Anybody But Bush: March 30, 2004

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The Whole Truth: Anybody But Bush

 

Alienating Allies and Increasing Terrorism in the Name

of Democracy

 

By D. LINDLEY YOUNG

The Modern Tribune - March 30, 2004

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (3/30) - The Bush administrations

proclaimed policy of preventive wars based upon

unilateral preemptive military strikes on sovereign

nations with little or no evidence of an imminent

threat to America, should be strongly opposed as a

marked departure from what American stands for and as

policy that alienates necessary allies for the global

war on terrorism. The Bush hubris, threats, name

calling and unilateralism has created a major long

term set back after decades of establishing our role

in the world as an example of what is just and fair.

Our current unilateralist mentality - " you're either

with us or against us " - is not a productive component

for multi-nationalistic solutions or the path to a

freer and more secure world. The Bush administration

has destroyed the very concept - advanced by them -

that democracies are less aggressive and are more

peaceful because of the form of government. They have

sharpened the argument that it is not the form of

government that makes or avoids wars, it is the

leadership and the ambitions and goals of that

leadership that set the coarse.

 

The Bush administration has proven that a few people

in power at the top of a strong media driven military

government determine whether or not there will be war.

The form of government does not matter. The doctrine

of " just war " is out the window. We are now in the new

American century where the war on terrorism is used as

the tool to impose democracy by military might. Where

moral clarity is a matter of military might. Where

threat replaces persuasion. Where retaliation replaces

reason and violence begets violence.

 

We appear set on a coarse creating a greater world

war, pitting the East against the West, religion

versus religion, and the strong versus the weak. We

display our " shock and awe " and make examples of

geographic areas in a war without geographic

boundaries. This is done under the guise that the

geographic region is harboring terrorists and it is

there breeding ground.

 

The war on Iraq has created a new center for terrorism

in and the war has clearly exacerbated the global

terror threat. It played into the plans an predictions

of bin Laden - who had warned for years that America

would occupy an Arab country - and has provided a

tremendous recruiting tool for radical extremists.

Plans, if not threats, by the Bush administration to

democratize the entire Middle East make things worse

and ad to the perception that the Bush administration

seeks to dominate the region through the use of

military force. The US is not seen as a fair broker

for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - a

major motivation for terrorism. At the same time we

threaten others in the Mid-east we protect, support,

arm and favor Israel. A strategy of US-Israeli

dominance of the regional is not a path that will

reduce, much less eliminate the threat of terror.

 

Creating the New Race for Nuclear Weapons

 

The Bush administration recently announced the

proposed Energy Department Budget would boost funds

for nuclear weapons. The Defense Science Board (DSB)

has urged a reorientation of the U.S. nuclear weapons

program towards smaller, more versatile weapons. For

some reason, it is argued that more nuclear weapons

are needed that produce much lower collateral damage.

The Bush plan to democratize the Middle East and

increase US nuclear weapons capability, cannot

comfort most of the world.

 

Bush is creating more enemies and upping the anti -

the stakes are higher - nuclear stakes. Bush has

re-infused " nuclear " into the global conscience and is

causing other countries to react, to plan, to build,

and to defend. Bush says he'll use them for preventive

war and from the level of evidence necessary for the

war on Iraq that may amount to no more than the drop

of a hat. Because of Bush's new US policy on

preventative war with pre-emptive " nuclear " attacks,

some fear we are approaching the potential for

Armageddon. There is now a global race to get or get

more nuclear weapons and Bush jumpstarted the new

race.

 

First Bush withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile

Treaty in 2001, then he personally launches a barrage

of indelible word bombs infused into the global

consciousness -- threats of preemptive nuclear

attacks, nuclear hit lists, preventative war, and

unilateral attack on Iraq and others (if Bush deems it

necessary). Bush has created a world much more

volatile than it was before 9/11. The number of

enemies and the global nuclear threat are growing

every day. Bush set the tone and by opening a nuclear

Pandora's box.

 

It is unrealistic to think that the entire world will

just cower to his threats. North Korea openly gears up

to make more nuclear weapons and that it will withdraw

from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty . Russia

announced it will begin making more nuclear weapons

and announces it will withdraw from the treaty.

Britain has also abandoned the non-proliferation

treaty, is installing the capacity to build a new

generation of nuclear weapons, and has asserted its

right to strike preemptively. Iran may still be in

the race for nuclear weapons. Syria and Lebannon are

alleged to be in the thick of the plot. Certainly

China, the EU, France and others cannot just ignore

the race.

 

When Bush withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile

Treaty decades of apparent progress were destroyed

and Bush may have commenced an irreversible coarse

towards a much more dangerous world. The world is not

safer for the rhetoric that Bush carefully chooses.

