Not to mention the relationship with Russia, Afghanistan, and China now that the USA is easing off the stupidly belligerent attitude towards them.
We can agree to disagree on this Maurice, but I think the incident where the US navy spy plane was forced down, and how Bush reacted to it, was a VERY important paradigm to China. They recognized that this president was NOT going to be brow-beaten, or forced to retreat over such petty incidents. Nor would he hold a grudge over them...
Very important stuff there, IMO.. He basically showed them that he was a "reasonable guy" but that pushing him too far would be detrimental to Chinese interests.
There is a very fine line between displaying the willingness to back your foreign policy with military force, and actually blundering into a situation where you are required to use force.
I think Bush is doing well on that basis, thus far.
All we have to do is look to see how he has forced the UN to do it's job. That would NOT have happened within the credible threat of the US utilizing military force. And even now, when NO UN inspectors have yet inspected one of Saddam's presidential palaces over the past 2 months, the US is required to "push" the UN inspection process along by stating that the US will lead a "coalition of the willing" to overthrow a non-compliant Saddam...
I mean.. 2 months and we have only 1, 1 1/2 hour stop at one of Saddam's presidential palaces by the inspectors??
They call that an "inspection"??
Btw, VERY NICE find on the Chinese/Engineer connections...
But engineers are easy to flumux, when you put them in charge of large quantities of illogical people. It will be interesting to see how they perform...
Hawk |
