It’s a shame Dana Milbank’s piece on Bush’s foreign policy speech in Canada was buried on page A32 today, because it’s definitely worth reading.
The president hadn’t delivered any substantive foreign policy remarks since the election. While no one really expected a change in direction, in a speech in Nova Scotia yesterday, Bush articulated a vision that sounded encouraging — at first.
President Bush on Wednesday outlined a second-term foreign policy that would make international cooperation his administration’s top priority… Addressing Canadian officials at the end of a two-day trip to the country, Bush vowed that his first order of business would be to build “multilateral institutions,” signaling that, after a contentious first term, he was eager for more fruitful diplomacy.
“A new term in office is an important opportunity to reach out to our friends,” the president said.
Was Bush replaced with some kind of imposter? Was the president really emphasizing international cooperation as part of a second term agenda, after four years of straining our relationships around the world? Well, just a couple of paragraphs later…
Yet, in a speech at this city’s storied seaport, Bush made clear that such cooperation must occur on his terms, and he did not retreat from the first-term policies that angered some allies.
Ah, that’s better. It sounded for a moment that Bush was going to change and work towards real cooperation. What Bush meant, of course, is that he’ll be happy to work cooperatively with every country that embraces his administration’s agenda without exception. This much will never change.