President Bush: Foreign Policy
By Gabrielle Reilly

We learnt through the Clinton Administration that these rogue states, such as North Korea, do not keep their word and will take our $2 billion to actually assist them develop their nuclear weapons program and threaten world peace.  We learnt that 12 years of negotiation and the breaking of UN resolution after resolution still does not have the “Saddams” of the world complying.  If 12 years wasn’t long enough for the UN to resolve this global threat, how long is?  Why is time even important?  The longer a rogue state is left to potentially secretly develop weapons of mass destruction, the larger the threat they become.  Take North Korea for example.  North Korea is a lot more dangerous now they actually have developed the nuclear weapons than they were prior to having developed nuclear weapons.  The UN’s “non-action” is as large a risk to global stability as war is to prevent countries not complying with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the UN.  Where was Saddam’s responsibility to prevent war by complying with UN inspectors?   Saddam was the one person who could have very easily stopped the invasion of Iraq by complying.  The lesson the world needs to learn from this is diplomacy alone with rogue states also causes a global threat.  Consequences.  There have to be real consequences enforced by the international community.  Unfortunately, talking alone does not ensure global peace as we also learnt with Hitler.

The Clinton Administration’s diplomatic foreign policy was Plan A: war should never be the first answer.  Without the Clinton Administration’s Plan A being implemented for eight years prior, the national security threat evident after 9/11, and the UN’s 12 years of negotiations with Saddam, the Bush foreign policy of pre-emptive strike could never have possibly been rationalized or justified. 

So President Bush, for the first time, made the cost of supporting terrorist regimes and organizations that threaten peace, greater than the price of not supporting terrorists or even turning a blind eye to terrorist organizations.  Political leaders around the world had been too scared for both their lives and political careers to address the internal problems with terrorist organizations. The money that was flowing was also a big incentive.  With the consequences of Saddam’s actions as an example, we are seeing for the first time in decades, rogue countries beginning to comply with international regulations voluntarily without the use of force.  Of course we can not take this at face value and need to see concrete action and transparency.  So what are some of the successes we have seen in recent months that are changing the world view in President Bush’s favor?

Of course the capture of Saddam was a big win to assist the rebuilding of Iraq.  That surely does not solve all the security problems but offers assurance to the Iraqi people that they now have the opportunity to build a better life for them selves without the fear of Saddam returning to power.

Libya admitted voluntarily to a secret weapons of mass destruction program and has offered to dismantle it after witnessing the capture of Saddam.  This was an entirely unexpected admission and offers hope as it triggered several other countries to follow suit.  President Bush’s threat of real punishment is helping to maintain peace.  Timeline of US relations with Libya.

Pakistan turned over its nuclear scientist for investigation on charges of supplying nuclear weapons technology to foreign countries with sales of arms sanctions.  President Musharraf for the first time is standing stronger against terrorism in his own country. 

Pakistan and India are engaging in peace talks for the first time since the heated 2002 relations.  President Bush’s push for Pakistani President Musharraf to take a strong hand against terrorism, particularly in regard to Kashmir, has assisted to make these talks possible.  As an exciting bonus, we may once again witness India and Pakistan play cricket against each other.  The border has begun to ply open between the countries.

North Korea has unexpectedly announced it will dismantle its nuclear weapons program, of course with conditions, but at least they have begun negotiating again.

Iran and US relations have mended marginally as President Bush sends aid to assist with the catastrophe of the earthquake in Bam and Iran accepts the aid.  Notably, Iran refused aid offered from Israel.

Syria is attempting to improve ties with the U.S. after fears they may be invaded after Iraq.

In the past month President Bush has had great success even with countries that opposed the war such as France, Germany, and Russia as they have agreed to waive all, or a portion of, Iraq’s foreign debt.

After the war on Iraq we saw the Bush Administration implement the equivalent of the Marshall Plan which, besides the bad press, is being implemented far more effectively in a shorter amount of time than it was after WWII in Germany.  Over 22 countries are helping with the effort, so the assumption that the U.S. is doing it alone is entirely inaccurate and only circulates for sensationalism.   Turmoil is expected immediately after the fall of a regime and war.  It will take time to rebuild Iraq.  Rebuild a free Iraq.  President Bush has assured the Iraqi people he will assist in rebuilding their country.

The U.S. has agreed to hand over power to the Iraqi interim government in June, which also demonstrates America has no intentions of being occupiers, but liberators.  It assures the international community President Bush’s primary motivation for invading Iraq was for national security and freedom for the Iraqi people.

During the war with Iraq we saw a civil war break out in Liberia.  Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was not prepared to step down to end the war until Bush said he was sending in troops.  Charles Taylor left the following week voluntarily, taking asylum in Nigeria and only few US troops even needed to show up to assess the uprising that threatened to break over the border into the newly stabilized Sierra Leone.  Peace was achieved by the threat of President Bush’s real punishment but without the need to use force.

We are yet to see the international community’s reaction to the newly announced Bush Immigration Plan. 

The Palestinian/Israeli conflict is still a challenge the international community faces.

Although the world was not ready for the Texan cowboy way of shooting from the hip, for the first time in a decade the world appears to be moving in the right direction.  Of course we have great challenges ahead, but the results we have seen in the past few months are a step in the right direction.  Obviously only time will tell the real and lasting results…  What I do know is the way the world was evolving through the '90s led to an almost inevitable risk of the use of weapons of mass destruction and constant assaults on civilians around the world by terrorist organizations.  A strong hand was needed preferably by the UN, but since that failed; thankfully the coalition put everything on the line to regain control of an out of control world.  President Bush’s foreign policy may have been exactly what was needed for a show down.

END

HOPE

Hope is the companion of power,
and the mother of success;
for who so hopes strongly,
has within him the gift of miracles.

- Samuel Smiles