The Washington Post today discusses the rapidly growing anger among conservatives over the Bush Administration's "timidity and confusion" in foreign policy. Specifically, the Republican right wing is upset at Bush over Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Hizbollah. In criticisms that are not much different from those we have launched here at Raising Kaine over the Iraq quagmire:
Conservatives complain that the United States is hunkered down in Iraq without enough troops or a strategy to crush the insurgency. They see autocrats in Egypt and Russia cracking down on dissenters with scant comment from Washington, North Korea firing missiles without consequence, and Iran playing for time to develop nuclear weapons while the Bush administration engages in fruitless diplomacy with European allies. They believe that a perception that the administration is weak and without options is emboldening Syria and Iran and the Hezbollah radicals they help sponsor in Lebanon.
Slam. Now here's former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is contemplating a run for President in 2008:
We have accepted the lawyer-diplomatic fantasy that talking while North Korea builds bombs and missiles and talking while the Iranians build bombs and missiles is progress. Is the next stage for Condi to go dancing with Kim Jong Il? I am utterly puzzled.
It goes on and on like this, with Kenneth Adelman, "a Reagan administration arms-control official who is close to Vice President Cheney," arguing that Bush's foreign policy is not "molding history," but "reacting to events" just like "Kerryism" would be.
Ouch, that last one REALLY hurts, coming from a conservative Republican.
The problem for Bush is that the conservatives are in fact onto something here. Specifially, conservatives are correct that we ARE bogged down in Iraq in a strategic quagmire with no exit strategy and no plan for victory. And they are correct that our strategic interests ARE suffering as a result, from North Korea to Iran to Russia.
Finally, conservative Republicans are onto something when they complain that Bush has abandonded his goal, forcefully articulated in the 2005 inaugural address, that "it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." Just a few days ago, we saw the end of this vision at the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg, where President Bush and other Western leaders essentially let Russian President Vladimir Putin get away with crushing Democracy and civil society in Russia Same thing in Egypt, where "President Hosni Mubarak is continuing his campaign against the democratic movement that sprouted in his country last year."
Ack.
So now what? Is there anything the Bush Administration can do to salvage U.S. foreign policy, national security, and its own popularity among conservatives? Time will tell, but my own prediction is that as long as we remain stuck in the strategic mistake known as Iraq, things will get worse before they get better.
Lowell Feld is Netroots Coordinator for the Jim Webb for US Senate Campaign. The ideas expressed here belong to Lowell Feld alone, and do not necessarily represent those of Jim Webb, his advisors, staff, or supporters.
If you want to know why Bush is fixing to veto Stem Cell research, here's your answer. He has to do something quick-quick to placate his irrational right wing base.
Between the sell-out to the religious right and sell-out to major corporations, the once honorable conservative movement in this county is dying on the vine.
Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower are both spinning in their graves. This adminstration is an insult to their memory.
I guess that hubris from Bush, Allen, et al is their authoritarian posture.
Bush's neocon doctrine has been put to the test these past 6 years and is a complete disaster.
Now these guys are attacking "Kerryism"? And Clinton's North Korea policy?
Come on--compared to Bush's achievements Bill Clinton's team made manna rain down from the heavens during the 1990s. The N. Koreans DID violate the terms of Clinton the agreement--fortunately, the potential for disaster was mitigated by survelliance of their nuclear materials. As of 2002, those materials have disappeared for monitoring and the N. Koreans still have their centrifuges. Great work team Bush!
What's bizarre is that the extremists on the right--such as Adelman/Gingrich. Are now even further over the deep edge.
He is also realizing he can't just haul off and bomb North Korea. Reality is a hard teacher. The "libruls" tried to tell them, but no, they wouldn't listen. Now they have to grow up. Seems some of them are stuck in childhood forever though.
They look a lot like people who feel no personal power. Those types often love to attack others to feel powerful, but the feeling never lasts and they have to go at it over and over. What they don't realize is that the problem is within, now out there in the world.