Bush's Foreign-Policy Critics Score Goose Egg

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Feb 16, 2004

Byline: Ralph de Toledano, INSIGHT

The Democrat/liberal outcry was deafening. War with Iraq, unless the United Nations gave us permission, would bring the Arab countries down on our heads, set off the Arab "street" and leave a "unilateralist" America isolated. President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" speech would solidify anti-American hatred and make it impossible to deal with the Middle East.

In the attack on President Bush and his policies, the Democrat/liberal critics indulged in a singular contradiction. His "unilateralism" in the Middle East was a crime. But he was equally criminal in working with China, South Korea and Japan in attempting to cope with the North Korean nuclear crisis. And from the start, the war against Afghanistan and Iraq would become a "quagmire" our armed forces bogged down in a war they did not know how to fight, and one in which the United States would suffer many thousands of casualties. In short, another Vietnam.

When U.S. forces cut through both countries in a historic demonstration of military genius and power, the Democrats and their allies buttoned their lips for perhaps 48 hours and then embarked on a different tack. President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, it was charged, had not planned for the occupation or for the future of Iraq. Iraqi guerrillas and imported terrorists were striking back, and it was all George Bush's fault. Every new casualty proved this. (Blame FDR and Gen. Eisenhower for the horrendous casualties of Normandy and because they did not anticipate the Battle of the Bulge.)

The onslaught continues to this day, and to hear the Democrats the course of events worldwide is a continuous disaster. But is it? Let's call the roll:

Item: Libya's Muammar Qaddafi has become a pussycat and confesses that the Iraq invasion is responsible. He has shut down his nuclear program and invited U.S. and U.N. investigators to check him out. He even is begging to be admitted into the civilized world.

Item: Syria's Bashir Assad is quaking in his boots, fearing that his country will be next. His efforts at a deal with the European Union have come to naught. He is seeking a face-saving formula to get out of Lebanon, which his father occupied, and even is showing some interest in coming to terms with Israel. His friends in Iran no longer are willing to invite him to tea. And his greatest worry is that Saddam Hussein will spill the beans about the game of footsie they were playing.

Item: India and Pakistan have begun to talk to each other, eliminating a perilous flashpoint and putting off the possibility of nuclear war the result of President Bush's quiet diplomacy.

Item: Saudi Arabia, which had given al-Qaeda both moral and financial support, slowly is mending her ways. Events precipitated by the Iraq war have convinced the Saudi royal family and its army of "princes" that bribery doesn't work. Being Saudis, they still have not fully committed themselves to Bush policies, but they seem to be getting there.

Item: Iran is moving slowly. President Bush's offer to send a delegation to the country was not rejected out of hand by the ayatollahs. Not now, they responded, but perhaps later. Nevertheless, the president ordered a three-month lifting of economic sanctions, including the ban on allowing American private funds to go to the country's stricken earthquake victims. But even prior to this, Mr. Bush had played tough on closing down Iran's nuclear activity, and Iran had begun to bow. Iran also is moving to restore relations with Egypt, seen as a U.S. ally, and making friendly gestures to Turkey, ending the boycott of Muslim countries that do business with Israel.

Item: Even France and Germany have begun to come around.

Compare all of this with the prediction of American disaster as a result of Bush administration policies and the Iraq war, and you come up despite the left-reactionary media with a score for the Democrat/liberal critics of a big, fat goose-egg.

Ralph de Toledano is the dean of Washington columnists and a contributing writer for Insight magazine.