Posted on 03/08/2003 8:52:54 AM PST by EarlyBird
Lately, many members of this site have been posting indignant comments about the so-called "bribing" of other countries to get their cooperation in the WOT. These otherwise well-informed and well-intentioned FReepers risk the appearance of ignorance in these posts, and what's worse, appear to be foolishly taken in by another liberal media distortion.
The fact is that the US has been "bribing" these countries since before the 20th century began, and especially in the last 50 years. In fact, it would be difficult to name one country in this world who has not been "bribed" by the US at one time or another, in the form of aid, loan guarentees, special trade advantages, IMF loans, military assistance, food, or just plain cash. I mean, come on. We even "bribe" our enemies. We are at this moment still providing humanitarian assistance to Iraq and North Korea.
This "bribing" is what we do to get other countries to act in our national interest. In the past to be sure, the definition of "national interest" used by some US administrations has been suspect, and these "bribes" were were many times wasted. Is that the case this time?
I don't think so. What's different in the present case is that we're going to start withholding these "bribes" from those nations who don't cooperate with us in the WOT. This is part and parcel of Bush's new bilateral, sans-UN, approach to foreign affairs: Either you're with us or you're with the terrorists.
Take Turkey, for example. How long had the "bribe" in this case been in the works? Did the Bush administration put this package together just to get them allow our use of their bases? Or had this aid package been in the pipeline well before that? I don't know for sure, but I would bet that this "bribe" was already being negotiated separate from the WOT. Certainly our support for Turkey's entrance into the EU and for IMF loans was on the books well before the current crisis. Therefore, these existing, already proposed aid packages were held out as the carrot in the negotiations.
Now that Turkey has voted against us, the "bribe" is being withdrawn. We have to go to Plan B, possibly staging out of Saudi Arabia and Jordan instead of Turkey. The presence of US troops in these countries is an extremely sensitive issue, and you can bet some if not all of the Turkish "bribe" is now going to them to compensate.
This "bribing" is now going on all over the world. Existing and proposed aid packages, as well as the prospect of future "good relations" (more "bribes") with the US, are being held up as inducements to get countries to tow the line. To be sure, whatever "sticks" the US holds over these countries are also being employed to convince them. These countries understand this type of diplomacy much more clearly than the warm and fuzzy "diplomatic" platitudes that ususally get spewed on the floor of the UN.
With this approach, Bush may actually save some of our tax dollars. Instead of throwing aid indiscriminately all over the world in the pursuit of ill-defined, moralistic, and unproductive policy goals, Bush is targeting these "bribes" in an extremely focused effort to achieve goals that are undeniably and without question, in our national interest.
So please don't allow yourself to be taken in by another liberal media construct. This is just another example of vast left wing conspiracy to destroy the Bush administration -- don't allow yourself to be duped by it.
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