President Bush's Foreign Policies are provoking global anxiety by Salim Muwakkil The Chicago Tribune 9:38am 8th May, 2004   May 7, 2004    How much more of President Bush can America take? The Bush administration's foreign policies have provoked such global anxiety that they have triggered a group of retired U.S. diplomats into a public display of dissent--a rare act from tacticians who prefer silent persuasion. Paying tribute to 52 former British diplomats who last week issued a scathing public rebuke of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Middle East policies, 58 former U.S. ambassadors and diplomats wrote a letter condemning White House policy in the region.    "As retired foreign service officers we care deeply about our nation's foreign policy and U.S. credibility in the world," the U.S. ambassadors wrote in their letter, released May 3. Administration policies in the Middle East "are costing our country its credibility, prestige and friends." The group expressed specific opposition to Bush's April 14 endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "unilateral plan to reject the rights of 3 million Palestinians, to deny the right of refugees to return to their homeland, and to retain five large illegal settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank."    The letter charged that Bush's policy defies the UN Security Council, ignores international laws, undermines the so-called Middle East "road map" and reverses long-standing American policy in the region.    And, since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the core of the problems in the Middle East, the diplomats wrote, "A return to the time-honored American tradition of fairness will reverse the present tide of ill will in Europe and the Middle East--even in Iraq."    But the Bushites seem oblivious to such logic. They insist the invasion and occupation of Iraq will help "drain the swamp" of terrorists and their collaborators.    But has the attack on Iraq made the world any safer from terrorism? Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), one of the most articulate opponents of the Bush administration's foreign policies, asked that question in an April 29 speech to the Senate floor. He then gave his answer.    "Iraq has become a breeding ground for terrorists of all stripes," he noted. "The Middle East seethes in deepening violence and the culture of revenge. Our war on terror appears to many as a war against Islam. A one-sided policy on the Arab-Israeli conflict drives both sides away from the peace table, and hundreds of millions more to hatred of our country. No, the world is not safer."    At 86, West Virginia's beloved senator may be seeking atonement for his early Ku Klux Klan days. His occasional speeches challenging Bush's imperial doctrine have been pearls of progressive wisdom.    "Deaths and casualties of Iraqi civilians are in the thousands," Byrd told the sparsely filled chamber. "Is it any wonder they see us not as liberators but as crusaders and conquerors?"    Here's a better question: Why can't other legislators ask those kinds of questions? How dare we make claims of being a democracy when our purported representatives are intimidated from challenging the most significant decision a nation can make: declaring war and placing its citizens in harm's way.    Byrd also disparaged the now infamous banner announcing "Mission Accomplished" that hung behind a swaggering Bush on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier May 1, 2003. "The mission in Iraq, as laid out by President Bush and Vice President [Dick] Cheney, has failed. Even more disturbing, the disdain for international law and the military bombast of this cocky, reckless administration have tarnished the beacon of hope and freedom which the United States of America once offered to the world."    This is classic political rhetoric but it's also true. A March 16 poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that international "discontent with America and its policies has intensified rather than diminished" a year after the war in Iraq began. The center found "perceptions of American unilateralism remain widespread in European and Muslim nations, and the war in Iraq has undermined America's credibility abroad."    Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who chairs the Pew Global Attitudes Project that produced the report, said "it is disturbing that Americans are the only ones surveyed who believe the war in Iraq helped, rather than hurt, in fighting Al Qaeda." Recent stories and photographs detailing the humiliation and abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison are sure to help Al Qaeda's recruitment efforts. The mass graves of dead Iraqis found in a Fallujah soccer stadium won't hurt either.    In fact, the Jihadist ideology that fuels Al Qaeda is catching on throughout the Islamic world, transforming what was an eccentric cult of renegade Muslims into a popular, populist movement.    The Bush administration accomplished all of this in less than four years; imagine what it can do in four more.    (Salim Muwakkil is a senior editor at In These Times)    Copyright © 2004 Salim Muwakkil
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