{"id":8279,"date":"2006-08-23T14:06:08","date_gmt":"2006-08-23T18:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8279.html"},"modified":"2006-08-23T14:06:08","modified_gmt":"2006-08-23T18:06:08","slug":"bush-doesnt-understand-iraq-or-lebanon-or-gaza-or","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bush-doesnt-understand-iraq-or-lebanon-or-gaza-or\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Bush doesn’t understand Iraq, or Lebanon, or Gaza, or…’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The best part of presidential press conferences<\/a> in which Bush talks about foreign policy? The next day, when Slate’s Fred Kaplan explains how the president doesn’t know what he’s talking about. In his latest piece<\/a>, Kaplan really doesn’t hold back.<\/p>\n

Defeating terror by promoting freedom — it’s “the fundamental challenge of the 21st century,” he has said several times, especially when it comes to the Middle East. But here, from the transcript of the press conference, is how he sees the region’s recent events:<\/p>\n

“What’s very interesting about the violence in Lebanon and the violence in Iraq and the violence in Gaza is this: These are all groups of terrorists who are trying to stop the advance of democracy.”<\/p>\n

What is he talking about? Hamas, which has been responsible for much of the violence in Gaza, won the Palestinian territory’s parliamentary elections. Hezbollah, which started its recent war with Israel, holds a substantial minority of seats in Lebanon’s parliament and would probably win many more seats if a new election were held tomorrow. Many of the militants waging sectarian battle in Iraq have representation in Baghdad’s popularly elected parliament.<\/p>\n

The key reality that Bush fails to grasp is that terrorism and democracy are not opposites. They can, and sometimes do, coexist. One is not a cure for the other.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think that’s true — if we followed Bush’s logic, we’d probably have to invade Great Britain<\/a> — and in just three paragraphs, Kaplan decimates the entire philosophy underpinning the president’s foreign policy. For at least two years, the Bush gang has treated it as a given that democracy = peace. I know we’re dealing with a group that creates its own reality, but they’re bound to give up on this argument eventually, right?<\/p>\n

And then there’s the debate over whether Bush understands the meaning of “strategy.”
\n<\/p>\n

“[H]elping Iraqis achieve a democratic society” may be a strategic objective<\/i>, but it’s not a strategy<\/i> — any more than “ending poverty” or “going to the moon” is a strategy.<\/p>\n

Strategy involves how<\/i> to achieve one’s objectives — or, as the great British strategist B.H. Liddell Hart put it, “the art of distributing and applying military means to fulfill the ends of policy.” These are the issues that Bush refuses to address publicly — what means and resources are to be applied, in what way, at what risk, and to what end, in pursuing his policy.<\/p>\n

Instead, he reduces everything to two options: “Cut and run” or, “Stay the course.” It’s as if there’s nothing in between, no alternative way of applying military means. Could it be that he doesn’t grasp the distinction between an “objective” and a “strategy,” and so doesn’t see that there might be<\/i> alternatives? Might our situation be that grim?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m afraid so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The best part of presidential press conferences in which Bush talks about foreign policy? The next day, when Slate’s Fred Kaplan explains how the president doesn’t know what he’s talking about. In his latest piece, Kaplan really doesn’t hold back. Defeating terror by promoting freedom — it’s “the fundamental challenge of the 21st century,” he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}