PERRspectives: Foreign Policy Archives

Foreign Policy Archives

	Mousavi and Reagan's Iran-Contra Fiasco As President Obama offered perhaps his strongest rhetorical support to date for opposition protesters in Iran, CQ offered a look back at the former 1980's prime minister turned accidental reformer, Mir-Hossain Mousavi. In 1983, Mousavi, CQ reported, ''had to be aware" of Iranian-sponsored attacks on the United States in Lebanon, including the devastating barracks bombing that killed 241 Marines in Beirut. As it turns out, Mousavi was also intimately involved in another of Ronald Reagan's disastrous encounters with Iran just... more Posted on June 23, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	The Obama Effect in Lebanon, the Bush Defect in Gaza In the wake of the surprisingly strong showing by the pro-Western coalition in Sunday's elections in Lebanon, the debate is raging as whether President Obama can take any credit for it. McClatchy, Newsweek, Politico, the AP and a host of others pondered whether the President's dazzling speech in Cairo and recent diplomatic efforts in Beirut amounted to an "Obama Effect" which helped blunt Hezbollah and its allies, or instead played little role in the face of competing Christian factions, Saudi... more Posted on June 9, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	After Failing Islam 101, Romney Blasts Obama Egypt Speech If Barack Obama's speech in Egypt is being criticized by both Osama Bin Laden and Mitt Romney, the President must be doing something right. After all, as Mitt's rich history of jaw-dropping mistakes and demeaning statements about Islam suggests, Governor Romney is perhaps the person least qualified to pontificate on American outreach to the Muslim world. Consider, for example, Mitt's November 2007 revelation that Muslims need not apply for positions a future Romney cabinet. Mansoor Ijaz related his exchange with... more Posted on June 4, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Israel Again Cites Secret Bush Agreement to Expand Settlements Despite encountering a wall of opposition from both the Obama administration and Congress during his recent visit to Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted he would nevertheless expand existing settlements in the West Bank to account for "natural growth." But as the Israelis again made clear, they are relying on a secret 2004 agreement with President Bush which, contradicting his administration's public statements, gave a greenlight to new settlement activity. To be sure, the line from Washington has been... more Posted on May 24, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Republicans Fume as Obama Fails to Sense Chavez' Soul That Republicans would be outraged over President Obama's handshake with the buffoonish Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez was predictable in much the same way one can forecast the daily setting of the sun. But while Obama brushed off the significance of the brief encounter at the Summit of the Americas, Nevada Senator John Ensign deemed "irresponsible" what New Gingrich blasted as bolstering the "enemies of America." Apparently, President Obama failed, as George W. Bush did with Vladimir Putin, to first look... more Posted on April 20, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Right Blasts Obama for "Humble" Foreign Policy When it comes to foreign policy, George W. Bush was right - once. During the 2000 campaign, then candidate Bush declared the world would welcome America's role if the United States was not arrogant, but a "humble nation." But now that Barack Obama in London, Paris, Prague and now Ankara is practicing to near universal acclaim what Bush only preached, the usual suspects on the right are predictably furious. First a little background. Before the advent of the disastrous and... more Posted on April 6, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	What If? President McCain in Europe Just five months after George W. Bush asked, "What's the G-20?," President Obama is drawing rave reviews for his leadership at the group's crucial summit in London. But while Obama's nimble diplomacy and deft touch is helping America and the world forget what was, it's worth contemplating what could have been under a President John McCain. While Obama this week helped resurrect America's trans-Atlantic alliance with France and Germany, back in 2003 McCain played an essential role in undermining it.... more Posted on April 3, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Obama Omits Reagan's Cake and Bible in Message to Iran On Friday, President Obama took the unusual step of sending video greetings to the people of Iran to mark the celebration of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Unsurprisingly, many on the right were quick to scoff at Obama's call for "engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect" and paean to "the true greatness of the Iranian people and civilization." But while Commentary tried to rewrite history by claiming Obama's message was "perfectly in keeping with George W. Bush's... more Posted on March 20, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Bush to Face International Criminal Court He Opposed? The week in war crimes was a busy one. As the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing about creating a truth commission to probe the wrongdoing of the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department released the first set of secret Bush DOJ memos which effectively eradicated constitutional and other legal protections for American citizens and suspected terrorists alike. And while the CIA revealed it had destroyed 92 videotapes of detainee interrogations, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant... more Posted on March 7, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Gaza Tensions Highlight Bush's Broken Peace Promise In January, George W. Bush famously predicted he would broker a Middle East peace by the end of his presidency. Now with Israel and Hamas on the brink of another confrontation in Gaza, Bush's pledge of a two-state solution is just the latest failure of his disastrous tenure in the White House. Tensions between Israeli and Hamas forces have been escalating since the expiration last week of a six-month truce negotiated by Egypt. The retaliatory tit-for-tat has included Israeli strikes... more Posted on December 26, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	Snub of Spain Just McCain's Latest Europe Bashing In one of the more bizarre developments of campaign 2008, John McCain's campaign has announced that he won't be rolling out the White House welcome mat for Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, prime minister of America's NATO ally Spain. But if McCain's posture seems like an adolescent temper tantrum aimed at a critical member of Washington's Atlantic alliance, it's hardly an isolated episode. With his vitriolic Paris and Berlin-bashing in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003, John McCain stood... more Posted on September 18, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	The Bush Doctrine for Dummies, Sarah Palin Edition No safe havens for terrorists. Preventive war. Democracy expansion. Those are the three central tenets of the Bush Doctrine, the guiding theory of unilateral American foreign and national security policy since 9/11. And today, on the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin revealed she never heard of it. Emerging Thursday from her undisclosed location for her first encounter with the press, John McCain's stealth running mate displayed a shocking... more Posted on September 11, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Bush, McCain, Rice and Romney Fail 21st Century History Test No doubt, history will not be kind to George W Bush. And to be sure, Bush is already returning the favor. Apparently stunned by the Russian assault on Georgia, President Bush forgot his invasion of "sovereign" Iraq and declared, "Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century". As it turns out, John McCain, Condoleezza Rice and Mitt Romney all failed the same test on 21st century history. While unwilling to acknowledge that he had misread Vladimir Putin's soul back... more Posted on August 24, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Presumptuous McCain Plays President on Georgia Conflict Back in July, an envious McCain campaign blasted Barack Obama for being "presumptuous" during his tour of European capitals. That charge was not only echoed in the right-wing media, but amplified by the Washington Post's Dana Milbank. But with conflict now raging between Russia and Georgia, it is the presumptuous John McCain who is pretending to be president of the United States. On Friday, the Washington Post highlighted McCain's hypocrisy in aggressively inserting himself into the crisis in the Caucusus... more Posted on August 15, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Rice Missing Again as "Putin Determined to Strike in Georgia" One of the most enduring moments of the 9/11 Commission hearings came when Condoleezza Rice casually recalled the now infamous August 6, 2001 presidential daily brief (PDB). "I believe," she said, "the title was, 'Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.'" Now almost exactly seven years later, Secretary of State Rice seems to have missed the warning signs once again. Having sent mixed messages to Tbilisi in July and on vacation as Russian armor poured into the country,... more Posted on August 13, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	CBS Does McCain's Bidding on Russia, Edwards Stories In ways large and small, CBS News continues to offer John McCain's presidential campaign a helping hand. Less than a month after Katie Couric edited out McCain's shocking confusion over the timeline of the surge in Iraq, CBS News on Monday featured Robert Kagan, not identified as McCain foreign policy adviser, as its lone analyst in a segment on the conflict in Georgia. And that came just days after CBS assessed the impact of the John Edwards' affair not on... more Posted on August 12, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Coming Soon: John McCain's Georgia Miracle The announcement this morning that Russia will halt its military operations in Georgia will almost certainly be followed by another. No doubt, the McCain campaign and its conservative amen corner will claim that John McCain's tough talk is responsible for it. As with the July release of Colombian hostages and the recent dip in oil prices, Team McCain will claim the credit. While it remains far from clear whether President Medvedev's declaration about stopping the Russia offensive in Georgia will... more Posted on August 12, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Fighting in Georgia Highlights McCain's Confusion Over Russia As the conflict over the breakaway region of South Ossetia threatens to explode into all-out war between Georgia and Russia, Republican presidential nominee John McCain weighed in. "What's most critical now," McCain said, "is to avoid further confrontation between Russian and Georgian military forces." But given his confused and contradictory statements about expelling Russia from the G8, what may be most critical to American voters is whether John McCain understands what he's talking about. According to the AP, McCain this... more Posted on August 8, 2008 \| Comments (6)

