|
|
|
archived: 13 - 19 Mar, 2005 Back Next UPDATED: March 15, 2005 BUSH BACKS DOWN From his first days in office, George Bush made it clear that he would not tolerate diplomacy. He announced that his administration would never be involved in: nation-building; peace-keeping, nor one sided-negotiations with rogue states. Neither would the Bush administration be involved in peace negotiations, especially not those in the Middle East that had been initiated by his predecessor. In a few short months, Bush had repudiated the following diplomatic treaties and agreements: The Kyoto Protocols; The Geneva Convention; The International Convention on Biological & Chemical Weapons; The International Convention on Land Mines. To top those dubious achievements the Bush White House announced their earnest intentions to abrogate both the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in order to weaponize outer space in Donald Rumsfeld’s Strangelovian plan to establish Space Force replete with nuclear bombs in orbit high above the fruited plains and purple mountain majesties of America, the now virtually unprotectable. In April, 2001, when a US spy plane was downed in China, Bush took the decision to handle the crisis in what he described as the “Texan” manner. This was a conscious decision made personally by George Bush, and it meant that he assigned the crisis to the Texans on his staff. Apparently, Bush assigned the China situation to Karl Rove (who is now better known as “Bush’s Brain”), Andrew Card and a few others who had known and worked for Bush for years back in Texas. The Bush Team-Texan approach involved some belligerent language between the White House and Beijing. The Texans belligerently demanded the immediate return of the spy plane, a tactless tactic that was nothing less than the equivalent of rattling the nuclear bombs and the B-52s at their counterparts in Beijing. The Chinese repudiated the blustering demands of the Texans, and they studiously disassembled the spy plane which was eventually returned to the US as a load of old parts. This was the first glimpse of the Bush White House in diplomatic action, and it was neither encouraging, nor inspiring. The China spy plane incident was embarrassing and humiliating for the majority of Americans, especially those in Texas. After 9/11, the Bush White House needed a target to vent its rage. The first target Bush selected was Iraq, but Richard Clarke vetoed that aggressive impulse by suggesting that Osama bin Laden had been the mastermind and that the target really ought to be the Taliban of Afghanistan. Demands were made for the immediate turnover of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida, but they were repudiated, and that war was duly launched. Al Qaida was never brought to justice, and, in the aftermath, they have experienced a massive upsurge in recruitment and credibility among the Islamists, who are now proliferating at a frightening rate – or so it would seem. After their failure to arrest, Al Qaida became a political problem, Bush decided to go to war against Iraq. Once again, he and his staff at the Bush White repudiated the concept of direct negotiations (read, “diplomacy”). All of the direct talks took place between the UN and Iraq. Growing impatient with the progress made by the UN who had discovered that there was no discernable evidence for WMDs in Iraq, Bush launched the costly, deadly and needless war against an enemy that was literally defenseless, sick, aged, infirm and weakened by ten years of harsh economic sanctions, and, by the way, who did not have any weapons of mass destruction in the first place. Now that their Iraq project is foundering on the rocks of insurgency, and anti-Americanism is spreading across the globe like a pandemic, Bush needs a new target for his frustrated wrath. Iran was selected to fulfill that role, even though the case against them is pathetically weak. They are suspected of harboring ambitions to develop their own nuclear arsenal. For the average citizen, this threat is not nearly as disturbing as the fact that North Korea already has begun manufacturing nukes, but, “Hey, North Korea does not have any oil!” The latter point is the open secret, the elephant in the boardroom, as it were. Unless a nation is weak militarily, like Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, and has oil, gas and or an indispensable pipeline route (Afghanistan) it is safe from attack by the Bush administration. From these criteria, we can see that Venezuela is a potential target for future US military intervention. Even though Bush has been beating the drum for a war against Iran, nobody is falling in place in the imaginary line that is supposed to be forming behind him. Bush has stated repeatedly and categorically that he has absolutely nothing whatsoever to negotiate with Iran. Great Britain, France and Germany were already in negotiations with Iran in an attempt to avert a third disastrous Bush-Oil war. Against that troubling backdrop, Bush and Condoleezza Rice came to Europe to strut and prate and to triumphialise his recent inauguration and – as an afterthought - to launch the foreign policy of the second Bush administration. Rice demanded negotiations in the Middle East, but when they were convened in Cairo, she was not present – even though she had been in the same city the day before. Rice demanded progress on the Palestinian side in new peace negotiations, but offered the paltry sum of $350 million, a paltry pittance that will not accomplish anything substantive for the Israelis or the Palestinians. Experts on the Middle East are now saying that the maneuvers of the Bush White House are transparent propaganda gestures and nothing more. Immediately prior to his arrival in Europe, reports from high-ranking US military and intelligence sources began to leak that Bush had ordered a June launch date for the bombing of Iran. Having refused to negotiate with the Iranians, Bush was now faced with a barrage of questions from the European press who are not as malleable (read, “corrupt and bribe-mongering”) or as controllable as his White House press corps. To make matters worse, the White House Press Corps scandal broke just as Bush was on his way to Europe. Alarmingly, the US press and media have allowed Bush to deploy the services of Jeff Gannon for years as a shill for the most regrettable policies of the past four years. In Europe, Bush met a chorus of questions: “What about your plans for war with Iran?” The European press and media bombarded Bush with the tough questions that the American media are just simply too timid to ask. Pushed into a very public corner, Bush timidly scoffed at the notion of war with Iran, but he maintained his refusal to negotiate the existence or non-existence of a WMD program with them at the same time. This weekend, the Bush White House ate a gigantic and grotesquely unpalatable feast of crow with lashings of humble pie. They announced their acquiescence to direct negotiations with Iran, a nation that is now the target of very advanced US military planning for a war that is designed to launch later this year. This is a stunning reversal of policy even for a foolish despot like Bush, and it is yet another massive diplomatic catastrophe for America. There is a saying, “Don’t mess with Texas!” From my youth, I frequently visited Texas often from my parents’ two homes in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. It is actually a lovely place and a wonderful state. I love driving through Texas, from Dallas to Austin to Midland and El Paso. There are many proud achievements by Texan statesmen including: Sam Rayburn; Lyndon Baines Johnson; Ralph Yarborough; Lloyd Bentsen and many others. The Bush White House is driving many Americans and many more international observers to the false conclusion that the state of Texas has already been messed with by a rowdy and incompetent crew that are now trammeling the civil liberties of all Americans into the dusty carpets of history as the Bush Texans stride around the West Wing and the EOB in their colorful cowboy boots. The Bush White House is reeling from defeat to disastrous defeat in the world of international diplomacy as the credibility, the standing and the status of America plummets into the mists of oblivion under the cowboy-booted heel of the Texan president. __________________ Since 1968, Michael Carmichael has been a professional political consultant. Beginning as a Student Coordinator for Robert F. Kennedy, he has worked in five US presidential campaigns as well as over 100 major American political campaigns for federal and state offices. In 1985, he founded The Oxford Centre for Public Affairs in the United Kingdom. In 2003, he founded The Planetary Movement Limited, a global political action organization based in the United Kingdom.
Last Update: 03/23/2006 |
