oracle
02-24-2002, 04:23 PM
A Reagan Echo (http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-000014036feb24.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Doped%2D manual)
Bush's version of cowboy diplomacy has our allies reeling, but the 'axis of evil' is running scared.
By WILLIAM SCHNEIDER
WASHINGTON -- A month ago, President Bush uttered three little words, and they caused our allies to take the vapors. The words were not, "I love you."' In his State of the Union speech Jan. 29, Bush condemned Iran, Iraq and North Korea, saying, "States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world." My goodness, look at the response.
The French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine called the president's remarks "simplistic" and "not properly thought through." Chris Patten, a British Conservative and the European Union's external-affairs commissioner, warned that the U.S. success in Afghanistan "reinforced some dangerous instincts ... that the U.S. can rely only on itself, and that allies may be useful as an optional extra."
The German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer complained that "alliance partners are not satellites." Russian President Vladimir V. Putin observed that, among countries whose citizens fought with the Taliban and helped finance the enemy, "Iraq is not on that list."
South Korea erupted in protests during the president's visit last week. Angry politicians complained that Bush was sacrificing Korea to his global strategy. One banner on the streets of Seoul read, "Who is in Axis of Evil? You, Mr. Bush!"
To the allies, Bush's words sounded like cowboy diplomacy. With good reason. A week after Sept. 11, Bush startled the world when he said about Osama bin Laden: "There's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'" On Feb. 8, Bush addressed a roomful of cowboys at the National Cattlemen's Beef Assn. meeting in Denver. The president said to a forest of 10-gallon hats, "Either you're with us, or you're against us." On his way to the Far East last weekend, he told U.S. troops in Alaska, "I view this current conflict as either us versus them [or] evil versus good. And there is no in between." It's the black hats and the white hats--just like in the cowboy movies.
Bush is not the first cowboy president. Ronald Reagan was also fond of 10-gallon hats. Remember when Reagan threatened tax raisers by saying, "Go ahead--make my day"? That's cowboy talk, even if the line came from "Dirty Harry," Clint Eastwood's urban vigilante movie.
During Reagan's first year in office, his tough talk and military build-up frightened so many people that a spontaneous nuclear-freeze movement broke out all over Europe. The allies were shocked by Reagan's "evil empire" speech to the British House of Commons in mid-1982, when he denounced the Soviet Union as a tyranny, relegated Marxism-Leninism to "the ash heap of history" and asked, "Must freedom wither--in a quiet, deadening accommodation with totalitarian evil?"
Reagan's policy was, "Talk tough, and carry a big stick." In the end, it worked. The evil empire crumbled. Europeans scoffed in 1987, when Reagan stood at the Berlin Wall and said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" But two years later, the wall came down.
Bush's policy is the same as Reagan's--tough talk and a huge military build-up. He does not share former President Bill Clinton's ambitions. Clinton wanted to be known as a peacemaker. Bush is a war leader, a self-described "crusader for justice" against evil and tyranny. "Our cause is just, our cause is noble, and we will defeat the forces of terror," the president told the troops in Alaska.
Clinton was loved and admired overseas. Reagan was respected abroad, but not especially loved or admired. Bush is a Reaganite, not a Clintonian, by temperament. He has no need to bask in the love and admiration of people around the world. But he does want to be respected. Which means his policies have to meet the same test as Reagan's: They have to work.
Critics argue that Bush's cowboy rhetoric is counterproductive. It undermines reformist forces in countries like Iran. When the U.S. denounces their country as "evil," moderates have no choice but to join the hard-liners in denouncing the U.S. They cannot risk being seen as pro-American. But that's all theatrics, the president's supporters would argue. What matters are the realities: the tyranny and corruption of their regimes, and the steadfastness of U.S. opposition.
...
Click here to read more (http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-000014036feb24.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Doped%2D manual)
Bush's version of cowboy diplomacy has our allies reeling, but the 'axis of evil' is running scared.
By WILLIAM SCHNEIDER
WASHINGTON -- A month ago, President Bush uttered three little words, and they caused our allies to take the vapors. The words were not, "I love you."' In his State of the Union speech Jan. 29, Bush condemned Iran, Iraq and North Korea, saying, "States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world." My goodness, look at the response.
The French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine called the president's remarks "simplistic" and "not properly thought through." Chris Patten, a British Conservative and the European Union's external-affairs commissioner, warned that the U.S. success in Afghanistan "reinforced some dangerous instincts ... that the U.S. can rely only on itself, and that allies may be useful as an optional extra."
The German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer complained that "alliance partners are not satellites." Russian President Vladimir V. Putin observed that, among countries whose citizens fought with the Taliban and helped finance the enemy, "Iraq is not on that list."
South Korea erupted in protests during the president's visit last week. Angry politicians complained that Bush was sacrificing Korea to his global strategy. One banner on the streets of Seoul read, "Who is in Axis of Evil? You, Mr. Bush!"
To the allies, Bush's words sounded like cowboy diplomacy. With good reason. A week after Sept. 11, Bush startled the world when he said about Osama bin Laden: "There's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'" On Feb. 8, Bush addressed a roomful of cowboys at the National Cattlemen's Beef Assn. meeting in Denver. The president said to a forest of 10-gallon hats, "Either you're with us, or you're against us." On his way to the Far East last weekend, he told U.S. troops in Alaska, "I view this current conflict as either us versus them [or] evil versus good. And there is no in between." It's the black hats and the white hats--just like in the cowboy movies.
Bush is not the first cowboy president. Ronald Reagan was also fond of 10-gallon hats. Remember when Reagan threatened tax raisers by saying, "Go ahead--make my day"? That's cowboy talk, even if the line came from "Dirty Harry," Clint Eastwood's urban vigilante movie.
During Reagan's first year in office, his tough talk and military build-up frightened so many people that a spontaneous nuclear-freeze movement broke out all over Europe. The allies were shocked by Reagan's "evil empire" speech to the British House of Commons in mid-1982, when he denounced the Soviet Union as a tyranny, relegated Marxism-Leninism to "the ash heap of history" and asked, "Must freedom wither--in a quiet, deadening accommodation with totalitarian evil?"
Reagan's policy was, "Talk tough, and carry a big stick." In the end, it worked. The evil empire crumbled. Europeans scoffed in 1987, when Reagan stood at the Berlin Wall and said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" But two years later, the wall came down.
Bush's policy is the same as Reagan's--tough talk and a huge military build-up. He does not share former President Bill Clinton's ambitions. Clinton wanted to be known as a peacemaker. Bush is a war leader, a self-described "crusader for justice" against evil and tyranny. "Our cause is just, our cause is noble, and we will defeat the forces of terror," the president told the troops in Alaska.
Clinton was loved and admired overseas. Reagan was respected abroad, but not especially loved or admired. Bush is a Reaganite, not a Clintonian, by temperament. He has no need to bask in the love and admiration of people around the world. But he does want to be respected. Which means his policies have to meet the same test as Reagan's: They have to work.
Critics argue that Bush's cowboy rhetoric is counterproductive. It undermines reformist forces in countries like Iran. When the U.S. denounces their country as "evil," moderates have no choice but to join the hard-liners in denouncing the U.S. They cannot risk being seen as pro-American. But that's all theatrics, the president's supporters would argue. What matters are the realities: the tyranny and corruption of their regimes, and the steadfastness of U.S. opposition.
...
Click here to read more (http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-000014036feb24.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Doped%2D manual)