Bush Doctrine is dead:[Final Edition]
JAMES PINKERTON. Cincinnati Post. Cincinnati, Ohio: Jul 25, 2003. pg. A.18.0
Author(s): JAMES PINKERTON
Article types: Editorial
Dateline: Ohio
Publication title: Cincinnati Post. Cincinnati, Ohio: Jul 25, 2003. pg. A.18.0
Copyright Cincinnati Post Jul 25, 2003
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Bush Doctrine: born 2002, died 2003.
That is to say, now that the war fever has cooled down, now that the illusion that America could do whatever it wished -- and have the rest of the world like it -- is being put back in the deep- freeze of foolish ideas, American foreign policy is becoming normal again.
The Bush Doctrine was formally enunciated in a Sept. 20, 2002, document, "National Security Strategy of the United States." It declared -- bragged might be a better word -- that the United States would, in effect, be the world's policeman. That is, American intelligence would scan the world for dangers, instantly identifying trouble spots. Next, the U.S. military would go in and decapitate the offending regimes with surgical precision. Meanwhile, the people in those countries would all cheer the liberating Americans.
Needless to say, the Bush Doctrine was an LSD-like hallucination and, like a drug trip, it was fun while it lasted. Fun, that is, for the stateside trippers -- although not so fun for those who made the physical trek to Iraq.
One who sees the situation soberly is the overall commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Gen. John Abizaid.
American forces are now fighting a "classic guerrilla-type campaign," he conceded last week. Sad to say, that's normal, too. In these post-colonial times, not many Third World countries welcome invaders. It might have been possible to imagine a dancing-in-the- streets scenario if we had found weapons of mass destruction and exited immediately, but now American forces seem to be staying so that President Bush doesn't have to admit he made a mistake in the first place.
And so, rather than being some watershed of history, Operation Iraqi Freedom looks like something to be freed from.
As part of the extrication process, the United States is once again engaged in normal diplomatic missions. Although America went into Iraq in defiance of world opinion, it is now looking for allies to send peacekeepers to Iraq. But since few countries seem willing to put their men at risk without a lot of prodding, the White House is even giving consideration to asking the U.N. Security Council for a new resolution.
Such a resolution, of course, would come at enormous cost to us.
Our friends, the French, for example, would insist on language that would embarrass Washington into admitting that it had over- reached. In the international haggling that would follow, America would have to eat some crow -- and shell out some dough. And what's not normal about that?
Indeed, around the world, things are going back to normal.
As a candidate, Bush went out of his way to dismiss the idea that Africa was of any great interest to the United States. But now, like other presidents before him, he travels there, spends billions of dollars there and even prepares to send peacekeeping troops there.
Previous presidents might also note with ironic bemusement the forlorn normalcy of Bush's current Israel-Palestine mission.
One key idea of the neocons who concocted the Bush Doctrine was that war with Iraq would so "shock and awe" the Arabs that they would give up terrorism in the West Bank and Gaza. Instead, the violence continued, and there's no particular reason to think a peace deal is any closer today than it was six months ago -- or three years ago. Even so, Bush is sitting in meetings with Israelis and Palestinians negotiating over non-negotiable boundaries and improbable timetables. In other words, things are back to normal there, too.
But what about weapons of mass destruction? After all, the argument, post-9/11, was that WMDs had changed everything. But look around: The administration isn't plotting unilateral action against Iran or North Korea; it's plotting multilateral action. To be sure, the current Bush approach of doing it the old-fashioned way -- with allies, with the United Nations -- might change. But if the Bush people think they can deploy the Bush Doctrine -- complete with moral clarity and factual opacity -- then they're still tripping.
The utility of the Bush Doctrine didn't last even a year. It will be remembered as a short, strange trip for its creators. But it will be remembered as a long, hard slog for those who were sent to Iraq.
James Pinkerton is a Newsday columnist. |