	McCain Complains About Obama's Visit to "Aging Actress" France Continuing to play the victim at the hands of the American media that love him, on Friday John McCain bashed both Barack Obama and the press. Appropriating Lance Armstrong's cancer awareness event in Columbus, McCain slammed the "throng of adoring fans" who greeted Obama in Paris. Sadly for McCain, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's glowing reception of Obama probably has less to do with media bias than with the insults McCain hurled at France in the run-up to the Iraq war.... more Posted on July 26, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Brooks Blasts Obama But Praised Bush for "Remaking the World" That the Republican water carrier and New York Times columnist David Brooks would blast Barack Obama's Berlin speech was utterly predictable. (Kevin Drum even predicted the title of the piece, "Playing Innocent Abroad.") To be sure, by slandering Obama's call to "remake the world" with epithets including "saccharine," "treacle," and "Disney," Brooks did not disappoint. Of course, even less surprising is that back in 2005, David Brooks had only glowing praise for President Bush's democratization agenda and its audacious vision... more Posted on July 25, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	"Respectful" McCain Campaign Calls Obama a Traitor, Genocide Enabler On Tuesday, Time columnist Joe Klein labeled as "shockingly unpresidential" John McCain's accusation that Barack Obama "would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign." But in announcing "I can't remember a more scurrilous statement by a major party candidate," Klein spoke a day too soon. As it turns out, McCain would top himself within 24 hours, charging that Obama would not stand up to genocide - an outrage leveled as the Democrat visited the Yad Vashem... more Posted on July 23, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	This Week in War Crimes It's been a very busy week for war crimes and war criminals. In some good news for the cause of justice and the upholding of international law, Bosnian Serb mass murder Radavan Karadzic was finally captured in Belgrade, just days after the International Criminal Court charged Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with crimes against humanity in Darfur. But for Americans, those positive developments were offset by news that the Bush administration's own war crimes trials - and potential pre-emptive pardons -... more Posted on July 23, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Where in the World is John McCain? Back in the 1980's and 1990's, millions of American children learned the basics of global geography with the software and later TV show, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? As his latest geographic blunder suggests - this time regarding the "Iraq/Pakistan border" - John McCain would have done well to tune in to the program. McCain's map reading woes couldn't have come at a worse time. Barack Obama's tour of Afghanistan and Iraq is drawing rave reviews, including from... more Posted on July 21, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	Obama Seeks to Rebuild European Alliances McCain Mocked On Thursday, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama will cap his European tour with an address in Berlin to an audience whose numbers may approach one million. But while the media will focus on Obama's call to strengthen America's trans-Atlantic alliance with France and Germany, lost no doubt will be John McCain's essential role in undermining it. As it turns out, back in 2003 John McCain stood shoulder to shoulder with the Berlin-bashers and Paris-hating purveyors of "freedom fries" and "old... more Posted on July 21, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McCain in Central America as His 1987 Assault on Nicaraguan Revealed Earlier this year, Mississippi Republican Senator Thad Cochran said the prospect of his "erratic" and "hotheaded" GOP colleague John McCain becoming President "sends a cold chill down my spine." Now we know why. As the Biloxi Sun Herald reported today, Cochran witnessed an out-of-control McCain disrupt a tense 1987 diplomatic mission in Nicaragua by grabbing an associate of Sandanista leader Daniel Ortega by the shirt collar. As Cochran told the Sun Herald, then freshman Senator McCain was part of the... more Posted on July 2, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McCain's Revisionist History on Russia and the G8 When it comes to his foreign policy, John McCain is a revisionist historian and a particularly clumsy one at that. Having asked Americans to ignore his record as the master of disaster on Iraq, John McCain similarly underwent an election-year transformation from rabid France-basher to born-again multilateralist and fawning Francophile. Now, the McCain campaign is hoping to erase any vestiges of John McCain's 2007 pledge to expel Russia from the G8. As Reuters reports, an anonymous McCain adviser essentially told... more Posted on June 26, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Olmert Deals Bush Double Defeats on Syria, Settlements On Wednesday, embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and lame duck American President George W. Bush will meet in Washington in a gathering of the walking wounded. Bush's fading hopes to secure a Middle East peace agreement before leaving office have dimmed further as scandal enveloped his Israeli counterpart. Worse still, by moving ahead with peace talks with Syria and the expansion of West Bank settlements over just the past two weks, Olmert has already dealt President Bush a double-blow.... more Posted on June 3, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Vows to Both Work with Moscow, Expel Russia from G8 In what was billed as a major address today on nuclear non-proliferation, John McCain offered the latest installment in the ongoing saga of strategic incoherence that passes for his foreign policy. Just months after calling for a "League of Democracies" and the expulsion of Russia from the G8, McCain today portrayed Russia as an essential partner in the global struggle to contain the spread of nuclear weapons. Over the past year in multiple speeches and in his November 2007 article... more Posted on May 27, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Bush Repeats Promise of Mideast Peace by January As he heads off to Israel to commemorate that nation's 60th anniversary, George W. Bush is nothing if not optimistic about the prospects for Middle East peace. Even as his negotiating partners are incapacitated by scandal and internal conflict, the lame duck President reiterated his January promise to produce an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement by the time he leaves office eight months from now. Earlier this year during his first visit to the region, Bush assured the world that his better-late-than-never... more Posted on May 13, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Bush Gave Green Light for Israeli Settlements in Secret '04 Letter A hallmark of the Bush presidency has been the public disavowal of actions already taken in secret. In just the latest episode of Bush White House duplicity, the Washington Post revealed today that President Bush in 2004 secretly approved the expansion of existing Israeli settlements on the West Bank despite his stated policy to the contrary dating back to the start of his first term. As the Post details, the letter George W. Bush personally delivered to then Israeli Prime... more Posted on April 24, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Retreats in his War on the UN The Los Angeles Times reports today that Republican nominee John McCain has begun a quiet retreat from the centerpiece of his foreign policy vision, a so-called "League of Democracies." First unveiled in May 2007 and a highlight of his March 26 national security address, McCain despite his past angry criticism of America's European allies envisioned a league of democracies which could "act with great influence and power, both economically and militarily." Unfortunately for McCain, what thrills his neoconservative backers is... more Posted on April 21, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Fawning Media Ignore McCain's Past France-Bashing Over the past two days, the fawning American media has provided rave reviews of John McCain's visit to France. While the New York Times lauded "McCain's soothing tones," Time gushed about "McCain's Paris romance" and the transformation of Franco-American relations made possible by his warm embrace of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. But lost in these accounts is John McCain's vitriolic France-bashing in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Back in 2003, John McCain stood shoulder to shoulder with the... more Posted on March 23, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	John McCain: Unfit for Command Over the past week, Democrat Hillary Clinton has proclaimed her potential Republican rival John McCain to be the gold standard of wartime presidents. But lost in Clinton's fierce barrage against Barack Obama's national security experience is the inescapable conclusion about John McCain's own suitability as Commander-in-Chief. McCain's mistake-filled record, questionable judgment, calamitous misreading of history, nonchalance about American casualties and notorious short fuse all combine to make him a dangerous choice to lead an America at war. Simply put, John... more Posted on March 10, 2008 \| Comments (7)

