A Diagnosis For A Sick Foreign Policy
Jim Hoagland writes an op-ed in today's Washington Post that actually makes a cogent observation about the foreign policy catastrophe also known as the Bush administration.
Hoagland's finds a logical explanation for some of the irrational decisions that have come specifically from Bush and Cheney, i.e. the war, the defense of torture, etc.:
The core decision makers of the Bush team still see the world under the cloud of Sept. 11, while more and more citizens do not.
Heck, I had been under the impression that the constant flashing back to 9-11 was nothing more than an opportunistic exploitation of that event. Hoagland may have a point here. I will hasten to complete the thought. The policy excesses we have seen in the last few years, while horrifying to seasoned foreign relations types, can be viewed as rational coming from someone suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The dwindling number of citizens who approve of the bull in the china shop approach to international affairs can be viewed as similarly touched in the head.
Making policy from a psychologically disturbed world-view, however is not a way to further American interests anywhere in the world.
Hoagland stumbles later in the piece when he brings last week's bloodshed in Jordan into his argument:
The blasts in Jordan show that the murderous forces behind Sept. 11 are still on the march.
Hoagland is enough of an old Middle-East hand to know that this is a falsehood. Zarqawi's Al Qaeda in Iraq is less Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda than the band now touring as The Beach Boys is the original group known for those great songs of long ago California summers.
A wise man once wrote: "Fear is failure and the forerunner of failure." The U.S. would be wise to shake off any residual after-effects of 9-11 and get back to the principles that made this a great nation.
Hoagland's finds a logical explanation for some of the irrational decisions that have come specifically from Bush and Cheney, i.e. the war, the defense of torture, etc.:
The core decision makers of the Bush team still see the world under the cloud of Sept. 11, while more and more citizens do not.
Heck, I had been under the impression that the constant flashing back to 9-11 was nothing more than an opportunistic exploitation of that event. Hoagland may have a point here. I will hasten to complete the thought. The policy excesses we have seen in the last few years, while horrifying to seasoned foreign relations types, can be viewed as rational coming from someone suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The dwindling number of citizens who approve of the bull in the china shop approach to international affairs can be viewed as similarly touched in the head.
Making policy from a psychologically disturbed world-view, however is not a way to further American interests anywhere in the world.
Hoagland stumbles later in the piece when he brings last week's bloodshed in Jordan into his argument:
The blasts in Jordan show that the murderous forces behind Sept. 11 are still on the march.
Hoagland is enough of an old Middle-East hand to know that this is a falsehood. Zarqawi's Al Qaeda in Iraq is less Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda than the band now touring as The Beach Boys is the original group known for those great songs of long ago California summers.
A wise man once wrote: "Fear is failure and the forerunner of failure." The U.S. would be wise to shake off any residual after-effects of 9-11 and get back to the principles that made this a great nation.
posted by Effwit at 3:50 PM
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