Tuesday, May 30, 2006

The end of the New American Century

Well, that was quick.

The Bush Doctrine did not even survive the Bush administration. With his waging of the Iraq war, that pure and perfect expression of the Divine Right of Presidents, George W. Bush has performed a partial-birth abortion on the new American century envisioned by the Project for a New American Century.

Bush's notion of pre-emptive war, under which the United States is accountable to no one or nothing but itself, is thoroughly discredited. Furthermore, the neoconservative ideology upon which it is based is sliding into disrepute even among its most zealous evangelists.

In his new book, America at the Crossroads, Francis Fukuyama, perhaps the movement’s most outstanding intellectual force, confirms his defection from the brand concepts of “pre-emption, regime change, unilateralism and benevolent hegemony as put into practice by the Bush administration”.

“It seems to me better to abandon the label and articulate an altogether distinct foreign policy position,” he writes.

Advisers to the White House say it would be premature, however, to write off the doctrine of pre-emption, which was restated in the National Security Strategy released in March. But on Iran, for example, they believe the Bush administration is moving towards a cold war-style strategy of containment and deterrence with as broad an international coalition as possible.

Graham Fuller, former diplomat and intelligence officer, suggests the US is suffering from “strategic fatigue” brought on by “imperial over-reach”.
Read that one part again.

But on Iran, for example, they believe the Bush administration is moving towards a cold war-style strategy of containment and deterrence with as broad an international coalition as possible.

In other words, what John Kerry said.

One wonders if George W. Bush is able at all to appreciate the irony. So chastened by the failure of his folly in Iraq, cowboy Bush has become a desperate, grudging internationalist with respect to North Korea and Iran. He has engaged Libya with the resumption of diplomatic dialogue. He is conspicuously afraid to say one cross word to or about China. So much for ruling the world.

Meanwhile, Sen. Kerry, who argued passionately in favor of rebuilding our alliances (which George W. Bush had managed to destroy in three short years) and engaging our adversaries diplomatically, must be laughing bitterly through clenched teeth.

Bush's insane determination to run roughshod over the world, hat on head and bullwhip in hand, has brought him to the end that everybody except his echo chamber warned him about. The United States' global reputation as an honest broker is shattered. Our moral authority is compromised. Once, all the world knew that within our soft, calf leather glove was a fist of tempered steel. Today, we are reduced to making crude threats about pre-emptive nuclear war. God have mercy on us. These have been an awful last few years for America and for Americans.

It is all over but the shouting, however. The Project, to say nothing of the Bush presidency, is over.

Even as we listened to Bush's tough talk, we knew that something would have to give. Mercifully, he seems to have done so. After all of the bluster and stupidity, he has tucked his tail between his legs and embraced a fragile species of diplomacy. At least there's that. All we have to fear now is the amount of damage he can do before he slinks away into the cesspool of history.

Bush decided, or was instructed, to use the world as a laboratory to test the neocon theory of American hegemony. To put it mildly, it did not yield the expected results. Of course, not everyone on their side will take a stance as philosophical as that of Mr. Fukuyama. Some will insist, as did the Stalinists of another era, that the idea did not fail. The execution of the idea failed. Human error, they will say.

No.

The execution of the idea as articulated was perfect. Bush followed the plan to the letter. He committed America to a foreign policy based on the affirmative use of military force, just as prescribed. The prescription, however, was poison. The results are disastrous because there was nothing else that they could be. Bush is retreating to the stress-fractured rhetoric of previous campaigns because it worked for him then, and he is out of new ideas.

The good news is that, short of actually using first-strike nukes, Bush can't commit us to another war. What army would he use? Immigrant conscripts?

No, Bush will spend the next 60 30 months flying around the country on Air Force One or wandering the halls of the White House muttering about history and how it will vindicate him.

The New American Century wasn't, apparently. The rest of the world is reasonably safe.

Now, if he would only leave us alone here at home.

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