An Unnatural Disaster: America bears much of the blame for its waning global clout

[marmar]

from Newsweek:



THE WORLD FROM WASHINGTON | Michael Hirsh
An Unnatural Disaster
America bears much of the blame for its waning global clout.

May 15, 2008 | Updated: 1:45 p.m. ET May 15, 2008


In a month of horrific natural disasters—the China quake, the Burma cyclone—it's instructive to consider what one of the biggest unnatural disasters in memory looks like. That is the decline in America's position in the world from where we were when George W. Bush inherited power on Jan. 20, 2001, to what he will bequeath to the next president eight months from now.

In many articles and in book after book American "declinists" nowadays tend to portray America's reduced stature as a largely natural phenomenon. Never mind that on the eve of the Bush presidency we were still seen as the most powerful nation in the history of the world. Decadent powers always wane in influence, and it seems we've just been doing a lot of waning very quickly. As other countries around the world partook of the ideas we pressed on them in the post-cold war era—free markets, democracy—they started to prosper and catch up to us. Meanwhile we grew fatter (literally) and more spoiled. It was all very organic.

Sure, there's something to this thesis. I argued it myself in a book—“At War With Ourselves"—I published back in 2003. Some relative U.S. decline was always inevitable. But these ruminations still miss the main point. Most of what has happened over the last seven years is the result of strategic misconceptions, awful policy decisions, and botched opportunities for leadership by the major players in Washington. What happened to America wasn't natural, it was almost entirely self-inflicted.

The issue goes way beyond Bush's decision to invade Iraq in the middle of the war in Afghanistan. U.S. government literally broke down during the Bush years. The interagency process was destroyed as Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld set up what was effectively a "black" alternative government (the veep's shadow national security council, and Doug Feith's Office of Special Plans at the Pentagon). The White House treated its coequal branch, Congress, like an interloper (to the annoyance of Republicans as well as Democrats). Junk science infected the policy-making apparatus on key issues of importance to our allies in Europe and Asia, like global warming. Junk legal reasoning by White House and Justice Department lawyers was used to publicly justify torture, decimating our once high moral stature around the world. Junk economics—an excess of free-market fervor—infected the Federal Reserve and other regulators, who slumbered while Wall Street ran amok selling fraudulent mortgage securities to foreign markets. Congress went to sleep while the administration ran up record deficits. (The fallout from the subprime debacle and budget imbalance has cost us as much prestige in the economic sphere as Iraq has cost us in the foreign policy arena.) The Department of Homeland Security, misconceived and oversized even at its birth, grew into an unmanageable monstrosity, leading directly to the disaster of the Hurricane Katrina response.

All this dysfunction might have been bearable had the right strategic decisions emerged from the black box that Bush's Washington became. But not surprisingly, given the absence of most checks and balances, precisely the wrong decisions emerged. Invading Iraq, of course, was the biggie—a decision that has possibly cost as much in innocent life and limb as the Burma and China disasters put together. As most countries saw it, taking on the "root cause" of Al Qaeda by targeting Arab tyranny a thousand miles away from the enemy—while the terrorist network continued to flourish in Afghanistan and Pakistan—was like holding a conference on fire safety while your house is still burning down. In any case, along with their trumped-up case on WMD, the Bushies never successfully made the argument that Al Qaeda grew out of a lack of democracy in Arabia rather than out of the anti-Soviet jihad in the mountains of Afghanistan, which was the group's real lineage. (Check the record: there was not a single scholarly or intelligence study cited for that argument.) And even if you accept that forcing the defiant Saddam to surrender his "WMD" at that historic juncture was a necessary exercise of U.S. power—we were all pretty riled up, after all—going ahead and invading after Bush had won a 15-0 Security Council vote that gave him complete inspection access to Iraq was seen abroad as an act of recklessness. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.newsweek.com/id/137146?from=rss

[rpannier]

1. Recommend

Britain has weathered this a little better.
I think that's because bLIAR is gone and bLIAR is better at soft-peddling his role as Benito Mussolini

[lyonn]

2. This sentence really stuck with me, had to come back and comment:

"Invading Iraq, of course, was the biggie—a decision that has possibly cost as much in innocent life and limb as the Burma and China disasters put together."

Most of us already know what is written in this article. Bush's reign has been a disaster in the truest sense of the term. No one can name one thing positive. What bothers many of us is that he fooled so many people for so long. How could he be re-elected after it was obvious things had gone terribly wrong with our govt.. The whole world knew it. Screwed up vote count seems to be the reason. Ohio in particular.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

3. Bush-

The ultimate profane expletive that defines the electorate!

[gateley]

4. K&R nt

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. Ah, hindsight. What an inefficient method of reporting news.

FUCK! :argh: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[UpInArms]

6. here's a link to a site that did 20-20 foresight

The page is in reverse chronological order.

The website started compiling the dreadful acts on the first day of this mal-administration and stopped after its servers were hacked in 2003 :(

here's a sample:

5-11-2001
CNN
Bush uses high gas prices to sell his tax cut.

When the economy was great, Bush's tax cut was about returning the surplus to the people. When the economy went into the toilet, the long-term cut, defying all logic and economics, was a necessary short-term boost to the economy. Now that gas prices are on the rise, Bush says the tax cut will help the American people to pay for gas. The money will make a brief stop in our bank accounts on its way to the oil companies, which are enjoying record profits as pump prices soar. Apparently the president can't imagine why we'd find this objectionable.

<snip>

4-4-2001
New York Times
Bush cuts health programs for uninsured.