	Failed Bush Covert Action Fueled Hamas in Gaza Even as Israel began withdrawing its troops following its latest clashes with Hamas forces in Gaza, Vanity Fair published a shocking account of how the Bush administration bungling fueled the crisis there. Covert U.S. backing of armed Fatah units helped spark the bloody civil war that left Hamas in control of Gaza. But given that Condoleeza Rice's official State Department Middle East Peace Process timeline doesn't even mention Hamas, the disastrous Bush intervention seems much less surprising. Today's Vanity Fair... more Posted on March 3, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Gaza Violence Puts Bush Peace Promise in Peril 324. That's the number of days left for George W. Bush to deliver on his January pledge of a signed Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. But what seemed like Bush's cockeyed optimism just weeks ago now verges on fantasy. With Israeli forces and Hamas fighters battling in Gaza, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday announced the suspension of peace talks. As a result, President Bush's better-late-than-never engagement seems certain to be added to his eve-growing list of foreign policy failures. Bush's boast... more Posted on March 2, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Bush Relives 2000, Proclaims Ignorance of Medvedev In a rare moment of humility, President Bush during this morning's press conference acknowledged that he knew little about Russian President Vladimir Putin's hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev. Responding to NBC reporter David Greg's dubious assertion that neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama seemed to know much about Medvedev, Bush owned up to his own ignorance, "I don't know much about Medvedev, either." President Bush's sheepishness is justified. After all, in the run-up to his 2000 election, then candidate George W.... more Posted on February 28, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Bush Bungling on Kosovo Fueled Belgrade Riots Just yesterday, I documented George W. Bush's hilarious - and pathetic - history when it comes to Kosovo. Now with Serbian rioters storming the U.S. embassy in Belgrade, Bush's dubious grasp of the implications of an independent Kosovo doesn't seem so funny any more. That the United States would come to grief in the Balkans under Bush's leadership was foreseeable back in 1999. Bush at first refused to back President Clinton's air war against the Milosevic regime's campaign of terror... more Posted on February 21, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Dazed and Confused: Bush's Hilarious History on Kosovo Generations yet unborn will speak of the intellectual confusion of George W. Bush. But no issue may be more emblematic of President Bush's ongoing cognitive crises than Kosovo and the 1999 American intervention to end ethnic cleansing there. Speaking yesterday at, of all places, the Rwanda genocide museum, President Bush defended American inaction in Darfur, declaring that "outside forces" are "unbelievably counterproductive." Yet just 24 hours earlier, Bush announced his support for the independence of Kosovo and proclaimed Bill Clinton's... more Posted on February 20, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Bush's AIDS Politics On his five nation swing through Africa, President Bush once again revealed the two inescapable truths of his AIDS diplomacy. First, as I noted last May, Bush never hesitates to use AIDS funding to provide air cover in his failing struggle to sway global opinion. And second, even thousands of miles from home, George W. Bush will kowtow to the religious right back in the United States. Greeted in Africa by banners proclaiming "Thank you for helping fight malaria and... more Posted on February 18, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	George W. Bush's Gambling Problem While George W. Bush may be a recovering drinker, he apparently has now developed a gambling problem. Just 10 days into 2008, the Bush White House has placed big bets on everything from a Middle East peace treaty to the prospects for a U.S. recession, even his own popularity and legacy. Unfortunately, the odds are stacked against him - and us. Bush's most unlikely roll of the dice came during his just completed visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.... more Posted on January 11, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	Huckabee: Bhutto Did Not Graciously Submit to Woman's Role The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has given the White House hopefuls of both parties ample opportunities for grandstanding. While Hillary Clinton predictably played up her past relationship with Bhutto, John McCain touted his foreign policy experience. The co-chair of New Hampshire's Veterans for Rudy Giuliani declared his candidate would chase Muslims "back to their caves." But for the most disturbing - and ironic - reaction, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is in a class by himself. Bhutto was killed, Huckabee... more Posted on December 28, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Putin, Bush and Post-Presidential Riches The similarities between President Bush and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, it would appear, are seemingly endless. On Wednesday. Putin followed in Bush's footsteps as the 2007 recipient of the Time Man of the Year. And now, Putin too has grand plans to reap a financial windfall upon leaving office. As it turns out, though, the scope and scale of Putin's post-presidential avarice puts George W. Bush to shame. As we learned from Bush biographer Robert Draper back in September,... more Posted on December 22, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	On Eve of Summit, State Dept Rewrites Middle East History As Condoleezza Rice prepares to host the Middle East summit in Annapolis this week, her State Department has issued an updated historical timeline of American efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The timeline is a fascinating document both for what it reveals and what it leaves out. The rise of Hamas and its election victories are mentioned nowhere. That might just be because President Bush's hands-off policy of malign neglect is in part responsible for it. The State Department's "Middle... more Posted on November 26, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Bush Ups the Ante on Cuba In Washington today, George W. Bush reinvigorated his counterproductive and anachronistic crusade against the Castro regime in Cuba. As the New York Times reports, President Bush used an address to an invitation-only audience of Cuban exiles to proclaim "the United States will not accept a political transition in Cuba in which power changes from one Castro brother to another." But while Bush's increasingly hard line may please his brother and the monolithically Republican Cuban community in Florida, his dangerously myopic... more Posted on October 24, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Rice, Bush Split on Dictatorship One day after Vladimir Putin scolded Secretary of State Condi Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates over the administration's plans for a European missile defense system, Rice fired back at the Russian president. But before lecturing Putin on his return to authoritarianism in Russia, Rice should have first checked with her boss President Bush about his own long-held views on dictatorship. Given the White House's penchant for torture, illegal surveillance of its own citizens, suspension of habeas corpus and the... more Posted on October 14, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Romney Attacks Dem Foes' Foreign Policy Experience If nothing else, Mitt Romney is a perpetual irony machine. Yesterday, Romney added to his legend by proclaiming that his three leading Democratic opponents - all U.S. Senators - lack his foreign policy experience. More ironic still, the one-term governor and international affairs neophyte leveled the charge while speaking in Midland, Texas, home of one George W. Bush. Speaking to the Midland Republican Women's Club, Romney attacked Senators Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards for supposed ivory tower inexperience:... more Posted on September 13, 2007 \| Comments (9)

