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Has George W Bush made the world safer?« Thread Started on M

Daily newsbrief journal for March 2006, also see http://www.usdemocrats.com/brief for a global 100-page perpetual brief and follow twitter @usdemocrats


Has George W Bush made the world safer?« Thread Started on M

Postby admin » Fri Jan 27, 2012 7:53 am

Has George W Bush made the world safer?« Thread Started on Mar 20, 2006, 8:46pm » --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Has George W Bush made the world safer?William Lucie-Smith Monday, March 20th 2006read source: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl ... 9558George W Bush's presidency of the United States began on January 20, 2001. Almost immediately he was faced with the crisis of the cowardly terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. These attacks shocked the world because of their truly random and vicious murder of innocents for no obvious and immediate objective. Even the IRA or the PLO or Hamas have objectives and demands that are understood if not condoned. This Al Qaeda attack however appeared to be the epitome of mindless violence with no particular purpose or objective other than murder of innocents and was completely unexpected by almost everybody. Not many of us were familiar with the names Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden before September 2001. That attack has subsequently dominated the minds of George W. Bush and the people of the United States to such an extent that it may have blurred their vision. The immediate reaction was to form a "coalition of the willing" to launch a "war on terror". The unstated objective of this "war on terror" was to make the world (or maybe just the United States) a safer place for people to live in peace and harmony by ridding it of terrorists. There are perhaps other objectives that are less clear, like punishing the perpetrators and bringing peace and democracy to the world. Let us however stick with the prime objective of ridding the world of terrorists to make it a safer place. The war on terror is now in its fifth year and perhaps it is time to ask how is it doing at achieving its objectives. While the United States has had no further terrorist attacks of significance the rest of the world has not been so fortunate. Other members coalition of the willing have suffered terrorist attacks-in London and Madrid-and violence has escalated around the Islamic world and in particular in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bali. The "war on terror" quickly escalated into full scale invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and regime change from the Taliban and Baathist Parties believed by the US to be sympathetic to Al Qaeda and other terrorists. The focus is no longer simply on destroying Al Qaeda and capturing Osama Bin Laden, but now seems to be a world wide crusade for democracy. I use the word "crusade" advisedly because unfortunately this appears to be how the Islamic world including many moderate Muslims view the war on terror. This is of course quite wrong and unfair. George Bush and the leadership of the "coalition of the willing" have been at great pains to say that Islam is not under attack and Muslims are not equated with terrorists. However, the rhetoric must be juxtaposed with the actual actions taking place. The invasion of Iraq has caused massive hardship to the people of Iraq and greatly escalated anti-American feeling among Arabs. It has also allowed the Sunni/Shiite divide to escalate so that Iraq is now on the verge of civil war with no peace or democracy in sight. Paradoxically Iraq has now become a haven for terrorists and a recruiting ground for all anti-American fanatics. It is worth remembering what George W. Bush's father, George HW Bush, said in explaining why he did not attempt regime change in Iraq after the first Gulf war and withdrew, leaving Saddam in charge. Bush senior explained that to continue the Gulf War would have "incurred incalculable human and political costs we would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq." He explained to veterans "whose life would be in my hands as the commander in chief because I unilaterally went beyond the international law, went beyond the stated mission, and said we're going to show our macho? We're going to be an occupying power-America in an Arab land-with no allies on our side. It would have been disastrous." Rarely has such a comment proven so prophetic and accurate. The actions of George W Bush seem to have led inexorably to increased tensions in the world. Even though no US newspaper published the stupid Mohammed cartoons, there was massive protest against the US. Now that Dubai Ports World has acquired the UK company P&O that manages six US ports there has been massive US public outrage against the deal. This outrage, notwithstanding that the Emirates is an ally of the US and George W. Bush has endorsed this deal, has led to the Dubai government backing away from the deal to prevent a crisis. The "war on terror" has been a devastating failure and the world is a much less safe place than it was in 2001. Time to go back to the drawing board if we wish to achieve the original objectives. Unfortunately there is no quick fix.
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