His words resound around the world and will shape the

world perception of the US for decades.

 

Bush Creating Greater Anti-American Sentiment

 

Anti-American sentiment grows the more the US rattles

the sabers and pounds the war drums. The number of

potential terrorists appears to be growing

exponentially. There appears to be an increase in

terrorist acts around the world which parallels Bush's

laser focus on democratizing and occupying the Middle

East. The stupidity of what appears to be deliberate

provocation, if not creation of the enemy by Bush,

lies in the fact that we are not even prepared to

protect our own borders. The 454 page Homeland

Security Act -- which is still years away from full

implementation and full funding -- provides little

security to the US right now, yet, Bush forges ahead

daily increasing the threat and the enemy. These are

the acts of a fool not acts of courage.

 

There is no question that global terrorism has

increased in frequency of attacks, magnitude of

attacks, and the scope of hatred toward America and

its allies, since the war on Iraq. Now, there is no

safe haven - Bali, Madrid, Turkey, the Philippines,

Uzbekistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and others have been

subject to major attacks. Today in Britain eight

terrorist suspects were arrested and a half a ton of

ammonium nitrate - used to make bombs - was seized as

British authorities broke up an apparent terrorist

plot. Twice in the past week explosives were found on

railway routes in the UK. Also, today Madrid-level'

terrorist attacks were averted in the Philippines with

the arrest of four terrorist suspects and seizure of

thirty-six kilograms of TNT.

 

Anybody but Bush

 

Why anybody but Bush? If Bush is elected in 2004, from

the perspective of other nations, the Bush

administration, and terrorists, the Bush will have a

mandate from the American people for more wars - to

pursue and expand democratization of the world - the

Bush colonialism - by military means, under the guise

of fighting terrorism. We can no longer say we did not

know his plans. The American people will be held

directly responsible for accelerating global

instability and jeopardizing the security of on

Americans and the world for generations if Bush is

elected.

 

If Bush is reelected, America will have elected him

knowing that he plans further wars. We and future

generations will pay the consequences of his

unilateralism and preventive war policy. One of the

hostages of the Chechen rebels rebels in the theatre

in Moscow October 2002, asked one of the terrorist why

they were threatening to kill innocent Russian

citizens. The terrorist said: " You elected your

leaders. "

 

Many in the world are concerned about the ambition for

power by Bush. As some of them see it, the only hedge

on Bush's ambitions may be less or weaker alliances by

other countries with America at a time when they are

most needed to fight terrorism. As put by Professor

Gabriel Kolko: " America will be more prudent and the

world will be far safer only if the Bush

Administration is constrained by a lack of allies and

isolated. "

 

Kolko noted: " If Bush is reelected, America's allies

and friends will have to confront such stark choices,

a painful process that will redefine and perhaps

shatter existing alliances. Independent, realistic

foreign policies are likely to be the outcome, and the

dramatic events in Spain over the past days have

reinforced this probability. "

 

America Now Knows What it is Getting

 

We are still in two wars - Iraq and Afghanistan - with

plans on the table for several more - the blueprint,

the " Greater Middle East Initiative " and Project New

American Century. Now that we have Iraq -- which is

centrally located -- we have the staging ground to

allow pre-positioned troops to bring pressure on Iran,

Syria, Saudi Arabia and others. Washington has been

pushing the IAEA to declare Iran in breach of its

duties as a Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty signatory

and Syria has been accused of having Saddam's WMD. The

stage is set.

 

This is a clear threat to many nations in the world

and the fuel for greater terrorism and anti-American

hatred. The world can not be expected to just sit back

and become dominated by US Military force. China,

Russia, the EU and others will perceive the long-term

threat to them. They are preparing and will have to

accelerate in the new arms race.

 

Professor Kolko noted: " The Bush Administration,

through ineptness and a vague ideology of American

power that acknowledges no limits on its global

ambitions, and a preference for unilateralist

initiatives which discounts consultations with its

friends much less the United Nations, has seriously

eroded the alliance system upon which U. S. foreign

policy from 1947 onwards was based. With the

proliferation of all sorts of destructive weaponry,

the world will become increasingly dangerous. "

 

We are on a dangerous path. Bush is destroying the

alliance system that is so crucial to real American

power while he seeks to democratize the Middle East

through the use of military power. The threaten and

kill policy of Bush will not work. It has not worked

in Israel. You cannot just kill people and expect what

made them terrorists to just go away. There must be

elimination of the cause for them becoming terrorists.

Alienating allies and giving terrorists greater cause

for there mission is not the solution.