Ray St. Louis
9/26/02
BETWEEN THE LINES
There are a number of ways one could characterize the recently released George W. Bush
administration document titled “The National Security Strategy of the United States.”
You could call it “Might Makes Right” for its reliance on U. S. military muscle to further American
interests.
Or you could summarize the policies and attitudes laid out in the 33-page paper as “Shameless
World Domination,” although that’s probably not the way members of the Bush administration would
refer to it.
They, the guys and gals in Washington who help George W. Bush come up with a foreign policy,
prefer to call it “a distinctly American internationalism.”
Whatever you call it, the report’s message to the rest of the world is clear: Fear us.
Fear the United States of America. No longer will the planet’s lone super power be shy about
wielding its mighty sword. Deterrence and nonproliferation treaties are for wimps.
We don’t need no stinkin’ treaties. We don’t need coalitions, or alliances, or diplomacy. We carry
the world’s biggest stick. Fear us.
One of the document’s most disturbing stratagems deals with the notion that the United States will
never again allow its overwhelming military supremacy to be challenged. The implication is that the
U. S. government will strike preemptively to prevent a comparable military build-up by any other
nation.
That would include China, I suppose, as the most likely pretender. Also, our old nemesis, Russia,
just in case it is harboring any such thoughts in spite of its bankrupt economy. And it would include
anyone else for that matter – France, India, even our good buddy Great Britain.
What this document does, beyond any shadow of a doubt is set up the United States as the bully of
the world. That is exactly why George W. Bush’s “National Security Strategy of the United States”
will fail, because such a strategy plays directly into the hands of those who despise us.
If there’s one thing the rest of the world hates, it’s a bully. They, other nations and other peoples,
are considerably less likely to embrace the axiom that America only uses its military might to
promote freedom and democracy. They know America acts mostly to promote American interests,
which translate to business and security. The Bush doctrine has a lot more to do with domination
and subjugation that with liberation.
Problem is, the rest of the world’s people don’t like being dominated any more than we Americans
ever have. The human spirit is irrepressible; people will always rebel against tyranny.
Empires crumble. It happened to the Greeks, the Romans, the French under Napoleon, and the
English. Imperial arrogance sows the seeds of its own destruction.
Here’s what I see occurring: America will first use the Bush doctrine as justification for invading Iraq
and deposing Saddam Hussein. That, combined with Ariel Sharon’s continuing pigheaded
repression of the Palestinians, will fan the flames of anti-Americanism throughout the Muslim world
to new heights.
Once distracted by fighting in Iraq, our government will neglect the fragile government we’ve put in
place in Afghanistan to the point where it will completely destabilize. Al-Qaeda and other terrorist
organizations will benefit from the shift in America’s focus away from them and towards Saddam.
As a result of all of these factors, terrorism directed at the United States will increase rather than
decrease.
The Bush doctrine is self-defeating. What’s sad about the whole affair is that it is apparent the
voices of moderation within the Bush Administration have lost out to the hawks. Cheney and
Rumsfeld are now calling the shots, not Colin Powell.
George W. Bush and his bellicose policy makers have determined their America will live by the
sword.