Bush's and America's prestige
Bloomberg News:
May 1 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, already weakened at home by the soaring cost of oil, is finding that it's also eroding his ability to achieve his foreign-policy goals.So much harm has been done to the perception of American power and competence by this administration, yet they do not seem to comprehend this.
``It's a geopolitical nightmare,'' says William Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine and defense secretary under President Bill Clinton who is now chairman of the Cohen Group, a Washington-based consulting firm. Such nations as Iran, Russia and China ``don't see us as the colossus that can cause them any harm, either by our economy or by our prestige.''
posted by Bravo 2-1 at 11:18 AM
2 Comments:
It's not just a matter of prestige (as in respect and admiration), but a matter of national security. Admittiedly the two are fundamentally connected.
Despite the glaring failures exposed by Katrina, accounting that the number of terrorist attacks (and subsequent deaths) has skyrocketed in recent years, Iraq invasion has actually destabalized the region, the lack of boarder security, or by the apparent weakness in our ability to successfully influence reluctant, sometimes hostile, regimes, the administration still attempts to convince us that their policies and actions have made us safer.
Reality of the contrary makes continually spinning this lie a sysiphian feat, but that doesn't deter them.
Also, do you consider the antrax attacks as post-9/11 terrorist attacks? Why or why not?
It stands to cast the talking point of "Under Bush's brave leadership we haven't been attacked since 9/11" in a shadow of fallacy.
You and I agree as to prestige affecting policy and safety.
I consider the anthrax attacks to be a post 9/11 attack. But, one could argue that the Washington Sniper was a post 9/11 attack too.
Al Qaeda is a diffuse network. It has sympathetic organizations that are not necessarily connected but for belief in violent Islam. AQ assists smaller, less known networks with finances and expertise. Who knows the degree of AQ help offered to whomever was the Anthrax mailer. I believe there was no AQ link to the Washington Sniper. But, I also believe that smaller AQ contacts were involved with Madrid and London.
Osama bin Laden has offered his odd truce and then threatened an attack. That sort of behavior preceded 9/11, 3/11 and 7/7.
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