THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 144, July 31, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
PRESIDENT BUSH'S BROKEN PROMISES
By Dr. Michael Rubin
THE BUSH PRESIDENCY & UNITED STATES FOREIGN POLICY: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIPLOMACY &
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS -- HOW A MAJOR WORLD POWER'S BROKEN PROMISES IMPACT UPON INTERNATIONAL CRISES --
THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF DETERIORATING RELATIONS BETWEEN THE U.S.A. & ONCE-STAUNCH ALLIES SUCH AS TURKEY,
ISRAEL, TAIWAN, JAPAN, & SOUTH KOREA -- HOW WELL HAS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION LIVED UP TO ITS COMMITMENT
TO PROMOTE INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM & STABLE CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY IN ISLAMIC NORTH AFRICA & THE
MIDDLE EAST?
FULL STORY:
During his last 18 months in office, President George W. Bush confronts a broader set of international crises than in his
first 18 months. While pundits blame unilateralism and the Iraq war, the deterioration of Washington's relations with
once-staunch allies has less to do with a lack of diplomacy and more to do with its kind.
Too often, the Bush administration has sacrificed longterm credibility for shortterm calm. Take Turkey. At the June, 2004,
NATO summit in Istanbul, President Bush promised Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the U.S. military
would shut down Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorists in Iraq. He did not. Three years later, the Turks no longer
trust U.S. promises and may send their army into Iraqi Kurdistan.
Already the damage to U.S. prestige is severe. Once among America's closest allies, Turkey, according to a Pew Global
Attitudes Project poll last month, is the most anti-American country in the world. Only 9% of Turks have a favorable
impression of the U.S.A.; 83% hold the opposite view. Most blame U.S. inaction against the PKK.
On June 24, 2002, Mr. Bush declared, "The United States will not support the establishment of a Palestinian state until its
leaders engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure." Less than a year later the U.S.
State Department reversed course, eliminating the cessation of terror as a precondition for engagement. Palestinian
terrorism grew.
While the White House condemns Hamas terrorism, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, to which
Mr. Bush promised a half billion dollars in July, 2007, is equally culpable. A year ago, Fatah's military wing threatened to
"strike at the economic and civilian interests of these countries [the U.S. and Israel], here and abroad," and it claimed
responsibility for a rocket attack on the Israeli town of Sderot in June, 2007.
Empty promises of accountability encourage terror by diminishing the costs of its embrace.
While terrorists benefit, Arab liberals [democratic constitutionalists] pay the price for the U.S. President's rhetorical
reversals. His promise in the second inaugural speech to "support the growth of democratic movements and institutions
in every nation and culture" rings hollow as Egyptian police beat, arrest, and sodomize protestors rallying to demand the
rule of law.
Mr. Bush has yet to act on his promise to resolve the case of Palestinian banker Issam Abu Issa, whose visa the U.S.
State Department revoked in February, 2004, as he prepared to testify before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee
on Palestinian Authority corruption. Nor has the President fulfilled a promise to demand the release of Libyan dissident
Fathi Eljahmi, imprisoned by Moammar Ghadafi since March, 2004. State Department officials say Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice will visit the Libyan dictator this Autumn, regardless of Mr. Jahmi's fate.
On June 5, 2007, Mr. Bush endorsed the Prague Declaration, which calls upon governments to instruct diplomats "to
actively and openly seek out meetings with political prisoners and dissidents committed to building free societies through
non-violence," and announced that he'd tasked Secretary of State Rice to implement it. U.S. Embassies in the Middle East
have yet to reach out to any dissident or political prisoner.
Increasingly, friends view Washington as an unreliable ally; foes conclude the U.S. is a paper tiger. This latter conclusion
may transform broken promises into a national security nightmare.
Way back in April, 2001, the President established a moral redline when he declared that the U.S.A. would do "whatever it
took to help Taiwan defend herself" in the face of Chinese aggression. But, amid Beijing's steady military build-up, Mr.
Bush stood in the Oval Office beside Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and condemned Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian
for holding a referendum on missile defense. Unlike his predecessors, Mr. Bush has yet to send a single Cabinet-level
official to demonstrate commitment to the island nation. Such contradictions may raise doubt in Beijing and encourage
Chinese officials to test U.S. resolve.
After promising Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in May, 2003, that Washington would "not settle for anything
less than the complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantlement of nuclear weapons program," Mr. Bush directed his
administration to do just that. Despite the administration's self-congratulations over its ephemeral deal with North Korea in
February of this year, the fact remains that, against its allies' wishes, Washington acquiesced to Pyongyang's continued
custody of its reactor and nuclear weapons. This broken promise is guaranteed to haunt the next U.S. administration.
Kicking diplomatic problems down the road is not a strategy. Addressing crises with insincere promises is as
counterproductive as treating a hemorrhagic fever with a band-aid. Empty promises exacerbate crises. They do not solve
them. While farsighted in his vision, it is the President's failure to abide by his word that will most shape his foreign policy
legacy. It would be ironic if he justifies the "Bush lied, people died" rhetoric of protestors across the White House lawn in
Lafayette Park, though not for the reasons they believe.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
American Foreign Policy -- Constitutional Democracy:
U.S. Promotion of Constitutional Democracy in Foreign Countries
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Turkey, the Middle East, & the U.S.A.
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
North Africa -- The Arab States of Islamic North Africa
Egypt, Arabs, & the Middle East
The Far East & U.S. Foreign Policy
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Michael Rubin, a Ph.D. in History (Yale University) and a specialist in Middle Eastern politics, Islamic culture and Islamist
ideology, is Editor of the Middle East Quarterly and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public
Policy Research. Dr Rubin is author of Into the Shadows: Radical Vigilantes in Khatami's Iran (Washington Institute
for Near East Policy, 2001) and is co-author, with Dr. Patrick Clawson, of Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2005). Dr. Rubin served as political advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad (2003-2004); staff
advisor on Iran and Iraq in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense (2002-2004); visiting lecturer in the Departments of
History and International Relations at Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2001-2002); visiting lecturer at the Universities of
Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan (2000-2001); Soref Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy (1999-2000); and visiting lecturer in the Department of History at Yale University (1999-2000). He has been a fellow at
the Council on Foreign Relations, the Leonard Davis Institute at Hebrew University, and the Carnegie Council on Ethics and
International Affairs.
The foregoing article by Dr. Rubin was originally published in the Wall Street Journal, July 31, 2007, and can be found
on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a think tank which
seeks to define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
July 31, 2007
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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