Abe Lincoln on George W. Bush

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Mon, 24 Apr 2006 17:21:43 -0700 (PDT)

Abe Lincoln on George W. Bush

 

 

 

 

Historical analogy day for Bush

Posted 3:42 pm

 

Around the web today, you'll find relatively sincere discussions

comparing Bush to Abraham Lincoln in the lead up to the Civil War, to

FDR, and to a Cold War dissident fighting for democratic values.

Perhaps the most insightful comes by way of Arthur Schlesinger Jr.,

who puts Bush's approach to foreign policy in a historical context.

 

The issue of preventive war as a presidential prerogative is

hardly new. In February 1848 Rep. Abraham Lincoln explained his

opposition to the Mexican War: " Allow the President to invade a

neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an

invasion and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he

deems it necessary for such purpose — and you allow him to make war at

pleasure [emphasis added]. . . . If, today, he should choose to say he

thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from

invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no

probability of the British invading us'; but he will say to you, 'Be

silent; I see it, if you don't.' "

 

This is precisely George W. Bush's excuse and how he sees his

presidential prerogative: Be silent; I see it, if you don't. However,

both Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, veterans of

the First World War, explicitly ruled out preventive war against

Joseph Stalin's attempt to dominate Europe. And in the Cuban missile

crisis of October 1962, President Kennedy, himself a hero of the

Second World War, rejected the recommendations of the Joint Chiefs of

Staff for a preventive strike against the Soviet Union in Cuba.

 

Bush, obviously, changed American policy when he declared that the

United States could strike first to " prevent " a war. Similar

presidents have faced arguably more serious international challenges

and resisted this unwise approach, but Bush, as he is wont to do,

chose an unprecedented path.

 

But just as importantly, Schlesinger notes the substantive and

strategic benefits from the more prudent road.

 

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