What Could Have Been - Bush and the Moral High Ground

Posted November 29, 2006 - 4:58pm by Expat Teacher

President Bush has squandered any good will and moral high road America had after 9/11/01. That can't be debated. Instead, America has paid a heavy price in treasure and blood for his mistakes. It will take a generation to right the wrongs from the last 5 years. As Bush slides into lame duck status and becomes more ineffectual because the Democratic Party has finally found a backbone, one wonders what might have been...

We saw a little of it yesterday in Latvia. President Bush went to a meeting of NATO leaders to demand more flexibility and engagement in Afghanistan. While many NATO troops have been deployed in Afghanistan, several countries have strict restrictions on their use. France, Germany and Italy all must keep out of the war zone leaving American, British, Canadian and Dutch soldiers to fight and die against the Taliban.

President Bush flew to Latvia with the moral high ground. He knew that the mission in Afghanistan was just and it is morally imperative to complete. He knew that the other NATO allies had promised to be there for the Afghans, but were shirking their duty. He spoke forcefully and was able to get some concessions from his fellow NATO partners.

And what did it achieve? While NATO failed to lift complete restrictions on troop use in Afghanistan. The Alliance's Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said that some 20,000 of Nato's 32,000 troops deployed in the country would now be able to be used with greater flexibility. "Instead of lifting the restrictions entirely, France, Germany and Italy agreed to allow their troops to be sent in emergencies to bolster the NATO forces in the south, where Taliban forces have fought with renewed vigor."

Is it a complete victory? No. But America was able to use the moral high ground to convince others to live up to their commitments and do the right thing.

Most importantly, it doesn't cost a thing in human life or treasure.

Oh! What could have been!

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Comments

Disagree

by Curt - 12/01/2006 - 11:08am

I disagree with the premise. Bush didn't "squander" anything. Bush tried to negotiate with both our allies and our enemies after 9/11. He even tried to negotiate with the Taliban. It was the French, Germans, Russians, Chinese, etc. that wouldn't cooperate with Bush, not the other way around. The fact of the matter is that the French, Russians, Germans, etc. had geopolitical reasons for not working with Bush and they had (and still have) significant financial interests that they didn't want to damage. The UN was mostly on the take and high ranking government officials in all those countries had financial interests that they were looking out for.

The premise is self-defeating by the way. If true, it assumes that the world didn't like the US before 9/11. Otherwise there wouldn't have needed to be an increase in "goodwill". But it's a myth to think that after 9/11 everyone loved us. The facts don't bear that out. Sure there was a temporary upswing in sympathy for America, but that lasted about 1 week before most of the world was back to bashing America.

And within our own borders, it didn't take much longer before Bush's political enemies were looking for ways to attack and weaken Bush.

The fact of the matter is that other countries cooperate with us when it's in their interest to do so, not because they like us. The same goes for internal politics.

UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL

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