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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ichy Smith who wrote (200986)	9/3/2006 10:25:29 AM
From: sylvester80	Respond to of 281500

NEWS: Lack of progress in 'Axis of Evil' undermining Bush Tom Raum Associated Press Sept. 2, 2006 12:00 AM azcentral.com WASHINGTON - As the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks nears, President Bush is finding it increasingly hard to make good on foreign-policy promises or threats. The biggest source of his frustration is the "Axis of Evil," composed of Iran, North Korea and Iraq, that he warned four years ago imperiled world peace. Bush faces a daunting number of simultaneous international crises as he tries to shore up flagging support at home for the Iraq war and roll back nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea. Sectarian violence remains rampant in Iraq, suicide attacks are increasing in Afghanistan, and a truce in southern Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas is wobbly. Iran and North Korea ignore his insistence that they must not have nuclear weapons. Syria turns a deaf ear to U.S. demands that it stop supporting terrorism. advertisement A U.N. Security Council deadline came and went Thursday for Iran to stop uranium enrichment, yet veto-wielding Russia and China are resisting Bush's call for stiff sanctions. Likewise, six-nation talks to restrict North Korea's nuclear program have been stalled for months. Some analysts suggest Bush has overreached or set the bar impossibly high, laying out goals he cannot achieve while not acknowledging blunders. "Spreading democracy, eradicating terrorism, ending Iran's nuclear potential. Those are huge goals. When one makes an assessment and sees that none of these is closer to being achieved, it becomes a real problem for America's credibility," said Shibley Telhami, a Mideast scholar at the University of Maryland. Bush asserted this summer, "You know, the problem with diplomacy: It takes awhile to get something done. If you're acting alone, you can move quickly." Ever since, diplomacy has only gotten harder. The president has embarked on a series of speeches bracketing Sept. 11 and leading up to an address to the U.N. General Assembly later this month. Likening the war against terrorism to struggles against World War II and Cold War foes, Bush told an American Legion convention Thursday, "It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century." He makes another speech in the series on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. It is the administration's third public-relations offensive in less than a year to try to rally support for the war. Violence persists in Iraq as U.S. public opinion turns increasingly against the war, a big liability for Republicans on the ballot in November. More than 2,600 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began in March 2003. Although Bush has declared a nuclear Iran unacceptable and has threatened sanctions, administration officials are already talking about a potential backup plan if the Security Council doesn't go along: assembling a separate coalition of countries willing to slap economic sanctions on Iran. "There are just contradictions between goals and objectives and the reality of contemporary politics," said Stephen Wayne, a Georgetown University political scientist. "The fact of the matter is that Iran and North Korea having nuclear weapons is unacceptable. But that doesn't mean we're going to be able to do anything about it." Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, the Taliban have increased suicide attacks, borrowing tactics from militants in Iraq. The escalation in the Taliban insurgency has stoked bitter fighting. More than 1,600 people, mostly militants, have died across Afghanistan in the past four months. Bush jettisoned the go-it-alone bravado of his first term. But he is finding that working more cooperatively with European and other allies has not been particularly rewarding. And it has angered some hard-liners in his own party. Nearly all two-term presidents have trouble advancing their agendas in their second terms. Bush also has failed to get key domestic initiatives through the GOP-led Congress, including Social Security overhaul and revamping immigration laws. "What I see is a problem many administrations have, which is an unwillingness to acknowledge mistakes for fear that your political rivals will seize on them," said Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The problem is: You find yourself backed into a corner supporting strategies that don't work," Alterman said.