How bad is the current state of US foreign relations? Let’s take a step back and look at the big picture. Before Bush was elected, who would have guessed that at the end of 2002, Germany would have sided with Iraq against the United States, and that South Korea would side with North Korea against the United States? To be honest, I would have considered those things outside the realm of possibility. Relations between Israel and the Palestinians are as bad as they have been since the start of the intifada. Islamist parties are gaining ground all over the world, despite our concerted efforts over the past year to deter Islamism wherever we can. It’s a given that the Bush administration has done a poor job domestically, the counter argument is that events have demanded he focus on foreign policy. Ironic that we’re perhaps doing even worse on that front. I expect that countries like France, Russia, and China would oppose the US agenda as a matter of course — not so with countries like Germany, South Korea, and Turkey.
While I love as much as anyone to drip with contempt for the Bush dysadministration, the point is not just the craven ineptitude in the management of our foreign policies. While conflicts in the non-Western world are ramping down, the dysadministration’s mismanagement — provoking North Korea, dismantling the fragile stability of arms control accords, paradoxical encouragement of virulent Islamic fundamentalism, and utter disregard for the multilateral foundations of security and stability — is singularly responsible for making this a much much more perilous planet on which to live, endangering my life and, more important, those of my children…