	Report: Foreign Policy "Experts" Reject the Iraq Surge In the wake of the controversial O'Hanlon/Pollack op-ed endorsing the progress of the surge in Iraq, the liberal blogosphere has been awash in commentary about the mainstream media's narrow reliance on the pro-surge viewpoints of "very serious people" constituting the "foreign policy clerisy." As it turns out, not so much. A new joint report from Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for American Progress suggests America's leading foreign policy experts see President Bush's Iraq surge as a failure. Leaving aside... more Posted on August 20, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Rove, Cheney and the Death of the Bush Doctrine Among the more tragi-comic aspects of the departure of Karl Rove is the media's renewed interest in the Bush Doctrine and its three tenets of no safe havens for terrorists, preventive war and democracy promotion. Last Monday, Rove claimed that the Bush Doctrine would live on and be the President's legacy. And this morning, the Washington Post described a frustrated President Bush stymied by what it portrayed as bureaucratic stonewalling of his ailing global democracy project. Lost in this flurry... more Posted on August 20, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Romney's Love-Hate Relationship with Hezbollah In the latest chapter in the Mitt Romney book of flip-flops, the former Massachusetts governor has revealed his love-hate relationship with Hezbollah. Just weeks after including the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite terrorist group in his laundry list of Islamic enemies real or imagined, Romney told an audience today that Hezbollah is the living model of modern health care diplomacy. Responding to a question about whether he would continue President Bush's funding to combat AIDS in Africa, Romney extolled the virtues of... more Posted on August 1, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Evangelical Civil War Over a Palestinian State? Sunday's New York Times reports a new fissure within the American evangelical movement. Already increasingly at loggerheads over global warming, evangelicals may be witnessing a new schism over the issue of a Palestinian state. And that means Pastor John Hagee and his end-of-times friends at Christians United for Israel (CUFI) are not happy. On Friday, a group of 30 evangelical leaders sent a letter to President Bush calling for a greater U.S. role in the creation of a Palestinian state.... more Posted on July 29, 2007 \| Comments (6)

	The Pakistan Raid: So Much for "No Safe Havens" Sunday's New York Times offers an explosive story of an aborted 2005 U.S. raid into Pakistan, a special forces operation designed to "snatch and grab" Ayman Al Zawahiri and other senior Al Qaeda leaders. The story, following July 2006 revelations that the CIA had previously disbanded its Bin Laden unit, gives lie to one of the central tenets of the so-called Bush Doctrine: no safe havens for terrorists. The Times piece details Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld running roughshod over then... more Posted on July 7, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	The Death of the Bush Doctrine That wheezing sound you may have heard this week amid the chaos in Gaza, the carnage in Baghdad and the conflict in Lebanon was the final gasps of the Bush Doctrine in its death throes. Just two years after the President and his neo-conservative allies basked in the glow of their self-proclaimed moment of triumph, the Bush Doctrine of no safe havens for terrorists, American preventive war and democracy promotion is discredited, discarded - and dead. The ruins of the... more Posted on June 16, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Bush Steals Clinton's Applause in Albania In Albania this weekend, President Bush learned that there is at least one place on earth where he is still welcome. Massive crowds and adoring throngs in the primarily Muslim nation came out to greet the President in Tirana to thank Bush for his support of independence for their ethnic brethren in Kosovo. But in this as in so many other areas, George W. Bush is only to happy to accept applause intended for Bill Clinton. Sadly, back in 1999... more Posted on June 11, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Bush's AIDS PR Scam On Wednesday, President Bush once again turned to AIDS for air cover in the battle for global opinion. Facing the prospect of universal condemnation by the international community for a wildly unpopular American policy, President Bush tried to change the topic and buy some global goodwill by announcing massive new U.S. AIDS funding. This time, Bush is trying to deflect criticism of American global warming policy in advance of next week's G8 summit. In 2003, of course, his problem was... more Posted on May 31, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	Two Cheers for Tony Blair British Prime Minister Tony Blair may have fatally undermined his legacy and the prospects for his Labor Party with his slavish devotion to George W. Bush and his calamitous project in Iraq. But on one small matter of rhetoric at least, the UK government may have seen the light. As the BBC reports today, Blair's International Development Secretary Tony Benn declared that British government does not use the term "global war on terror" to describe either the current conflict against... more Posted on April 16, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Keith Ellison, Syria and the Coming Conservative Smear Today's announcement that a Congressional delegation led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will meet with Syrian President Bashir Al-Assad during a four nation Middle East swing was sure to raise the ire of the White House. But because the bipartisan group includes the Muslim Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison, the predictable conservative catcalls of treason are also almost sure to follow. During the visit, the delegation will visit Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Israel, where Speaker Pelosi will address the Knesset.... more Posted on March 30, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Corporate Treason: Halliburton, Dubai and Iran With Sunday's announcement of its headquarters relocation to Dubai, Halliburton completed its transformation from mere war-profiteer to corporate traitor. The motivations for the move are simple: death and taxes. Shifting its corporate headquarters not only allows Halliburton to shaft American taxpayers. It enables Dick Cheney's old firm to comfortably expand its large and growing business with Iran and other declared terrorist enemies of the United States. The company, which raked in $2.3 billion in profits on revenue of $22.6 billion... more Posted on March 12, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	China Rising, America Adrift This week's startling revelations regarding Beijing's successful test of an anti-satellite weapon provided just the latest evidence of China's growing geo-strategic challenge to the United States. And as I first wrote almost three years ago, the Bush administration seems rudderless in the face of rapidly rising Chinese economic power, military might and diplomatic strength. For sure, the size, sophistication and aggressiveness of the Chinese military pose a direct threat to American hegemony, especially in the Pacific. The Chinese ASAT test... more Posted on January 21, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Richard Clarke's Security Challenges for 2007 In the Washington Post this New Year's Day, former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke has a compelling op-ed piece ("While You Were At War...") on the dangerous and rising opportunity costs of the Bush administration's Iraq fixation. In a nutshell, Clarke argues that while President Bush and the U.S. national security apparatus have been focused like a laser beam on "grave and deteriorating" war in Iraq, other mounting security challenges have fallen off the radar. While the emphasis may differ, Clarke's... more Posted on January 1, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Iraq and the 7 Habits of Highly Defective Presidents Since he first stepped into the Oval Office, much has been made about George W. Bush as America's CEO, our first MBA President. In the wake of the Iraq Study Group report, the nation has been eagerly awaiting President Bush's now-delayed new strategy with the baited breath surrounding a major new product announcement. But as is becoming increasingly clear, when it comes to Iraq, George W. Bush the MBA President is managing the war like a failed business. As a... more Posted on December 17, 2006 \| Comments (11)

