Bush's Grand Strategy: Iraq is one move in a bigger game.

The Weekly Standard ^ | 03/24/03 | Jeffrey Bell

[Mr. Mojo]

Yet at least so far, it is unclear that they [Syria and Libya] are inclined to collaborate with Islamists in the mass murder of Americans.

Perhaps it's not crystal clear, but I think it's a very good bet.

[gcruse]

I love strategic theorizing. It stakes out the path to the future, and as long as events roughly correlate with the expected path, helps make sense of disparate occurrences. Thanks for posting this one. It looks like a keeper.

[B-Chan]

This makes sense.

My question is: what happens if the president doesn't get reelected?

[Mr. Mojo]

How to deal with such tensions in Islamic countries with governments friendly to Washington is the biggest unanswered question of the Bush strategy

Yup....Saudi Arabia, our closest Islamic "friend and ally," also happens to the the home of the biggest Islamist nutballs of them all -- Wahabbis, who are in the overwhelming majority over there.

[Mr. Mojo]

The only longstanding democracy in the Islamic world [Turkey] recently voted in a fundamentalist majority, and the same is likely to happen elsewhere, assuming the United States begins to achieve its long-term goal of democratizing the world of Islam.

An immense problem.

[harry palmer]

My question is: what happens if the president doesn't get reelected?

Then we go back to this:

classified by the U.S. government as rogue states (or, in the term substituted by the Clinton administration, "states of concern")

[ABrit]

"My question is: what happens if the president doesn't get reelected?"

Bush has 2 years left to finish with Iraq, Iran, and N Korea. Hence the deadline for Iraq. US army units are already being mobilised for N. Korea.

[dasboot]

Federalists

Whigs

Democrats

[thinktwice]

But elected fundamentalist governments ultimately will be judged, at least in part, by how well they collect the garbage.

Ancient Rome had the same problem with evnagelized Christians.

Winning the mind game over mysticism is the secret to winning this war on terrorism.

A widespread acceptance of rational philosophy has never been needed more.

[demkicker]

"My question is: what happens if the president doesn't get reelected?"

My spouse and I had this very conversation this evening. We both concluded that the next presidential election is without a doubt, the most important one in our history. It will be a very nasty election, I'm afraid, and I pray that Bush will be re-elected. The alternative is too perilous to imagine.

[TheDon]

Mr. Bell has the right idea, but the wrong target. Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, North Korea... While many share the characteristics mentioned by Mr. Bell, Iraq is hardly a militant Islamic state, it is a dictatorship first, nor is North Korea.

In a world of assymetric weapons, and transnational terrorists willing to use them, containment will no longer work. That is the fundamental change that 9-11 has brought about in US foreign policy for the Bush administration. Others in Europe have yet to accept that change.

The policy has been clearly announced by President Bush. Transnational terrorists, and the states which sponsor them, will no longer be tolerated. This is the correct target. We will act preemptively to stop them.

Mr. Bell is correct that once you understand the target, everything the Bush administration is doing makes sense. In fact, you can predict from the above that this is a long battle, involving many nations.

[montag813]

Bush's Grand Strategy: Iraq is one move in a bigger game.

Bush? What has HE got to do with all this? I thought it's the JEWS who are running the show! So says the Buchanan-Moran-Novak-Thomas cabal. So it must be true. The President is clearly a stooge of the JEWS. They control everything!

</ sarcasm> (for you dimwits who dont get it)

[Huck]

Bush? What has HE got to do with all this? I thought it's the JEWS who are running the show!

Bell....is that a Jewish name? Could be a pseudonym. Better look into it.

[The Great Satan]

This guy has it all upside down. Islamism is a distraction. Iraq is what it's all about. The whole bin Laden-al-Qaeda-Taliban-Clash-of-Civilizations thing is so 2001, so over.

[polemikos]

Find a cave and start praying.

[jobedo]

I think this is a good read for anyone who tends to get confused by the liberal media. I know several people that I am going to give copies to--especially when they say "Why are we invading Iraq--they haven't done anything to us??"
Well neither has North Korea, Iran, or Afganastan--yet if you listen to what Bush is saying---we must protect the freedom of the US and these states will do anything to attack us through the means of Islamic terrorist. This "Axis of Evil" has been attacking democracy with terrorism.

[birdwoman]

The fear of what democratization will do to Islam is, in this view, a big source of the rage Islamists feel toward the United States, and not toward France or Germany.

IMO, I think this is an obvious but key statement.

I do think the article presents an interesting theory, although I am not sure I agreee with it. Thanks for sharing it!

[tallhappy]

he premise is that the mass civilian killings of 9/11 triggered a world war between the United States and a political wing of Islamic fundamentalism, sometimes called Islamism.

Yes. We talked about this immediately after 9111 here.

The Bush administrations biggest mistake was not to present this understanding and strategy publicly and onsistently right after 911 and during the anthrax incident.

Bush did this well in the Axis of Evil phrase. But focus seemed to fade over the last year.

If they had then, there would be even less opposition to the war on Iraq.

[tallhappy]

A widespread acceptance of rational philosophy has never been needed more.

Needed on your part. Your comment was one of the most irrational I've ever read.