PartyTime, re: "Who, among you, believe Bush's policy is causing a rise in terrorism?"
The steps that were undertaken immediately after 9/11 to remove Afghanistan as a terrorist haven, to seek out and dry up terrorist funding and to initially secure the cooperation of many of the nations of the world did, in fact, DECREASE, the level of terrorism. There were other steps that COULD have led to further decreases in the level of terrorism but they were sidetracked by partisanship and underfunding. I include the "homeland security" apparatus in that category. When the post 9/11 terrorism issue was manipulated to create the Iraqi "crisis," the positives in the fight against terrorism were overwhelmed by a flood of terribly bad decisions that left us with an even BIGGER problem and POORER long term prospects in the war against terror.
There's no question that his "preemptive strike" and Iraqi policies are causing, and will continue to cause, a net RISE in the level of terrorism. Saddam Hussein was many bad things but one thing he wasn't, he wasn't a supporter of Islamic Fundamentalist terror groups. He had killed not only radical clerics, but also many members of their families. The level of fear, hatred and distrust between him and the radical fundamentalists was substantial.
When we invaded Iraq and destroyed every vestige of government there, we did more for the cause of terrorism in Iraq than the terrorists could ever have hoped to do for themselves. In one swoop we removed the most brutal and effective deterrent to their existence in Iraq and, by failing to reinstall any form of effective government, we empowered those who, like the fundamentalists, had organization, backing, resources and the will to exercise power or to create chaos.
To make matters even worse, we invaded and occupied in direct contravention of the will of most nations of the world, and against the strident calls of most populations in the world. In the greed of the moment we tried to gain control of a huge percentage of the world's oil resources and the huge contracts and profits that went with them. We tried to monopolize the contracts on the rebuilding of Iraq with the idea that we could pay for it out of oil revenues. We articulated a "generation...decades-long," process in Iraq where the control of it's oil wealth and a share of the profits would be under our supervision.
In the process we demeaned the role and future of the United Nations and we proclaimed our "right" to act unilaterally without regard to international law.
We are now left with the fear, distrust and disdain of many NATIONS, and the red-hot anger of a huge percentage of the POPULATIONS of the third world, especially those populations that tend to be more radical and more dangerous.
To cap it off, we have walked into an ambush in Iraq that is so deadly that the insurgents, terrorists and criminals in Iraq can freely demonstrate not only that they are operational, BUT ALSO THAT THEIR TECHNIQUES ARE DEADLY EFFECTIVE AGAINST OUR MOST SOPHISTICATED STREET WEAPONRY. The "little guy" is slaying Goliath with a stone from a sling and all of the would-be terrorists are cheering our every death. It's heady stuff for them and even Rumsfeld is left wondering if we are creating more terrorists than we are capturing and killing. The answer is clearly "yes."
That's the short-intermediate term. Long term it's even worse. We've now decided that since we can't identify the terrorists (read as the locals aren't cooperating with helpful "intelligence,") we'll use more force and use it more indiscriminately. Thus we now bomb buildings that are UNDER OUR CONTROL, and use bombs and rockets on human targets that MAY be enemies. The world is watching and the level of fear, anger and resolve against us is rising.
To cap it off, there is no apparent effort to identify effective, long term, policies to regain the good will of the world's peoples and to win their hearts and minds in the fight against those who would use murderous terror against civilian populations.
The Bush approach to terror is doomed to failure. He has used terror as an excuse to achieve other goals that the American public would not otherwise tolerate and in doing so he has wounded this nation severely. He has little appreciation for the strength and resolve of our terrorist enemies and he has no appreciation for the number of potential terrorists waiting in the wings, maybe because it is inconceivable to HIM that ordinary men and women are capable of sacrificing THEIR lives for ideas. His past decisions in his personal life indicate that he would find that notion virtually incomprehensible.
Like all bullies who think they can cow others into submission, he will find that there is ultimately a powerful backlash. When we look back on this era and evaluate the effectiveness of the Bush policies on terrorism and nation "building," the lesson will be that nations armed themselves with more powerful weapons, alliances sprang up to oppose the unbridled exercise of military power by America and that terrorists throughout the world became a major counter force to the "preemtive" power of America.
Hopefully we will turn from this path before it is a total disaster. Hopefully we will elect a president who will surround himself with people of character, diplomacy and, most importantly, good judgement. It may not be too late to put a different face on the most powerful nation in the world and begin to find a path to peace. |