	Reyes Joins Bush in Failing Foreign Affairs 101 On Monday, Democrats began to pay the price for the ongoing feud between Californians Nancy Pelosi and Jane Harman. In one of the first tests of her leadership, Speaker Pelosi bypassed Harman in favor of Texan Silvestre Reyes to head the House Intelligence Committee. Sadly Reyes, like candidate George W. Bush before him, failed his first test on foreign affairs. In an interview in CQ on Friday, Reyes displayed staggering ignorance of the environment in the Middle East and across... more Posted on December 11, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Jeane Kirkpatrick and the Death of the Bush Doctrine If a period of days can be said to mark the end of the era, this past week almost surely heralded the demise of the Bush Doctrine. On Wednesday, the Iraq Study Group dealt a death blow to the Bush foreign policy's three pillars of no safe havens, preemptive war and democracy expansion. But it is the passing on Thursday of the neo-conservative Cold Warrior Jeane Kirkpatrick that perhaps best symbolized the closing of the book on Bush's ill-conceived experiment... more Posted on December 11, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Iraq Document Library Adds Iraq Study Group Report The Perrspectives Iraq Document Library has been updated to include the findings of the Iraq Study Group. The document repository includes the ISG's final report as well as its executive summary. The Perrspectives Iraq Document Library also provides one-stop access to all the essential documents surrounding the Iraq war, pre-war intelligence and the hunt for weapons of mass destruction. This includes the WMD findings of the Iraq Survey Group, as well as the report of the Robb-Silbermann Commission. The Senate... more Posted on December 6, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Hutchison Backs Iraq Partition, Endorses Clinton Balkans Policy With the looming midterm elections and the imminent report from James Baker's Iraq Study Group facing them like a double-barreled shotgun, Congressional Republicans are beginning to cut and run on President Bush's failed Iraq strategy. In recent days, Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and John Warner (R-VA) have garnered most of the attention with their critiques of a "stay the course" policy that has left Iraq "drifting sideways." But it is Kay Bailey Hutchison from the President's home state of Texas... more Posted on October 20, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Thailand and the Bush Democracy Promotion Fraud This week's coup in Thailand highlighted once again the yawning chasm between rhetoric and reality when it comes to President Bush's clarion call for the global expansion of democracy. The tanks rolled in Bangkok at virtually the same moment the President lectured the United Nations about people "from Beirut to Baghdad" making "the choice for freedom." Yet the White House was silent regarding the overthrow of the democratically elected if corrupt Thaksin government. It's hardly the first time the global... more Posted on September 21, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	The Avenging Angel Smites Burns, Bolton and Steele The Avenging Angel, punisher of the rascals of the right, had yet another busy week delivering payback. Out in Big Sky country, GOP Montana Senator Conrad Burns found himself in hot water this week for insulting firefighters who had been battling blazes in his state. In the midst of a tough reelection bid against Democrat and rancher John Tester, Burns heaped scorn on the visiting Augusta Hotshots from Virginia, telling them they had "done a poor job" and "should have... more Posted on July 30, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	George W. Bush, American Idle As the crisis in the Middle East spirals out of control, President Bush jumped into action on Friday. Not by taking control of Secretary of State Rice's failed talks in Rome or by announcing a major American initiative during his press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. No, Bush mobilized the White House to stop the slaughter in Lebanon by welcoming the finalists of the Fox reality show American Idol in the Oval Office. Of course, this isn't the... more Posted on July 28, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	Bush and Putin Split This week's G8 Summit in St. Petersburg marked the end of the five-year romance between George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin. With festering disagreements over Iran, Russia's entry into the WTO, the North Korean crisis, and Moscow's descent into autocracy, tensions between Bush and Putin were on public display. Ironically, the exchange of barbs took the form of lectures on democracy, a subject about which the two leaders share limited knowledge. During a press conference on Saturday, President Putin lambasted... more Posted on July 16, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Bush's U-Turn on North Korean Talks Just one day after President Bush forcefully defended his insistence on multilateral negotiations with North Korea, the White House has apparently okayed direct talks with envoys from Pyongyang. Speaking in Seoul on Saturday, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, Bush's point man on discussions with the North Koreans, signaled his willingness to meet directly with Kim Jong Il's emissaries once the stalled six-party talks resume: "As many of you know, the Chinese have talked about putting together a six-party informal,... more Posted on July 8, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	666: Armageddon, Iran and Bush Foreign Policy June 6, 2006 (6/6/06) is the 62nd anniversary of D-Day, one of the most glorious - and bloody days - in American military history. But as the American Prospect reports, for evangelical leaders close to President Bush such as Texas Pastor John Hagee, the number 666 has another important meaning for the future of the United States. 666 is the number to be borne by the Anti-Christ in the coming battle of Armageddon, which if Hagee has his way, will... more Posted on June 6, 2006 \| Comments (6)

	Bush Flip-Flops on North Korea In the latest flip-flop from President Bush, the administration is planning to reverse course on North Korea. After five-years of a failed policy that produced a nuclear-armed North Korea, Bush will give the go-ahead for direct bilateral negotiations with Pyongyang. Apparently, the President has finally decided to listen to John Kerry's advice in 2004. The New York Times reports that President Bush will soon approve recommendations from top advisors which include "a broad new approach to dealing with North Korea... more Posted on May 18, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Iran, Bush and the Second Coming The tensions between the United States and Iran reached a new level over the past week. Following a series of announcements regarding its nuclear program and tests of new weapons systems, Tehran announced on Tuesday that it was purchasing the sophisticated Tor M1 anti-aircraft missile system from Russia. On Friday, the IAEA released its highly anticipated report on the Iranian nuclear program and its failure to meet UN Security Council deadline to stop its uranium enrichment efforts. Secretary of State... more Posted on May 1, 2006 \| Comments (21)

	James Baker: Bush's Mr. Fix It Goes to Iraq As surely as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, James Baker III reliably appears whenever George W. Bush finds himself in trouble. As the New York Times reports, the growing Iraq quagmire is no exception. Baker, the Secretary of State under the President's father, will lead a congressionally mandated team to generate new ideas for salvaging the American adventure in Iraq and with it, extricate George W. Bush from another fine mess. Baker has long... more Posted on April 24, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	Condi Rice's Faux Apology Visiting England this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered a new twis on that staple of Bush administration communications, the faux apology. Speaking to an audience of British foreign policy wonks, Rice offered a seeming mea culpa for the situation in Iraq, "I know we've made tactical errors, thousands of them I'm sure." Any notion that Rice was breaking with the Bush doctrine of infallibility was extinguished with her very next sentence. "But when you look back in history,"... more Posted on April 1, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	The Bush-Putin Soulmate Watch With the July G8 summit approaching in St. Petersburg, President Bush is facing some uncomfortable questions about his close friend and budding Russian autocrat, Vladimir Putin. Speaking to Freedom House this week, Bush brushed aside suggestions that he boycott the summit, saying the two have a "personal relationship such that there is the possibility for candid conversation" and that "I'm able to walk into the room with the President of Russia and him not throw me out." That personal relationship... more Posted on March 30, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	Abdul Rahman and the Death of the Bush Doctrine Neo-conservative founding father Irving Kristol once famously said, a neoconservative is "a liberal who's been mugged by reality." Now the once-preening adherents of the Bush Doctrine are being beaten and battered by events on the ground. First came the Sharia-influenced constitution and sectarian violence in Iraq and the Hamas government in Palestine. With the possible execution of Christian convert Abdul Rahman in Afghanistan, neo-conservatives' faith in democracy promotion in the Middle East is falling victim to their own much-hyped law... more Posted on March 25, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Bush, Dubai and the Ties That Bind I tend to agree with Kevin Drum over at the Washington Monthly that the Dubai port deal is not necessarily the grave and gathering security risk its opponents decry. (The shocking political tone-deafness is another matter altogether.) But it certainly smells bad, in no small part because of the cronyism and close ties the Bush White House - and family -have to Dubai Ports World and the government of the UAE. As has been reported previously, the Bush team is... more Posted on February 28, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	The Top 10 State of the Union Highlights Faced with negative polls and a pessimistic American nation, President Bush's just completed 2006 State of the Union Address naturally focused on the theme of "the Hopeful Society." But like the stillborn "Ownership Society" vision before it, Bush's 2006 SOTU will be remembered not for its policy program, but for its partisan political purposes. The top 10 highlights: 1. Demonize the Democrats The President continued Karl Rove's 2006 electoral strategy to once again run on national security and brand the... more Posted on January 31, 2006 \| Comments (6)