The budget plan Bush sent to Congress includes deep cuts in programs championed by the Clinton administration. The cuts will make it more difficult to provide training to doctors and nurses who want to provide services in underserved areas. The programs he's cutting have also increased the number of minorities in healthcare jobs.

3-31-2001
Women's Enews
Bush closes White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach.

A common campaign theme for Bush was "W Stands for Women." This catchy slogan made it onto thousands of posters, but the message never got through to Bush. One of his first acts as president is to close the White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach, created by President Clinton to give women's groups a greater role in public policy.

3-30-2001
Washington Post
Bush makes it easier for criminals to get federal contracts.

Our law-and-order conservative president doesn't want to throw the people who run corporations that break worker safety and environmental laws in jail. Bush would rather they get federal contracts, so he suspends Clinton administration rules making it more difficult for companies that broke the law to bid on lucrative federal contracts. Why isn't this simply illegal?

3-30-2001
Washington Post
Bush cuts police budget.

One of the reasons for the sharp reductions in crime during the Clinton administration was the increase in community police. Now Bush wants to cut those cops out of the budget to pay for increased security in our schools because, after all, shootings in schools get more media coverage than shootings on the street.

3-29-2001
CNN
Bush pulls out of the Kyoto treaty.

Prompting an outcry from the international community, Bush says that the United States won't support the Kyoto treaty to reduce global warming because it would hurt the American economy and doesn't hold third-world countries responsible for their pollution. Bush sees no irony in being concerned about the effects of pollution reduction on the world's strongest economy while caring not a whit about the most fragile economies.

3-23-2001
Salon.com
Bush cuts programs for children in his budget.

Showing the compassionate side of his conservatism, Bush reduces spending on programs that deal with child abuse, preschool education, and training for pediatricians.

3-22-2001
CNN
Bush ends ABA's role in selecting federal judges.

For 50 years, the American Bar Association has advised the White House on the qualifications of potential nominees for the federal bench. Ever since it gave Reagan Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork a mixed (but mostly positive) review, conservatives have been gunning for the ABA, claiming that the organization has a liberal bias. Bush has given into their demands and seems poised to replace the ABA's advice with that of the Federalist Society, a group of lawyers that makes no bones about its ultraconservative biases.

3-20-2001
CNN
Bush keeps the arsenic levels in drinking water high.

Bush delays Clinton administration rules that would have lowered the maximum allowable level of arsenic in drinking water. The standard has remained unchanged since 1942. Who benefits from the higher levels? The mining companies and other industrial interests that would have to pay more to avoid polluting the water supply. These interests donated generously to Bush's campaign. Anyone surprised?

3-20-2001
CNN
Bush signs ergonomics repeal.

Bush signs a bill that repeals Clinton administration rules designed to protect Americans from ergonomic injuries. The rules, 10 years of study by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the making, are opposed by Bush's friends in the business world, who fear the cost. Of course the long-term cost of dealing with injured workers is much higher.

3-13-2001
CNN
Bush reverses stance on CO2 emissions.

Despite a campaign pledge to the contrary, Bush decides he won't tell American factories to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, one of the leading causes of the greenhouse effect. He says the energy crisis requires him to delay action in this area, but does nothing to curb U.S. consumption, which would reduce pollution and alleviate the energy crisis.

3-9-2001
CNN
Bush postures over North Korea.

Secretary of State Colin Powell announces that he'd like to continue the diplomatic progress the Clinton administration has made with North Korea. A day later, Bush contradicts his chief diplomat, saying he doesn't trust North Korea to honor their agreements. When a reporter later points out that America has only one agreement with North Korea--which the country has honored--the administration's press flacks explain this by saying that referring to the future in the present tense is just the way the president talks. Meanwhile, the world sits in wonder over our Bush's huge diplomatic step backward.

3-3-2001
Washington Post
Bush lies about his tax cut.

Contrary to Democratic reports that more than 40 percent of his tax cut goes to the richest 1 percent of Americans, Bush says that only 22 percent will go to them. But his analysis, Bush leaves out the estate tax cut and the last bits of income tax rate reductions--all of which go to the rich. He just picks and chooses the portions he likes in order to come up with the number he wants--and it's still too high.
Read the Wage Slave Journal report on Bush's tax plan

2-7-2001
CNN
Bush almost closes White House AIDS and race offices.

In what will become a pattern for the Bush administration, Chief of Staff Andy Card announces that White House will close its offices on AIDS and race relations. After a brief but virulent media firestorm, the administration backtracks, claiming that the person responsible for running the White House "wasn't aware" that the offices were remaining open.

1-22-2001
CNN
Bush defunds international organizations that provide abortions or abortion counseling to poor women.

Organizations that provide healthcare to the third world will no longer be allowed to offer abortions or even counseling about options that include abortion if they want to continue to receive federal funding. Either they forego the funding, which could mean they'd have to shut down, or they comply with this directive, which adds to population problems and subjects women to the morality of conservative Americans. Back-alley abortions will likely result in death for many women.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

7. Their servers were hacked...

Geez, I wonder what evil entity perpetrated that act? "Land of the free", uh huh.

[lyonn]

8. Bush and Co. hit the ground slashing and burning all the good

that Clinton had provided for we the people and gave to the most needy, corporations! sarcasm

From FDR on the Dems have put protections in place for the masses and every time a repub gets control they work night and day making sure the corps can run their business any way they want, no safety protection of workers or products, etc., etc.. Health care/insurance is unbelievable, they pick and choose who they will cover. The Supreme Court is so against the people anymore and yet the masses don't know it. Wait till they try to get relief from govt. or corps. via the courts.

Obama is my choice but there is no way I'd vote for another repub. The saying, lesser of two evils, is ridiculous. Dems are not evil, just lax sometimes.