The Five Fatal Mistakes of Bush's Mideast Policy
Analysis: The U.S. President may have had noble aims, but his administration's policies have helped push the region toward catastrophe
By SCOTT MACLEOD/CAIRO

Posted Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2006
President Bush travels to Jordan this week amid a consensus among U.S. allies in the Middle East that the region is monumentally worse off now than it was when he took office six years ago. In Iraq, there seems little prospect of achieving anything that could be construed as a U.S. victory — and as a result, it is unlikely to send the promised tidal wave of freedom crashing across the Arab world. Instead, Iraq has effectively disintegrated into a Sunni-Shi'ite civil war that threatens to spread instability throughout the region.

Elsewhere, Israelis and Palestinians have descended into one of the most intractable cycles of conflict in their long struggle. In Lebanon, the national unity agreement that ended almost two decades of civil war in 1990 appears to be unraveling, as sectarian factions are again edging toward another bloodbath. Meanwhile, Arab autocrats remain entrenched, Arab democrats are feeling abandoned, and Iran's Islamic revolution is enjoying a second wind. For all the grand ambition of President Bush's interventions in the Middle East, a veteran Western diplomat recently offered TIME the following glum assessment: "The region is in as serious a mess as I have ever seen it. There is an unprecedented number of interconnected conflicts and threats."

The fact that Bush is holding talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki not in Baghdad, but in the comparatively tranquil Jordanian capital of Amman, has not gone unnoticed."One hundred and fifty thousand U.S. soldiers cannot secure protection for their president," mocked a Jordanian columnist, who called the choice of venue "an open admission of gross failure for Washington and its allies' project in Iraq."

So, how did things go wrong? The Bush Administration is not entirely to blame. The Middle East is a tough neighborhood, and many of its various ills — repression, extremism and conflict — have been around for decades. Bush deserves credit, in fact, for reversing — on paper if not in practice — years of American policy by promoting democracy in the Arab world and calling for an independent Palestinian state. But the Bush Administration made five fatal mistakes that contributed to the crisis in which it now finds itself.

1. Bush ignored the Palestinians.

Up until the week that Bill Clinton left office in January 2001, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were still trying to work out an ambitious end-of-conflict agreement. True, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had unleashed an intifadeh, and the Israelis were on the verge of electing Ariel Sharon — an avowed enemy of the Oslo peace process — as prime minister, but the two sides were still talking. When Bush became president, he ended crucial American mediation, repudiated Arafat and backed Sharon, who proceeded to expand Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. With the conflict becoming bloodier than ever, Arafat died, and Hamas, the fundamentalist party that adamantly refuses to even recognize Israel, much less negotiate with it, ousted the late Palestinian leader's party from power. Besides angering Arab opinion, the lack of an Arab-Israeli peace process that would also address Israel's occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights has encouraged mischief-making by Damascus, which is suspected of aiding anti-U.S. insurgents in Iraq and committing political assassinations in Lebanon.

2. Bush invaded Iraq.

After 9/11, Bush became convinced that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons and represented a mortal threat to the West. He also came to believe that ousting Saddam would turn Iraq into a democracy that would become the model for the rest of the Arab world. Saddam turned out not to have nuclear weapons, and Iraq turned out to be more prone to civil war than democracy. It runs the risk of becoming a failed state from which terrorists run global operations, and/or breaking into ethnic mini-states that inspire secessionist trouble throughout the region.

3. Bush misjudged Iran.

Just after Bush became president, Iranians reelected moderate President Mohammed Khatami, who had reached out to the U.S. and called for a "dialogue of civilizations." Bush not only refused to extend the olive branch cautiously offered by the Clinton Administration, he declared Iran part of an "axis of evil." Khatami left office under fire for the failure of his conciliatory approach, to be replaced by hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who proceeded to promote Iran's nuclear ambitions and call for Israel to be wiped off the map. Despite Bush's tough talk against Iran, the Iraq war has dramatically expanded Iran's influence in the country. To make matters worse, Iran's Lebanese ally, Hizballah, withstood Israel's month-long onslaught last summer and is poised to topple the U.S.-backed Lebanese government.

4. Bush hurt Israel.

If protecting Israel had been a key goal of the Administration's policies, it is hard to see how they have helped make the Jewish State better off today. Having gotten rid of Arafat, they have instead to face Hamas. And continuous rocket attacks from Gaza have highlighted the limits of what Israel can achieve through its plans to unilaterally redraw its borders. The confrontation in Lebanon over the summer and the messy engagement in Gaza also highlight the limits on the deterrent capacity of Israel's military advantages. Spreading instability in the region is not in Israel's long-term interests; nor is a nuclear Iran.

5. Bush alienated Muslims.

It was an honest misstep, but the problem began when Bush promised to wage a "crusade" against al-Qaeda after September 11, effectively equating his war on terrorism with an earlier Christian invasion of the Middle East that remains etched in the collective memory of Muslims. Since then, the Bush Administration's involvement in or perceived support of military campaigns against Iraqis, Palestinians and Lebanese heightened Muslim anger at the U.S. and undermined the political position of moderate, pro-American Arabs, including old U.S. allies like Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia — and, of course, King Abdullah II of Jordan, the host of Bush's Middle East visit this week.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... 50,00.html

pretty good critique.

5 good things Bush has done....EVER

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anyone?

two major things


saved us from having gore as president
saved us from having kerry as president

Because remember everyone, Peeps has a crystal ball that allows him to know that Gore and/or Kerry would have been a much worse president than GWB

Most alienated Muslims are alienated by themselves or Muslims.

i hear a washcloth will get any sand outta your vagina

What other advice has your mother given you?

Five?

There's a lot of ways to look at this piece.

Three I totally disagree with. One being that he misjudged Iran. No, he was spot on with his assessment of Iran and the road it has taken. Bush observed what took place with NK and understood that Iran was much like NK in that...extending the olive branch would be pointless. Clinton gave NK nuke techs and other shit, and look where it got us.

The second thing I disagree with is the position on Israel and Palestine. Anyone with clear sight and mind knew and understood that political dialougue with Arafat, or even other organizations was pointless. Bush understood that a sensible agreement that would form the foundation of a lasting peace was impossible with Arafat. That "little intifada" that Arafat jinned up at the beginning of Bush's term is just a little misrepresented in this piece.

Hallucination hit the nail on the head on the third one.

to not pay attention that much to people who talk out their ass


you say i have no proof showing that bush is better than them two

i say

show me proof these 5 things would work


ooops, thats right, ill have to share my crystal ball

i wonder how many people are gonna attend bush's funeral

17 more than yours

You say ta-matto, I say ta-mayto.

i guess i assumed wrong when i thought you were capable of more than childish partisan politics? oh well, i guess you will just have to find out the hard way that the kool-aid isnt healthy for you

I wish I was George W. You know that fucker doesnt care about anything but living the great pampered life that hes always had.

but if I ever met him...I would probably tell him that he really fucked it all up.

Say what you will about Bush, but Kerry is nothing more than an empty suit, and Al Gore portrayed himself as nothing more than an empty suit. I don't know about you, but most people like their leaders to have some sort of vision for the future.

i guess you assumed wrong when you thought i gave a shit what you think? and please, dont talk about childish partisan politics mr bonaduce

This discussion begins and ends with the type of government created in Iraq but it gives me tired head
oh and israel

peeps, oh peeps...your logic is laughable sometimes

"I don't care what anybody else thinks yet I like to have lengthy conversations on RM about the News and Debate that requires me to read other people's opinions! OH NO !!"

HAHAHAHAHAHA