	The Chinese Economic Miracle Continues Signs of China's rapid growth into an economic superpower are everywhere. The latest indicator comes in a report from the China National Bureau of Statistics announcing a staggering 9.9% rise in Chinese GDP in 2005. With its $2.26 trillion economy, China has leap-frogged the UK, France and Italy to become the fourth largest in the world. As Perrspectives has written before, China's explosive economic growth, aggressive military upgrading and diplomatic muscle-flexing pose a myriad of challenges for the United States.... more Posted on January 25, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Yoo Da Man Karl Rove is widely credited with being "Bush's brain." But when it comes to the administration's dangerous and unprecedented expansion of presidential war powers, John Yoo is the President's mouthpiece. Only 34, Yoo, formerly of the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel and now a professor at the University of California Boalt Hall School of Law, joins Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney as one of the preeminent if unlikely policy architects in the Bush pantheon. Wolfowitz, the former Defense Undersecretary, was... more Posted on December 23, 2005 \| Comments (3)

	Foreign Aid, Self-Help Marx once remarked that historical events occur twice, the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. In the wake of the devastating earthquake that killed at least 35,000 in Pakistan and India, the United States is once again being penny wise and pound foolish. Repeating the administration's initial "stingy" response to the December Asian tsunami, Secretary of State Rice in Islamabad offered $50 million in American emergency aid. If ever the United States had an opportunity to... more Posted on October 13, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	America and China in Hot Oil It�s been a busy week for energy news in the United States. First, the average price of a gallon of unleaded gas in the United States topped $2.60. Then, a barrel of oil flirted with $68, yet another record. And Bush Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta announced minor revisions to the federal CAFE fuel efficiency standards for some light trucks and SUVs. But the most important development for the long-term health of the American energy market came from China. On Monday,... more Posted on August 25, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	What Is To Be Done: A 10-Point Plan for Iraq The debate over the American debacle in Iraq sounds more and more like the Fram oil filter ads from the 1970's. In those spots, a hard-nosed mechanic tells consumers, "you can pay me now or pay me later." The inevitable result of the current political dialogue over Iraq will be the "Fram choice" for Americans: the United States can lose now or lose later. On the right, President Bush and his fellow travelers refuse to accept accountability for selling a... more Posted on August 20, 2005 \| Comments (13)

	The Global War on Error In a rhetorical shift last week, the Bush administration unveiled a new name for its worldwide war against an abstraction. The old moniker "Global War on Terror" (or GWOT) has been exchanged for the new label, the "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism" (or G-SAVE). The results for America and the world, sadly, will be the same. This is not a case, as Shakespeare might have said, of a rose by any other name smelling as sweet. The United States is... more Posted on August 1, 2005 \| Comments (6)

	Chaos Theory: Bush & The Bolton Diversion As expected, President Bush Monday morning made a recess appointment of John Bolton to the post of UN ambassador for the United States. This, despite Bolton's inability to get Senate approval, his lie regarding his testimony in the Plame affair, and the possibility of his own involvement in a White House orchestrated smear campaign against the Wilsons. Bush's move, though, may be less about his famed loyalty or legendary intransigence, and more a diversion aimed at creating chaos. At this... more Posted on August 1, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Broken China in Washington A recurring topic here at Perrspectives has been the rise of China as a economic, military and diplomatic superpower and its impact on American security and prosperity. Since its inception, the response of the Bush administration to Beijing's emergence as American creditor, trading partner and strategic rival has alternately been silence or incoherence. This week, the pressure for policy clarity towards China ratcheted up another notch. At the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has delayed the annual report due... more Posted on July 15, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	The Coming Draft Debate In "Getting Drafty", I argued that current and emerging American national security challenges require the reinstatement of the draft and a new "hybrid model" of national service. Developments over the just the past two weeks reflect just how rapidly the pressure is building to bolster American military force levels. London Terror Attacks and the Need for Expanded Homeland Defense. Timed to coincide with the opening of the G-8 summit in Edinburgh and only one day after London won the competition... more Posted on July 7, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	Markets, Public Goods and Military Recruiting During Thursday's hearings of the Armed Services Committee, several Republican Senators blamed the usual suspects for the shortfalls in Army and Marine recruiting. James Inhofe (R-OK) lambasted unnamed Senate colleagues, adding the potential recruits are being discouraged "because of all the negative media that's out there." Kansan Pat Roberts chimed in, "with the deluge of negative news that we get daily, it's just amazing to me that anybody would want to sign up." But while these conservative Senators predictably pointed... more Posted on June 30, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Bush's Iraq Report Card President Bush delivered his much awaited speech on Iraq to an audience of soldiers assembled at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. As theater, the President's was a confident rhetorical performance. But if the intent was to rebuild American support for the Iraq war by showing accountability for the missteps to date, providing a plan for success and asking for needed sacrifices, George W. Bush failed miserably: Bush's half-hour address showed the same story-telling and disingenuousness that has characterized his presidency and... more Posted on June 29, 2005 \| Comments (5)

