From: gerard@caliban.soest.hawaii.edu (Gerard Fryer)
Subject: Re: GB's Foreign Policy Record? Gimme a Break!
Organization: Scum Of the Earth and Senile Tenured
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 00:41:26 GMT

In article <1992Aug26.194933.10398@odin.corp.sgi.com>, zursch@whizkid.wpd.sgi.com (JZ) writes:
|> 
|> I can't believe George Bush is using his handling of Desert Storm as
|> an issue to win re-election. 
|> 
|> He claimed yesterday that he stopped the advance because we are not in
|> the business of slaughter, but simply in the business of stopping aggression. 
Much as I detest GB I have to agree with him on this one.  It's easy to
be wise after the event, but it isn't at all clear that continued
advance would have managed to topple Hussein.  The political costs of
continued advance would certainly have been huge (and I mean
international politics here, not politics at home). Remember that the
house of Saud is not all that secure in Arabia.  Had the U.S.
progressed beyond a police action the resulting indignation might have
provided the spark to that tinderbox and we would now be facing exactly
the kind of pan-Arab (and anti-U.S.) movement that Sadam Hussein was
trying to ignite. Indeed, I think that calling a halt to the advance
was George Bush's one brief moment of statesmanship.

|> Even General Shwarzkopf was outraged, but as a good soldier, held his 
|> tongue when ordered to by his Commander in Chief. 

Right.  Good for him.  Generals typically make crummy heads of state.

|> Well, I'm not a soldier, and I don't have to remain silent. If that's 
|> the best George can do with foreign policy, I'd rather have Bozo the Clown
|> in there doing his job. 

Indeed, that IS the best George can do with foreign policy. Consider
his foreign policy failures:

1.  He was ambassador to China for three years but learned not one word
of Mandarin.  Worse, he learned nothing about Chinese attitudes:
witness his incomprehensible response to Tienanman Square (I do agree,
however, with his more recent most-favored-nation-status decision, but
I want to concentrate on his failures here).

2.  As director of the CIA he presented the now infamous Plan B
assessment of Soviet military might to President Carter. That resulted
in the unnecessary and costly build-up of U.S. military strength, taken
to absurd extremes by Reagan.  As Vice-President, when the superiority
of the Plan A over the Plan B assessment became glaringly obvious, he
did nothing - zip - to correct U.S. policy.  Now he credits the
build-up for the collapse of the Soviet Union.  If he believes that
he's a fool; if he doesn't, he's a liar.

3.  When the vodka putsch began GB was deplorably slow to condemn the
generals aligned against Gorbachev.  When the Soviet Union fell apart,
he waited until most of western Europe had recognized Russia before he
followed suit.  U.S. policy towards the former Soviet states is still
confused and aimless.

4.  As Yugoslavia began to fester he dithered about instead of using
the U.S.'s considerable influence to lean on the Europeans to take
action.  There was a brief time when something as mild as a strict
embargo (to be enforced with Hungary's help) would have done much to
protect Bosnia-Herzegovina, but for whatever reason (they don't want an
Islamic state in their midst?) Europe dragged it's feet.  At the very
least the situation called for a stern accusatory speech from Bush, but
he offered nothing.  Now the world faces the distinct possibility of a
Bosnian state in exile - a Balkan Palestine, and there is a good
possibility that any international action will expand to involve U.S.
troops.

Even compared to his two foreign policy successes (the bottling up of
Saddam Hussein, coercing Israel to back off on west-bank settlements),
it is hard to reconcile the above sorry record with the image of a
statesman. I am amazed that the Democrats don't do more to show how
naive and weak Bush is in foreign policy.

-- 
Gerard Fryer  (g.fryer@soest.hawaii.edu)
School of Ocean & Earth Science & Technology
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.elections,talk.politics.misc