 | by Marah Bukai
Exclusive for Al Waref “The war on terror” allowed for a qualitative deviation from internal and external policy throughout President Bush’s two terms of office, during which time, this slogan was used to permit him to stray from his international obligations. |
He withdrew from the Kyoto treaty, which was designed to reduce global warming, opposed joining the International Criminal Court, and adopted a policy of preemptive war to overthrow the dictatorship and governance systems of Islamic fundamentalism and anti-west sentiments. The United States Congress provided President Bush with a great deal of authority through a centralization of power, justified on the grounds of national security. This allowed for the adoption of radical policies, supported by the neo-conservatives of the ruling Republican Party and sustained because of the unprecedented level of control in the White Houses. Federal bureaucracy reached its highest levels since World War II, strengthened even further in the development of military power and the establishment of a vast Ministry for National Security. Even in the cases of other prominent Republican leaders, the measures taken to monitor potential violence did not reach the extremes of Bush’s policies. Kissinger, who controlled foreign diplomacy with a mandate from President Nixon, stated in his memoirs that it was in the best long-term interest of the United States to work within a balance of power that would maintain security and internal stability within the world system. President Reagan, who believed the former Soviet Union to be “the evil empire,” did not resort to overthrowing the ruling regime by force! There was a split within the Republican party because of Bush’s foreign policy, some gravitating towards more moderate ideals to distance themselves from the “new-conservatives.” This led to a cross-fertilization of the conservative streams of thought: political and religious. The escalating controversy over theoretical and applied ideas has been described by one of the most prominent theorists of this trend, Francis Fukyama. In his book, “Post Neo-Cons: America at a crossroads.” The two currents in the context of the growing conservative trend, one of traditional moderate conservatives who view with suspicion and resentment the policies of President George W. Bush from the realistic approach of their faith in politics away from delinquency to religious inspiration as claiming war on the name of God. This is in contrast to the supporters of the radical religious conservative trend who see President Bush and the new Winston Churchill, who led the United States safely in the depth of war. The U.S. war in Iraq, from the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime to the continuous military presence there, was meant to undermine Saddam’s dictatorship with the completion of the “task.” This war has seemed endless, and has been deemed by impressionists as the worst disaster in American history, in terms of both foreign and domestic policy. The American political process has lost mobility as the Republican Party has split into separatist and popular factions; they have lost their control of the presidency and the majority of seats in the House of Representatives. Even after John McCain distanced himself from George W. Bush and his flock, he could not leave entirely behind the reputation of the tarnished Republican Party. Richard Perle, a hardened ideologue of the war in Iraq, said in a television special on the Biography channel, “early departure of U.S. troops from Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein, and handing Iraq over to the Iraqi army after filtration rather than dissolving them, he could have recorded an unprecedented victory for U.S. political will and desire in the initial spread of democracy in the world, and consequently the reputation that affected America from the distortion caused by international community and humanitarian crises.” Since the white smoke began to rise in Washington, declaring Democrat Barack Obama President Elect of the United States, there as been an attempt to examine the reasons for this resounding defeat that witnessed the fall of the Republican Party in the legislative and executive branches, not seen since the forties of the previous century. An analyst from the moderate wing of the Republican Party, George Will, has recently written a book entitled, One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of our Singular Nation, in which he describes the recent isolation of the President’s foreign and domestic policies. The control of the President has led to embarrassing failures for the United States in terms of human rights, justice, and world-wide democracy. Will citizens the idea of “venerating military solution” as a political formula used by ambulatory neo-conservatives. This is a principle first considered by President Theodore Roosevelt, who long criticized the lack of American enthusiasm necessary to build an American Empire, stressing the importance of a larger force of energy than one individual. 2008 was the year of two awakenings in the United States: the awakening of "change,” an integral part of President Obama’s campaign and the awakening of "reform" in the corridors of the Republican Party to re-read the events of their history. It will be the vibrant youth of this country that will rejuvenate the premature aging skin that these rampant wars have damaged here and there; an aging that was not desired and must be reversed!
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