from the boston globe OT

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The Boston Globe February 13, 2002

 

Bush Blunder Shows It's Time for Dissent

 

The Bush administration has framed the security threat so broadly as

to yield what every quasi-dictator craves - a state, seemingly, of

permanent low-level warfare that frightens the citizenry and trumps

dissent.

 

by Robert Kuttner

 

AFTER SEPT. 11, nearly all Americans rallied round our president. The act

was so barbaric that we had little choice.

 

Yet some of us supported military action against the Taliban with grave

forebodings. Among our concerns were these:

 

Treating the World Trade Center attacks as an act of war rather than a

criminal conspiracy would have global and domestic repercussions that could

not easily be foreseen or contained. One worry was wider war. Another was

the risk of civilian casualties and political chaos in Afghanistan and

elsewhere in South Asia. Another was the effect on the fragile Arab-Israeli

peace process. Another was the erosion of civil liberty and tolerance at

home.

 

Still another concern was that the Bush administration would wrap itself in

the patriotic glow and ram through a domestic program that never would have

commanded majority support on Sept. 10 and that America, after enlisting

allies for a quick military campaign, would soon revert to dangerous

unilateralism.

 

Much of this has come to pass. Though the war itself yielded a swift

military victory against the Taliban, the aftermath vindicates many of our

doubts about policies foreign and domestic.

 

America has not yet attacked Baghdad, but influential people in the

administration think we should. The Bush administration has framed the

security threat so broadly as to yield what every quasi-dictator craves - a

state, seemingly, of permanent low-level warfare that frightens the

citizenry and trumps dissent.

 

Now, emboldened by military triumph and by bloated public opinion polls,

President Bush has stumbled. By lumping Iraq, Iran, and North Korea together

with Al Qaeda as an ''axis of evil,'' Bush has managed to create an equally

improbable axis of worry about America's reliability if not our sanity. As a

Frenchman, Antoine Boulay, famously said after zealous revolutionaries

executed a popular duke, this was ''worse than a crime; it was a blunder.''

 

Blunder comes from swagger. Not only has Bush set back the process of

detente in Korea; he has done something the ayatollahs were unable to do -

given new life to the anti-American hard-liners in Iran.

 

These nations are not even allies, much less an ''axis.'' When Bill Clinton

left office, Iran was gradually liberalizing and North Korea was on the

verge of negotiating peace with South Korea. Just as we can't practically

''nation build'' every benighted society on earth, we can't costlessly blow

away every dictator. Nor can we lead an alliance if we are terrifying our

allies.

 

Since Sept. 11, the general assumption has been that Bush is untouchable on

foreign policy but politically vulnerable on the economy. Both premises need

drastic revision.

 

In truth, the Democrats have been remarkably feeble about challenging Bush's

domestic priorities. Until the opposition party grows some spine, his

program, unpopular as it is, will win by default. And now that the shooting

war in Afghanistan is over, it's time for Congress to revoke George W.

Bush's free pass on foreign policy as well.

 

The axis-of-evil declaration, at last, has a few brave souls in Congress

voicing some doubts. Several moderate Democrats have publicly objected.

Democratic Representative Jim Moran of Virginia called it ''reckless,''

according to Roll Call. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska chided

the president for not following his hero Teddy Roosevelt's dictum to speak

softly and carry a big stick.

 

Bush's plans for the post-military phase of the campaign against terrorism

are fair game for debate, and there's plenty more to challenge. The Afghan

operation was brief and relatively inexpensive. So why is the Pentagon

getting a blank check?

 

Why, with the surplus gone and the budget in deficit, are we still giving

the richest 1 percent of Americans a tax cut that will imperil Social

Security? Why, when even President Bush says Americans deserve secure health

care, is his budget cutting hundreds of billions of dollars out of Medicare?

 

 

The Taliban is gone, yet the world is, if anything, a more dangerous place.

America today is less free and not noticeably more secure. Are we truly

pursuing the best course?

 

For all the commentary about how much George W. Bush has grown in office,

there is still reason to worry about how well he understands geo-politics

and how clearly he thinks when he is momentarily untethered from the adults

around him.

 

In a democracy, even a president with 83 percent approval ratings is not

beyond challenge. The remarkably foolish axis-of-evil comment - Bush's own

idea - should remind us that this president does not walk on water. The

Afghan emergency is over; so is the moratorium on dissent.

 

Robert Kuttner's is co-editor of The American Prospect. His column appears

regularly in the Globe.