This misadventure has alienated most of the world from Bush

Gary Younge
Monday March 20, 2006
The Guardian

Shortly before the first Gulf war the recently retired chairman of the United States joint chiefs of staff, Admiral William Crowe, went for lunch with his successor, Colin Powell. In words that resonate today, Crowe warned Powell that "a war in the Middle East - killing thousands of Arabs for whatever noble purpose - would set back the US in the region for a long time. And that was to say nothing of the Americans who might die".

But despite his own misgivings, Crowe clearly believed military intervention was likely in the interests of presidential prestige.

"It takes two things to be a great president," he told Powell. "First you have to have a war. All the great presidents have had their wars. Two you have to find a war where you are attacked."

Six years into his presidency it is difficult to think of a single, substantial foreign policy initiative that US president George Bush has pursued that did not involve war, or the threat of it. There is good reason for this. It is the one area in which America reigns supreme, accounting alone for 40% of the global military expenditure and spending almost seven times the amount of its nearest rival, China.

Yet greatness eludes him. For if the last six years have proved anything, it is the limitations of military might as the central plank of foreign policy. Indeed, shorn of meaningful diplomacy or substantial negotiation, it has failed even on its own narrow, nationalistic terms of making America safer and securing its global hegemony. In short, in displaying his strength in such a brash, brazen, reckless and ruthless manner, Bush has asserted power and lost authority and influence both at home and abroad.

With his approval ratings at Nixonian lows and the mid-term elections on the horizon, many of his fellow Republicans regard him as a liability.

Stumbling across the political landscape, rallying support for lost causes, he resembles Ernest Harrowden in The Picture of Dorian Gray, a character whom Oscar Wilde described as "one of those middle-aged mediocrities, who have no enemies, but are thoroughly disliked by their friends".

Last week's release of the national security strategy did not counter that trend but confirmed it. Insisting that diplomacy remains America's "strong preference", it went on to reaffirm its commitment to pre-emption. "If necessary, under long-standing principles of self-defence, we do not rule out use of force before attacks occur," it states. Iran received special mention, with a warning that talks "must succeed if confrontation is to be avoided".

In practice this translates into a per perverse version of carrot-and-stick diplomacy. Offer your adversary a carrot and then threaten to whack them with the stick while they are eating it.

That America's standing has plummeted with this approach is without question. Of the 10 countries polled in 2000 and again in 2005 by the Pew research group, the US had fallen in people's estimation in eight of them. In only three - Canada, Britain and Russia - did a majority still look upon the US favourably. It's not difficult to see why.

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