	Bush Iraq Speech Sneak Peak Yesterday, I offered a lengthy preview of tonight's nationally televised address on Iraq by President Bush. In the Perrspectives Guide to the Bush Address, I highlighted the Five Things Bush Must Do to rebuild public support for the conflict in Iraq. In that Guide, I also pointed out the rhetorical warning signs that Bush's rhetoric is unchanged, his plans unaltered and the prospects for American victory dimmed. Sadly, a preview of the Bush speech seems to contain them the most... more Posted on June 28, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	A Guide to the Bush Address on Iraq On Tuesday night, President Bush will take to the stage at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in a nationally televised address aimed at rebuilding public support for the war in Iraq. And well he should. Recent polls (from Gallup and Rasmussen, respectively) show that only 39% of Americans approve of the war in Iraq and that more people in the United States blame Bush (49%) than Saddam (44%) for the conflict. The torrent of revelations in 2002 pre-war British documents confirm... more Posted on June 27, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Getting Drafty: The Hybrid Model of National Service Ronald Reagan once famously said that presidents should "never say never" But when it comes to the reinstatement of the military draft, recent public opinion polls seem to suggest that the American people think "never" would be a fine idea, indeed. A recent AP/Ipsos poll showed only 27% of Americans favored conscription, with a whopping 70% opposed. As the casualties mount and recruiting woes build from the Iraq crisis, both political parties continue to make this issue moot for the... more Posted on June 26, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Bush's British Invasion On the heels of Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to the U.S. and the growing furor over the Downing Street Memo, a new British document promises to further highlight the Bush administration's deception and incompetence in preparing for the Iraq war. The Washington Post reports that just two days before the Downing Street meeting, a July 21, 2002 intelligence briefing ("Iraq: Conditions for Military Action") showed British officials incredulous with the lack of planning for post-war Iraq by the Bush... more Posted on June 12, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	U.S. BS at the OAS The President and Secretary of State Rice took their Bush Doctrine cure-all to the meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Miami this week. Unfortunately for them, the assembled OAS delegates showed no interest in drinking the Bush Kool-Aid. While President Bush touted the benefits of his troubled Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), Condoleezza Rice tried the make the case for democracy promotion and fighting against instability in countries like Bolivia, Ecuador and Haiti: "We must act... more Posted on June 7, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	One Man, One Vote, One Time? Over the past two months, much of the euphoria over the supposed success of the Bush Doctrine has dissipated. Freedom may be "God's gift to humanity," as President Bush likes to say. In the Middle East, though, it just may not be the gift that keeps on giving. In the wake of its spectacularly successful elections in January, Iraq took three months to form a government and is engulfed by an ever-bloodier insurgency. In Lebanon, despite the Syrian pull-out, political... more Posted on June 6, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	French Twist The rejection of the EU constitution by French and Dutch voters this week has raised a host of questions about the future of the European project. But while Euro-optimism absorbed a body blow, Americans may be just waking up to the prospect of a transformed alliance. Perrspectives has written repeatedly about the rise of the European Union as a economic and strategic counterweight to the United States. That development is tranforming the trans-Atlantic partnership, as growing economic competition (for example,... more Posted on June 3, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Single Sorcerers The ongoing Newsweek saga has given the Bush White House and its right wing jihadists what they see as a golden opportunity. Their simple goal is to use the Newsweek case and the Rathergate episode before it to wage a full scale assault on the credibility and objectivity of "mainstream press." In its place, they seek to substitute their own manufactured, alternate reality. Central to this campaign is the assault on media reliance on anonymous, single-sources. As Scott McClellan put... more Posted on May 19, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	The Pot Calls the Kettle Irresponsible The Bush administration and their amen corner continue to rain down hellfire on Newsweek magazine for the Koran desecration flap. Scott McClellan called it "irresponsible" and Ohio Representative and Tom Delay crony Bob Ney termed it "criminal." As I cautioned yesterday, the administration would do well not to overplay its hand. The image of the United States around the Muslim world was already deeply tarnished. And American credibility, after Abu Ghraib, Iraq WMD, and too many other instances to list... more Posted on May 17, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	A Black Eye for Vicente Fox President Vincente Fox of Mexico did not help himself or President Bush with his comments about African-Americans this weekend. In Puerto Vallarta Friday, Fox declared that, "There's no doubt that Mexican men and women � full of dignity, willpower and a capacity for work � are doing the work that not even blacks want to do in the United States." His insensitive remarks come at a sensitive time for Mexican-American relations. George Bush is on the defensive over immigration reform... more Posted on May 16, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Mythology as History: Yalta and the Bush Doctrine President Bush's powerful May 7 speech in Riga marking the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany has created a firestrom across the political spectrum. Conservatives, of course, loved the speech, appreciating any diminution of the Soviet role in the war, but especially the none-too-subtle assault on FDR. Liberals predictably (and I would argue, rightly) objected to Bush's butchering of history, especially his grotesque equation of Yalta with Munich and the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. What commentators on both... more Posted on May 15, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	China Syndrome In his press conference last night, President Bush paid scant attention to China. Outside of the contexts of the North Korean nuclear crisis and climbing global demand for energy, the administration has been virtually silent about China's growing superpower status. The rapid transformation of China into a formidable strategic competitor for the United States may not be on George Bush's radar screen, but it is for just about everyone else. In the June issue of The Atlantic, Robert Kaplan and... more Posted on April 30, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Martin Peretz: The New Republican In the April 11th issue of The New Republic, Martin Peretz (�The Politics of Churlishness�) takes liberals to task for what he sees as their inability to show even grudging respect for President Bush�s recent successes in the Middle East. Sadly, Peretz reads too much into the supposed triumph of the Bush Doctrine, while not reading enough into the liberal critique of it. For starters, most liberals, like most Americans, are genuinely pleased with the turn of events in Iraq,... more Posted on April 8, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Iraq WMD Commission Whitewash As expected, the President's commission on pre-war intelligence regarding Iraqi's weapons of mass destruction offers a scathing critique of the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. (The full report and other commission background can be found here; other Iraq/WMD documents are also available in the Perrspectives Document Library.) Also as expected, the report essentially absolved the Bush administration of any blame for its policies. The mandate of the panel, led by Oliver North's appellate liberator Judge Lawrence Silberman, did not... more Posted on March 31, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	The Myth of the Bush Doctrine These are pretty heady days for the White House and its fellow travelers. In Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Ukraine, Egypt and even Saudi Arabia, movements for popular, democratic change seem to rule the day. The wisdom, rightness and prescience of the Bush Doctrine, they say, have been vindicated. In triumphant and self-congratulatory tones, the President and his allies are taking credit for the sweeping reform throughout the Middle East. President Bush proclaimed, "Freedom is on the march." The National Review's Rich... more Posted on March 9, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Better Lucky Than Good Sometimes you just have to give credit where credit is due. Like Chauncey Gardner in Being There, right now everything in the Middle East seems to be coming up roses for George W. Bush - and the United States. But like Chauncey, Bush the born-again democratic idealist has a series of happy accidents to thank for his success. The combination of the death of Arafat, Viktor Yushchenko's dioxin-tainted soup, bungling Syrian intelligence agents, and an all-powerful Shi'ite cleric may have... more Posted on March 4, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Euro Tripping This week, most of the American press has focused on President Bush's European "charm offensive" and his prospects to "mend fences" with our NATO allies. But lost in the stories of Chirac the "good cowboy", "ridiculous" plans for Iran, and scolding Putin is the overriding issue of trans-Atlantic relations today: The Bush administration fundamentally does not understand the rise of the European Union an an economic and political superpower, a transformation that is altering the trans-Atlantic partnership. American policy belies... more Posted on February 23, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Soulmates Kicking off his European tour in Brussels, President Bush took Russian President Vladimir Putin to task for his steps away from democratic reform. Bush bluntly asserted that in order to take its place among the trans-Atlantic community, Russia "must renew a commitment to democracy and the rule of law." Clearly, Bush sent his friend a clear warning regarding his centralization of power, crackdown on independent media and crony capitalism. As the saying goes, though, it takes one to know one.... more Posted on February 22, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Fried Rice: Condi's Coming 9/11 Firestorm On the same day that the North Korean announcement of its nuclear weaponry put the Bush administration on the defensive, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice got a double-dose of blowback from her 9/11 dissembling. First, the release of a previously classified report by the National Archives shows that the FAA had been warned repeatedly of the threat of terrorist hijackings between April and September, 2001. Even a slew of redactions, the Auugust 2004 report (which the administration held up) details... more Posted on February 11, 2005 \| Comments (3)

	On the Wrong Side of History Once in a rare while, tectonic historical change occurs with the span of only few days. The dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall heralding the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, was one of those watershed moments. And for many Americans, the events of the last 10 days of January, with the Rice confirmation, the Bush second inaugural, and the Iraqi elections, represent a democratic tide sweeping the Middle East, a sea change the whole world is watching. Sometimes, though,... more Posted on February 1, 2005 \| Comments (5)

