Threats, Promises and Lies
February 25, 2003
The New York Times
By PAUL KRUGMAN
So it seems that Turkey wasn't really haggling about the price,
it just wouldn't accept payment by check or credit card. In return for support of an
Iraq invasion, Turkey wanted - and got - immediate aid, cash on the barrelhead,
rather than mere assurances about future help. You'd
almost think President Bush had a credibility problem.
And he does.
The funny thing is that this administration sets great store by credibility.
As the justifications for invading Iraq come and go - Saddam is developing
nuclear weapons; no, but he's in league with Osama; no, but he's
really evil - the case for war has come increasingly to rest on credibility. You see,
say the hawks, we've already put our soldiers in position, so we must attack
or the world won't take us seriously.
But credibility isn't just about punishing people who cross you.
It's also about honoring promises, and telling the truth. And those are areas where
the Bush administration has problems.
Consider the astonishing fact that Vicente Fox, president of Mexico,
appears unwilling to cast his U.N. Security Council vote in America's favor.
Given Mexico's close economic ties to the United States,
and Mr. Fox's onetime personal relationship with Mr. Bush, Mexico should have been more
or less automatically in America's column. But the Mexican president
feels betrayed. He took the politically risky step of aligning himself closely
with Mr. Bush - a boost to Republican efforts to woo Hispanic
voters - in return for promised reforms that would legalize the status of
undocumented immigrants. The administration never acted on those reforms,
and Mr. Fox is in no mood to do Mr. Bush any more favors.
Mr. Fox is not alone. In fact, I can't think of anyone other than
the hard right and corporate lobbyists who has done a deal with Mr. Bush and not
come away feeling betrayed. New York's elected representatives stood side
by side with him a few days after Sept. 11 in return for a promise of
generous aid. A few months later, as they started to question
the administration's commitment, the budget director, Mitch Daniels, accused them of
"money-grubbing games." Firefighters and policemen applauded
Mr. Bush's promise, more than a year ago, of $3.5 billion for "first responders"; so
far, not a penny has been delivered.
These days, whenever Mr. Bush makes a promise - like his new
program to fight AIDS in Africa - experienced Bushologists ask, "O.K., that's the
bait, where's the switch?" (Answer: Much of the money will be diverted from
other aid programs, such as malaria control.)
Then there's the honesty thing.
Mr. Bush's mendacity on economic matters was obvious even
during the 2000 election. But lately it has reached almost pathological levels. Last
week Mr. Bush - who has been having a hard time getting reputable economists
to endorse his economic plan - claimed an endorsement from the
latest Blue Chip survey of business economists. "I don't know what he was
citing," declared the puzzled author of that report, which said no such
thing.
What Americans may not fully appreciate is the extent to which similarly
unfounded claims have, in the eyes of much of the world, discredited the
administration's foreign policy. Whatever the real merits of the case
against Iraq, again and again the administration has cited evidence that turns
out to be misleading or worthless - "garbage after garbage after garbage,"
according to one U.N. official.
Despite his decline in the polls, Mr. Bush hasn't fully exhausted his reservoir of trust
in this country. People still remember the stirring image of
the president standing amid the rubble of the World Trade Center,
his arm around a fireman's shoulders - and our ever-deferential, protective
media haven't said much about the broken promises that followed.
But the rest of the world simply doesn't trust Mr. Bush either to honor his
promises or to tell the truth.
Can we run a foreign policy in the absence of trust? The
administration apparently thinks it can use threats as a substitute. Officials have said that
they expect undecided Security Council members to come around out of fear
of being on the "wrong" side. And Mr. Bush may yet get the U.N. to
acquiesce, grudgingly, in his war.
But even if he does, we shouldn't delude ourselves: whatever credibility
we may gain by invading Iraq is small recompense for the trust we have lost
around the world.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times
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