Is the Bush Administration incompetent in international affairs?

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Berzerker


Non-partisan.

Not you again, you lunatic. I thought you would have been locked up by now.

If you bothered reading the first post you would have noticed that all the criticisms are about Bush's handling of events, not about the justice of his aims or the moral right of the US to do these things.

Even a chimp could understand the difference.

[Comrade Tribune]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
I also fail to see how the Israel/Palestinian situation can be laid at his door step given the intransience of both sides.

Israel may yet prove transient.

[Sultan Bhargash]

The answer is YES.

This is by far the least competent government- whether the issue is foreign affairs, economics, "homeland security", or public relations, that the United States has had in over a century.

And no wonder why, when you realize it was put together around a "reformed" alcoholic idiot silver spoon up his nose. 9-11, a great tragedy for almost all Americans, was Mr. Smirking Chimp's big break- the chance to bulldoze our country and plunder our wealth while UTTER MORONS defend him by barking about all those scary threats.

Enraging.

[Sava]

Berzerker, this may be hard to believe, but just because somebody knocks Bush, doesn't mean they are a Democrat. While your view of the politics may be two-sided, there are many gray areas. Bush is a fool. He's a bad president. And like Boris said, he's squandering the good will that the world offered in the wake of 9-11 in order to push through his agenda.

[St Leo]

WRT Iran its fine to call them for what they are. No use dealing with Khatami when it is clear he has no power. I think it is important he maintain the moral courage to do what Clinton failed to do and enforce the terms of the allies peace treaty with Iraq

Okay. Let's pretend that Bush had said that Iran was part of the Axis of Stupid. Do you also expect Jane Iranian to not be offended by it and understand that she just needs to get rid of Khomeini somehow and then her country will magically stop being Stupid?

[Ozz]

Bush's record for being called a moron, idiot etc in
PUBLIC by heads of tradational allies of the USA
is unmatched.

And up to this time , unheard of.

[Q Classic]

so it turns out maybe the ex president of skorea bought the thaw in relations -- meaning it may not have been completely honest.

from timeAsia

from joong-ang ilbo (english)

'course, the fact that bush kinda ruined whatever little headway that did occur, what with his unilateral decision to break off any talks with north korea almost immediately after entering office, without so much has a how-do-you-do to koizumi and kim, our allies in the area...

and it also doesn't seem that bush is listening to anybody who lives in the area...

[DanS]

Q^3: On the contrary, Bush is pushing a multilateral approach, which is correct. Japan especially has interests there, which should be represented. This SK policy of triangulating between NK and their ally, the US, is a real dog.

Yes some allies might have been offended, but a way might have been found to ensure some unity rather than the obvious fracture in the alliance.

This is a little unfair. The administration was caught in an intra-European power play, a futile attempt at a reconstitution of the French-German motor for Europe. The fight had almost nothing to do with Iraq.

[Ted Striker]

Please expand on this French-German power play DanS.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The contrary view, which may or may not be correct, is that Bush knows exactly what it is doing. It knows who it is isolating and who it is drawing nearer. It seem to want to use 9/11 to clean out the drawer, so to speak.

[DanS]

Germany and France did a series of deals on the future of Europe, such as whether the big states would continue to hold sway after the new European countries joined the club--nobody else was invited to participate in the smoke-filled back room.

In this series of purely intra-European deals, a deal must have been struck on opposing the war on Iraq, at least for a while. Schroeder doesn't want to be seen as isolated among Europeans in his anti-war stance,. France wants to be seen as driving European foreign policy, which it thinks will be a superpower at some time or another.

It had little to do with Iraq, and only to do with the US insofar as the US is the sole superpower. Rather, it had very much to do with the distribution of power within Europe.

[Ted Striker]

Damn DanS that was pretty deep. Certainly there is alot more going on here than all of us are seeing. Thanks for the information, that gives me a new angle, and, is beginning to explain the mysterious arrival of a French carrier group to the Gulf.

[DanS]

is beginning to explain the mysterious arrival of a French carrier group to the Gulf

Nah, I still think the carrier is lost.

The sad thing is that this whole string of actions was necessary due to Schroeder making a mistake: not giving himself sufficient rhetorical wiggle-room to compromise on support to the war.

Anyway, perhaps France now is starting to believe its own press and will continue to block in the UN. They were pleased with themselves for a "victory" in the Council on Friday.

[KrazyHorse]

Dan: that's a pretty crap explanation as far as I see it...

France had to say something on this; it's a SC permanent member and it's always expected to do something. So with 80% of his voters telling him to tell the US to go **** themselves, I don't really see what else he could have done...

The fact is that the US can't really do anything to hurt France, so there's no downside to this for Chirac. All marginal issues aside the only real sticks the US holds are military and economic, and neither are realistic when applied to any EU nation. The possible consequence the US does not control (that France and Germany will look isolated and weak) isn't really credible either, as long as they've got the support of half the other EU members and the support of basically every other EU country's population...

[Spiffor]

DanS :

I suppose the Germans will end up participating eventually. Sure, they will not send any troops during the war, since Schröder cannot betray so obviously what he has repeatedly told, but they'll send troops for the peacebuilding process and relieve the US of some extra costs (and Schröder will try to look good towards the Germans)

I agree with everything you said about the itnernal European causes of the French-German barking (heck, I think I said this too ). However, now that Russia has joined France in this mess, I'm wondering how the situation is evolving. With France, China and Russia being agreed, it is now possible that Chirac brings his veto to the end. Also, his position in the SC has met unexpected support in France. I think I've never seen Chirac so widely supported here.