President Bush in Asia
There President is adopting a two track process for moving past the arguments over the Iraq war. The first is to come out swinging defending the justness of the war and exposing the hypocrisy of its current opponents. The second is to continue to pursue a robust foreign policy and to support democracy is the far corners of the earth. Even as the liberals continue to be mired down in their squabbling over the intelligence that led to the Iraq war, foreign policy must go on. The President has started an ambitious tour of Asia in which he is showing that his grand strategy for foreign policy still has some life let in it.
President Bush recently began a tour of Asia in which he seeks to prove that he still believes “the best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world”. This week the President is in Asia preaching democracy to some of the most repressive and authoritarian regimes on earth. Not coincidentally these tyrannical regimes include China and North Korea, two of he biggest threats to our safety and national security. For too long Presidents and the State Department have taken a weak stance toward these countries and in doing so they have put our security in jeopardy. During the 1990s American foreign policy involved burying our head in the sand and allowing entire regions of the world to grow in dangers that would eventually have to be contained. We lost ten years in which we could have shaped a better world because the first President Bush and to an even larger extent President Clinton had no real vision of how America should act in a post cold war world. President Bush sr. acted as if we still needed to be constrained by the real-politick that was in fashion during the cold war and President Clinton acted as if we lived in some utopian paradise where we could drop bombs from over 30,000 feet in the air and gut the military in order to create the illusion of a peace dividend.
These two grand strategies did nothing to protect American security. They allowed problem spots to fester until President Bush took office to face a world that contained very serious security threats, even to the world’s lone superpower. The Middle East became a swamp that spread the virulent ideology of Islamic fundamentalism, Saddam Hussein crushed the Shia and Kurds, Momar Quadafi worked on Nuclear weapons and President Bush Sr. dithered with a humble foreign policy that was a relic of the cold war. The Far East inched closer and closer to being dominated by mad dictators in China and North Korea. The North Koreans built nuclear weapons, Al Quadea committed bolder and bolder attacks against American targets, and Clinton talked about Pax Americana. The current President Bush came forward after 9/11 and announced that he understood the mistakes of his predecessors and was going to adopt a stronger foreign policy that would look out for America’s best interest and long term security. Ever since the war in Iraq Liberals have been doing everything in the power to make sure that we put our heads back in the sand, cross our fingers and hope for a miracle. The best way for the President to combat these urging is to press forward with his bold foreign policy and continue to make the world not only a safer place, but a better one as well.
America’s expressed foreign policy has for along time been in direct contradiction with his policy toward communist China. It is far past time that we start make sure that our policies toward China come into line with both the general thrust of our foreign policy and our ideals and values. For far too long we have given China a free pass on in the name of misguided real-politik and economic concerns. We have done so at our own peril. That is why this week’s events were so heartening.
Right before the President’s trip was willing to break with our traditional attitude of appeasement in all things relating to China and declare that China “serious violator of religious freedom” that was a good start but things got much more interesting after the President arrived in China. The President reportedly admonished the Chinese for their repressive state and even went so far as to suggest that they attempt to follow in Taiwan’s footsteps. As you can imagine the communists did not appreciate the President’s speech but we have worried about offending them for far too long. It is about time that someone told the Chinese people "Modern Taiwan is free and democratic and prosperous. By embracing freedom at all levels, Taiwan has delivered prosperity to its people and created a free and democratic Chinese society” implying that they too can achieve prosperity if they are willing to throw off the shackle of their communist oppressors. Hardly a day goes by without hearing about some major infraction the Chinese make that either brutalizes their own people or threatens their neighbors or even us in the United States. If we are going to take our role as world hegemon seriously we cannot allow a tin pot dictatorship on the other side of the round to push us around.
Today the President was in South Korea taking a tough stance on the North Korean threat. President Clinton’s response to the North Korean desire for Nuclear weapons was appeasement, plain and simple. There is no room for appeasement under President Bush’s current foreign policy and he has three years left to make that crystal clear. The North Koreans must be made to understand that Nuclear weapons will not make them rich. They will not be able to brandish their big toys in order to gain concessions from the world. The only thing that nuclear weapons should get the North Koreans is the status of a world pariah, harsh sanctions and total isolation.
The first stop on the President’s tour was Japan. This was an important stop because Japan is another country that needs to be given a clear message. That message must be “it is about time that you become a normal country”. A normal country has long been code word in Japanese debates for repealing the section of the Japanese constitution that prohibits them from having an army. We were more than willing to give the Japanese a free ride during the cold war because we were afraid that they would fall to communism. Things have changed, we face a new set of global challenges and it is time for both Japan and the United States to step into the year 2005.
