Bush's bogus claims on terror

[question everything]

Monday, September 20, 2004

The president's decisive image helps mask a mixed and often weak record.

By Philip Gordon
Senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution

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The problem, however, is that for all Bush's unquestionable steadfastness, the claim that his conduct of the war on terror deserves high marks - and sets him apart from his challenger - does not stand up to scrutiny. Indeed, while Bush has undeniably taken steps to make America safer over the last three years, it is far from obvious that his record distinguishes him positively even from what a hypothetical Kerry administration would do. Most of the good things Bush has done would have been done by just about any American leader, while other aspects of his conduct of the war on terrorism have proven counterproductive.

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In Afghanistan, Bush also did the right thing. Overthrowing the Taliban regime and putting the country on a course toward democracy was a necessary step, and America and the world are now safer because of it. Again, however, it is hard to argue that Bush did something that any other president would not have done, or that he did it better. Whereas Bush supporters criticize the Clinton administration for failing to stand up to terrorists adequately in the 1990s, none was calling for an invasion of Afghanistan then, just as no serious Democrat opposed that invasion in 2001. By relying on more troops and involving NATO allies rather than experimenting with the light forces concept dear to Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon, a different administration might even have prevented Osama bin Laden's escape and further set back the Taliban's efforts to regroup.

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Then there is the war in Iraq, which the Bush team claims as central to the case for why Bush can best protect Americans from terrorism. Here, of course, Republicans are right that another president might not have pursued the same policy, or might have pursued it differently from Bush. What is puzzling, however, is how the results of the decision to invade Iraq can be portrayed as proof of Bush's success on the terrorism front. The case that Saddam was in cahoots with al-Qaida has been discredited. And while a free, stable and democratic Iraq would in theory have helped wean some Muslims away from extremism, we are now so far from that goal in Iraq - with little prospect for getting there anytime soon - that the Iraq war cannot credibly be presented as a blow against terrorism.

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Other Bush policies have been equally destructive to U.S. efforts in the war on terror. The administration's assumption that foreign policy could be built on strength and determination alone led to a lack of engagement on the Israel-Palestinian conflict that has damaged America's image in the Muslim world. And that image has been further corroded by the abuses in Iraqi prisons and the indefinite detentions at Guantanamo, policies that arose from an attitude that rules no longer applied to an America that had been attacked.

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http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2004/09/20/sections/commentary/article_244711.php