This comes from the "better late than never" department: Thomas Friedman the always savvy colunmist for the New York Times has come to the conclusion that Bush Adminstration is more concerned how Iraq plays politically than on any sort of principles. In the past, Friedman had been for the war, trusting Bush to bring democracy to the Middle East. I think he still believes taking Saddam out was a good idea, but believes that the Bushies are not the one to bring in a new era of democracy.
I'm not one to say "I told you so," so I won't. But if we look at Bush's record both domestically and on the international stage, you can see that everything that has been done up to now has been to play to the red-meat conservatives, and not to better America or the world. Politics has always been placed before principle in this adminstration. We stood alone and gave the UN the finger because many on the far-right distrusts the rest of the world and especially distrusts the UN. We have lost our reputation as an honest broker in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict because the Relgious Right hates the Palestinians and sucks up to Israel in order to get brownie points from God. Colin Powell was sidelined because the far right does not like his more moderate Republicanism. Our foreign policy has been run by Karl Rove and not Powell. This administration is more concerned about winning the next election with its base on crazies than it is about doing what is best for America and the world in the long run.
I used to think that Clinton was very political in his policies and I still do. However, Bush and his ilk take the cake.
Posted by Dennis at May 16, 2004 11:43 PM