DOCTRINE: MIGHT MAKES RIGHT
By Richard Reeves
Syndicated Columnist
Sat Oct 12, 10:03 PM ET
news.yahoo.com
WASHINGTON -- After the cruel bloodletting of Sept. 11, 2001, Time magazine and others proclaimed the end of the age of irony. Whatever the new age was, it certainly was over by Oct. 11, 2002.
That was Friday. That day the members of the committee that chooses winners of the Nobel Peace Prize voted for the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. At the same time, members of the U.S. Congress fell all over themselves voting to damn the Constitution and history and give the 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush, the power to attack Iraq if he felt like it. And the people of Pakistan were allowed to vote in a sham election called by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the military dictator who is the best friend of the United States in South Asia.
The Pax Americana enforced by the world's only superpower is a pretty complicated business, isn't it? One wonders what's next. An election in Saudi Arabia with only princes allowed to vote? Or, perhaps, there will be a peace prize next year for this President Bush (news - web sites). How about one for Ariel Sharon (news - web sites), the prime minister of Israel, who has his own ideas about how to keep the peace?
Well, hooray for Carter. He failed as president -- he could not understand the economy and then sanctimoniously blamed the American people for his own problems -- but prevailed as a human being after his defeat in 1980. The five members of the secret Nobel committee mentioned his role in the Camp David Accords, but with obvious deliberation emphasized the contrast between presidents 39 and 43, saying in their citation: "In a situation currently marked by threats of the use of power, Carter has stood by his principles that conflicts must as far as possible be resolved through mediation and international cooperation based on international law, respect for human rights and economic development."
The new laureate is considered a wimp around here, where the Congress, with elections less than a month away, rolled over for the president who wants the power to wage pre-emptive war. This was the official transfer of constitutional power from the Congress to the executive branch.
We will see now whether regional superpowers will adopt the American way. China could use the American example and rhetoric to invade Taiwan. The Russians could move into Georgia. India could go after Musharraf over Kashmir (news - web sites) or attack to destroy Pakistan's weapons of mass destruction. It must be tempting for them, and what would the United States say? Well done?
Is this what the world wants? I don't know. The world is not a simple place, as Musharraf found Friday morning as the votes were counted in a "parliamentary" election he hoped would give his reign some legitimacy. The old corrupt, but elected, political leaders of Pakistan -- former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto -- were barred from participating in the election, but their parties did reasonably well without them. And the real winners, at least in the areas near Afghanistan (news - web sites), were anti-American Islamic fundamentalists of a type that has become too familiar around the world.
Back in Washington, the power has shifted totally now to the White House. The president's men and women, it is said, are already planning for the postwar Iraq. The plan of the day, leaked to The New York Times, is to install a military government, with a general playing the role of American emperor in the way that Gen. Douglas MacArthur ruled Japan after World War II. You remember, that was when Japan lost the war after beginning it with a pre-emptive strike on the United States at Pearl Harbor.
I doubt our pre-emptive actions will lead to our quick destruction. But conquest and occupation could bring destruction, chaos and more war in the Middle East and elsewhere. If, however, war does bring peace, there could be a prize for the 43rd president. George Bush, after all, was one of the 156 nominees for the peace prize this year -- even as he called for war.
That would be ironic. But at least this week's congressional votes have clarified the issue and the new Bush Doctrine. That doctrine, not ironic at all, is this: Might makes right.
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RICHARD REEVES, author of President Nixon: Alone in the White House (October 2001), is a writer and syndicated columnist who has made a number of award-winning documentary films. His ninth book, President Kennedy: Profile of Power — now considered the authoritative work on the 35th president — won several national awards and was named the Best Non-Fiction Book of 1993 by Time. His other best selling books include Convention and American Journey: Travelling with Tocqueville in Search of American Democracy.
Recipient of the 1998 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, Reeves writes a twice-weekly column that appears in more than 100 newspapers. He is a former chief political correspondent for The New York Times and has written extensively for numerous magazines, including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Esquire and New York. |