Hopefully if the President spends the rest of his presidency advocating a strong foreign policy it will start us down a path that will be irreversible no matter who replaces him in office.
President Bush recently began a tour of Asia in which he seeks to prove that he still believes “the best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world”. This week the President is in Asia preaching democracy to some of the most repressive and authoritarian regimes on earth. Not coincidentally these tyrannical regimes include China and North Korea, two of he biggest threats to our safety and national security. For too long Presidents and the State Department have taken a weak stance toward these countries and in doing so they have put our security in jeopardy. During the 1990s American foreign policy involved burying our head in the sand and allowing entire regions of the world to grow in dangers that would eventually have to be contained. We lost ten years in which we could have shaped a better world because the first President Bush and to an even larger extent President Clinton had no real vision of how America should act in a post cold war world. President Bush sr. acted as if we still needed to be constrained by the real-politick that was in fashion during the cold war and President Clinton acted as if we lived in some utopian paradise where we could drop bombs from over 30,000 feet in the air and gut the military in order to create the illusion of a peace dividend.
These two grand strategies did nothing to protect American security. They allowed problem spots to fester until President Bush took office to face a world that contained very serious security threats, even to the world’s lone superpower. The Middle East became a swamp that spread the virulent ideology of Islamic fundamentalism, Saddam Hussein crushed the Shia and Kurds, Momar Quadafi worked on Nuclear weapons and President Bush Sr. dithered with a humble foreign policy that was a relic of the cold war. The Far East inched closer and closer to being dominated by mad dictators in China and North Korea. The North Koreans built nuclear weapons, Al Quadea committed bolder and bolder attacks against American targets, and Clinton talked about Pax Americana. The current President Bush came forward after 9/11 and announced that he understood the mistakes of his predecessors and was going to adopt a stronger foreign policy that would look out for America’s best interest and long term security. Ever since the war in Iraq Liberals have been doing everything in the power to make sure that we put our heads back in the sand, cross our fingers and hope for a miracle. The best way for the President to combat these urging is to press forward with his bold foreign policy and continue to make the world not only a safer place, but a better one as well.
America’s expressed foreign policy has for along time been in direct contradiction with his policy toward communist China. It is far past time that we start make sure that our policies toward China come into line with both the general thrust of our foreign policy and our ideals and values. For far too long we have given China a free pass on in the name of misguided real-politik and economic concerns. We have done so at our own peril. That is why this week’s events were so heartening.
Right before the President’s trip was willing to break with our traditional attitude of appeasement in all things relating to China and declare that China “serious violator of religious freedom” that was a good start but things got much more interesting after the President arrived in China. The President reportedly admonished the Chinese for their repressive state and even went so far as to suggest that they attempt to follow in Taiwan’s footsteps. As you can imagine the communists did not appreciate the President’s speech but we have worried about offending them for far too long. It is about time that someone told the Chinese people "Modern Taiwan is free and democratic and prosperous. By embracing freedom at all levels, Taiwan has delivered prosperity to its people and created a free and democratic Chinese society” implying that they too can achieve prosperity if they are willing to throw off the shackle of their communist oppressors. Hardly a day goes by without hearing about some major infraction the Chinese make that either brutalizes their own people or threatens their neighbors or even us in the United States. If we are going to take our role as world hegemon seriously we cannot allow a tin pot dictatorship on the other side of the round to push us around.
Today the President was in South Korea taking a tough stance on the North Korean threat. President Clinton’s response to the North Korean desire for Nuclear weapons was appeasement, plain and simple. There is no room for appeasement under President Bush’s current foreign policy and he has three years left to make that crystal clear. The North Koreans must be made to understand that Nuclear weapons will not make them rich. They will not be able to brandish their big toys in order to gain concessions from the world. The only thing that nuclear weapons should get the North Koreans is the status of a world pariah, harsh sanctions and total isolation.
The first stop on the President’s tour was Japan. This was an important stop because Japan is another country that needs to be given a clear message. That message must be “it is about time that you become a normal country”. A normal country has long been code word in Japanese debates for repealing the section of the Japanese constitution that prohibits them from having an army. We were more than willing to give the Japanese a free ride during the cold war because we were afraid that they would fall to communism. Things have changed, we face a new set of global challenges and it is time for both Japan and the United States to step into the year 2005.
Hopefully if the President spends the rest of his presidency advocating a strong foreign policy it will start us down a path that will be irreversible no matter who replaces him in office.
posted by the-rubber-stamp at 12:22 PM
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