This send-along email has become the running debate in my
mostly-conservative family. My response to the original message
went back to all of the recipients and has fostered an interesting
dialogue:
This argument, which attempts to analogize Bush's military action
in Iraq with actions by past Presidents, is vacant. The comparison
between Bush-Iraq and FDR-Nazi Germany is too ludicrous to
consider. Vietnam and Korea are widely recognized as failed
policies and cannot
provide precedent or justification for any current or future
military action. The U.S. went into Bosnia to end an active and
ongoing
genocide. Most importantly, there was never strong evidence to link
Iraq with the war on terror; this rationale has been thoroughly
discredited.
If you're looking for points of comparison, consider some of the
other accomplishments of these past Presidents:
FDR guided the United States out of the Great Depression. It was an
economic disaster so great that never before and never again will
this
country see something like it. Bush, on the other hand, has
presided over the loss of more than 2,000,000 jobs and watched a
half-TRILLION
dollar budget surplus turn into a half-TRILLION dollar deficit.
We've also seen the trade gap widen to record levels and the value
of the
dollar fall to 20 year lows.
Truman led the United States out of World War II and helped our
fallen allies rebuild. Foreign policy under Truman not only saw the
creation
of the United Nations (architected by FDR) but also turned the
enemies of Japan and Germany into two of our strongest allies.
Bush, on the
other hand, squandered through arrogance and petulance the support
proffered by the world community after 9/11. His actions have
damaged
the credibility of our intelligence and foreign policy, seriously
blunting weapons that will be needed in the ongoing fight against
fundamentalist Islamic terrorism.
Kennedy stared down the single greatest immediate threat ever faced
by the United States: the Cuban Missile Crisis. Bush, on the other
hand, diverted critical resources from the fight gainst al-Qaeda to
dubious aims in Iraq. Kennedy issued the greatest proclamation of
American strength ("Let every nation know... that we shall pay any
price, bear any burden... to assure the survival and the success of
liberty...") and the greatest call for Americans to realize their
role in Democracy ("Ask not what your country can do for you...")
ever heard. Bush, on the other hand, called upon Americans to do
the one thing least threatening to his agenda: go shopping.
Clinton set the stage for peace between Israel and the PLO with the
1993 Oslo Accords. He failed in several attempts in 2000 to
finalize agreements between the parties, but for the duration of
Clinton's two terms, the region was quiet by historic standards.
Upon his assumption
of the White House in January 2001, the door was open for Bush to
truly and heroically reshape the Middle East by mediating
negotiations between Israel and the PLO. Instead, accounts from
former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill reveal that Bush took an
appalling stance: "'If the two sides don't want peace, there's no
way we can force them.'" Warned by Colin Powell that "A pullback by
the United States would unleash Sharon and the Israeli Army....
[Powell said] 'The consequences f that could be dire.'... Bush
shrugged '...Sometimes a show of trength by one side can really
clarify things.'"** Bush is complicit in the deaths of hundreds of
Israelis and Palestinians since 2001. More egregiously, Bush is
accountable for perpetuating risks to the
security of the United States that result from instability in the
Middle East.
Something to remember in November 2004.
Dan
P.S. Some clarification to the concluding points of argument of
that editorial:
1. Libya has been on course for a dozen years to normalize
relations with the world community; no longer the baddest fish in
the pond, Qaddafi rightly realized that greater profits could be
reaped by playing nice: Libya sits on a vast oil reserve that was
contraband under international sanctions.
2. Negotiations with Iran were largely executed by ("Old") European
diplomatic efforts.
3. There are no nuclear inspectors in North Korea. They were
expelled in December, 2002, and have not been allowed back. Bush
Administration
policy has been to refuse direct talks with North Korea; in the
mean time their nuclear arsenal continues to develop.
4. Hussein was a brutal tyrant, but he had no connections to
attacks against Americans. The leader of the terror organization
responsible
for thousands of murders of Americans on 9/11 has not been
captured, the size and momentum of the organization is unknown, and
the mentality of those inclined to harm the U.S. is such that the
reaches of al-Qaeda have just as likely grown larger as
smaller.
** From "The Price of Loyalty" by Ron Suskind.
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