Yesterday, besides commenting on his warped political actions, I wrote about George Bush being tempermentally unsuited for the office of the presidency. Recently, conservative NEWSWEEK columnist Fareed Zakaria provided his take on the worst self-imposed foreign policy barrier George Bush has erected–bullying–one that blinds its practitioners, poisons any attempt at positive discourse even if such zealots are capable of reason and creates extremely long memories for its recipients.
Unfortunately, this habit is a fixture–it isn’t going away. This distinguishing characteristic of George Bush has been present since his very early years. He has figuratively stabbed his closest foreign ally Tony Blair in the back on multiple occasions and, believe me, this hasn’t gone undetected by other leaders on the world stage.
The mantra outside (inside, too) the United States is that George Bush cannot be trusted. Gestures, even if authentic, by Condi Rice are negated by the blustering of John Bolton at the United Nations and the unrestrained flaming of Dick Cheney and others. Driven by Bush, the schizophrenia of American foreign policy remains unabated. After six years, nothing can be done to change this or his legacy.
Why We Don’t Get No Respect
‘It’s not a real conversion,’ remarks one senior European politician. ‘It’s a product of failure.’
By Fareed Zakaria
NEWSWEEK
July 3-10, 2006 issue – The Bush administration must wonder these days if it has a Rodney Dangerfield problem. No matter what it does, it can’t seem to get any respect. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has engineered a broad shift in American diplomacy over the last year, moving policy toward greater multilateralism, cooperation and common sense on Iran, North Korea and Iraq, and several other issues. And yet it hasn’t produced a change in attitudes toward the United States. The recent Pew global survey documents a further drop in America’s poor image abroad. President Bush tried to be conciliatory while visiting Europe last week but confronted an angry public. A poll published in the Financial Times on the eve of his visit showed that across the continent, the United States was considered a greater threat to world peace than Iran or North Korea.
Why aren’t people noticing the new, improved Bush foreign policy? First, the changes coming out of Washington have been very recent. Perhaps more important, they remain incremental and incomplete. This is probably because they are still contested within the administration. Almost all of those officials who embody the administration’s crude and clumsy policies of the first termled by Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney remain in office. They merely appear to be lying low, for now. So there’s a limit to how much things can change. What appears like a revolution in Bush policy–the administration is now finally thinking that maybe, possibly, Guantánamo should be shut–often is just the belated arrival of common sense…
…In Washington, it’s still more important to look tough than be effective…
…But the main reason the Bush administration’s overtures aren’t having the effect that might have been expected is that they have come about under duress. “You’re bogged down in Iraq, and so you need us to help you,” said a senior European politician who declined to be named because he didn’t want to add to transatlantic tensions. “It’s not a real conversion. It’s a product of failure. The administration tried unilateralism and, when it failed, went for a multilateral approach.”
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