	2004 State of the Union Flashback With President Bush's 2005 State of the Union approaching, my 2004 SOTU-eve critique of Bush's so-called Ownership Society still stands. State of Disunion Even with his shaky State of the Union address and dipping approval ratings, President Bush unfortunately remains in a strong position for the 2004 election. Saddam is captured, GDP is surging, and his reelection war chest has a staggering $100 million in the bank. And while his Democratic foes battle each other in primary contests across the... more Posted on January 31, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	George Bush: Making the World Safe for Democracy? In the aftermath of President Bush' second inauguration, there is a widespread consensus that taken literally, his address would commit the United States to a global campaign of democratic proselytization. American friends and foes, puppets and pawns, the wistful and the wary, all are understandably concerned. Before starting a panic over the President's apparent Wilsonian idealism on steroids, it is worth remembering that Bush has not always been the outspoken proponent of democracy, individual liberty and human freedom: "So it... more Posted on January 22, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Doing Well by Doing Good: The American Opportunity in Global Tragedy In the wake of the devastating tsunami that killed thousands and threatens hundreds of thousands more across Asia, much of the coverage and debate in the United States has centered around whether or not the initial U.S. $35 million aid package is, in the words of U.N emergency coordinator Jan Egeland, "stingy." Lost in the petty bickering and wounded American pride is a unique opportunity for the United States to change its badly weakened global image by leading and funding... more Posted on December 30, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Denial is not a River in Iraq Speaking of cognitive dissonance, the Bush administration continues to merrily amble forward as the situation in Iraq degrades and the stench of American abuse of prisoners grows. Earlier today, President Bush blandly stated that "free elections will proceed as planned." . At the same time he was issuing this pablum, the New York Times and The Guardian reported that a cable from the departing CIA station chief in Baghdad alerted Washington to the rapidly deteriorating situation on the ground in... more Posted on December 7, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Maple Leaf Rag President Bush's "reaching out" visit to Canada is getting a chilly reception from our neighbors in the Great White North. Protesters holding signs simply stating "please leave" bring back memories of the Chretien cabinet minister who called Bush "a moron." It wasn't always this way. Before the current sad state of affairs, then candidate Bush received the endorsement of a Canadian prime minister. Unfortunately for Bush, this prime minister, like so much of what passes for truth in the Bush... more Posted on November 30, 2004 \| Comments (2)

	Greenbacks and Greenspan Slowly but surely, Americans may be waking up to the fact that our twin budget and trade deficits are a lurking danger. It was just so surprising to hear Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan be so utterly cavalier about the downward pressures on the dollar: "It seems persuasive that, given the size of the U.S. current account deficit, a diminished appetite for adding to dollar balances must occur at some point." The impact of Greenspan's unusually candid assessment was immediate. The... more Posted on November 19, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Colin Powell's Lost Soul With his resignation today, Secretary of State Colin Powell is being warmly remembered as a voice of moderation within an increasingly immoderate Bush administration, a calm and subtle diplomat seeking to build consensus and coalition. Compared to the arrogance of Rumsfeld, the incompetence of Rice and the hubris of the President, these tributes seem fitting. On the merits, however, I believe history will be much less kind to Powell, a man who unquestionably dedicated his life to the service of... more Posted on November 16, 2004 \| Comments (21)

	The Axis of Evil Endorses W Foreign leaders continue to line up behind George Bush in the 2004 election. Joining Russia's nascent czar Vladimir Putin as a W endorser is Hasan Rowhani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran's top security decision-making body. Unlike Bush, this leader from the Axis of Evil spoke seemed to speak honestly: "We haven't seen anything good from Democrats...We do not desire to see Democrats take over." The American people can only conclude that Iran, with its budding nuclear weapons... more Posted on October 20, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Bush's Foreign Endorsements Back in the spring, conservatives thundered against John Kerry when he mentioned in passing that many foreign leaders had confided to him that they wanted to see him replace George Bush as President. Now, those same conservatives have remained silent as Russian president Vladimir Putin endorsed Bush's reelection this week. Putin, the one-time KGB chief and budding Russion autocrat, stated that a Bush defeat would be a victory for the terrorists: "Any unbiased observer understands that attacks of international terrorist... more Posted on October 20, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Bush's Foreign Endorsements Back in the spring, conservatives thundered against John Kerry when he mentioned in passing that many foreign leaders had confided to him that they wanted to see him replace George Bush as President. Now, those same conservatives have remained silent as Russian president Vladimir Putin endorsed Bush's reelection this week. Putin, the one-time KGB chief and budding Russion autocrat, stated that a Bush defeat would be a victory for the terrorists: "Any unbiased observer understands that attacks of international terrorist... more Posted on October 20, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	The Bush Top 10 Flip Flop List Four years ago, George W. Bush accepted the Republican nomination for President, and famously set the moral tone - and expectations for his presidency: "So when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not only uphold the laws of our land, I will swear to uphold the honor and dignity of the office to which I have been elected, so help me God." It has not, of course, worked out that way. As we pointed out... more Posted on October 1, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Five Global Challenges for a New American Internationalism That giant sucking sound you may have heard last week was the last vestiges of American unilateralism spinning down the drain. Perhaps barely noticed in the din and drumbeat of the Reagan commemoration, the short and unhappy life of President Bush�s policy of �America Alone� mercifully came to an abrupt halt. In securing passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution recognizing the new Iraqi Interim Government, the Bush administration unwittingly pronounced the death of an idea whose time had never... more Posted on June 18, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Cognitive Dissonance, Terrorism and 9/11 The Richard Clarke firestorm and the public sessions of the 9/11 commission have gripped the nation, redefined the presidential campaign, and left the American people continuing to search for the truth behind the September 11 disaster. The families of the 9/11 victims in particular are looking for answers: how did the United States fail to anticipate and prevent Al Qaeda�s September 11 attacks and who is responsible for those failures? The work of the 9/11 commission suggests that conclusive answers... more Posted on March 30, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Are We More Secure? As we mark the one-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, George W. Bush has made national security the foundation of his reelection effort. To no one�s surprise, the self-proclaimed �war president� is running on a theme of �steady leadership for changing times.� Given the traditional advantage the GOP has enjoyed with voters on defense and national security issues, the formula for electoral success seems straightforward: �President Bush made America safer.� Except that it�s not true. John Kerry and... more Posted on March 18, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	The Opt Out Society, Part VI: The Democrats' New American Bargain in Action In 2004, Democrats must answer the GOP assault on national unity with a program based on reciprocity, responsibility and opportunity that calls on the best in Americans and their government. On national security, Democrats must not only pass the threshold of credibility, they must demonstrate clear leadership compared to the GOP. There is no better way to do this, substantively and symbolically, than through national service. While the volunteer army currently seems sufficient to fight foes abroad such as Afghanistan... more Posted on February 9, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	The Smallness of King George Robert F. Kennedy once said, "Richard Nixon represents the dark side of the American spirit." Well, RFK never met George W. Bush. Not since the days of Tricky Dick has the White House seen such a secretive, paranoid and vengeance-filled occupant. President Bush may not have the Plumbers, CREEP (the Committee to Re-elect the President), or the "Enemies List", but in its essence his administration has all the same hallmarks as the Nixon team. The politics of retribution, secrecy, and... more Posted on February 9, 2004 \| Comments (0)