In his speeches this week in defense of his Iraq policy, President Bush has conveniently found a new straw man to knock down — isolationism.
“If we were to withdraw, not only would we cede ground to the terrorists and endanger this country, we would miss a fantastic opportunity to help spread liberty,” he said.
Of course, almost no one is saying America should retreat from the world and batten down the hatches. What many object to is how America engages the world — in Iraq’s case, with a simplistic ideology and a poorly planned strategy that is endangering our military forces and hurting our image and relations abroad.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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11 Comments
Yes, one can just see all the liberty spreading across the Middle East due to our efforts. It’s just working out so well. I’m glad our soldiers haven’t died in vain.
We can either isolate ourselves from the world, or be part of it. If we’re going to be part of it, we’re going to have be skillful and thoughtful in our relationships with other nations. Bush, lacking the necessary skill and thought, has chosen for us the role of schoolyard bully. If we don’t change that attitude, we won’t have to isolate ourselves; the other nations will do that for us!
Good point, Randy. This was my first thought too when I heard it.
“Isolationist?!” Because one wants to stanch the death and destruction in Iraq?
I guess Bush needs some epithet know that “communist” doesn’t work any more.
know, I meant “now”, (must type slower)
Recently the U.S. costs on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars have surpassed a total of one-half trillion dollars. Even by Washington, D.C. standards this is a large sum of cash.
Shrub is lashing out at “isolationists” because his treasonous trade policy, foreign policy and immigration policy have been unmitigated failures!
Viva la Raza Blanco!!
Can you imagine being President of the WORLD? Just imagine for a moment! You could have as many things as you wanted as much as you wanted. God would have to schedule a visit! That is what I will have when we finish with the NEW WORLD ORDER! Can you imagine?Didn’t think you could!!!!
If you resist the new world order you are an isolationist! America offers the grunt soldiers and I gain freedom over the entire world! What ever happened to America?
Dubya,
Please, go choke on another pretzel and make it a bigger one this time.
Viva la Raza Blanco!!
King Bush has made a lot of comments that just are not truthful. But who cares? Lies are lies and when they effect the national security and the lives of citizens of this country they (The person(s) making them) should be held accountable. The fact that Mr. Bush has so decieved the people of this nation and violated Constitutional Law is more than enough grounds to demand that our representatives in congress-including Mr. Brown, Mr. Roberts and Mr. Tiahrt start/co-sponsor the Impeachment Process against Bush.
And over view of Mr. Bush’s State of the Nation lies are below:
Bush Skips Complex Realities in Address
By CALVIN WOODWARD and HOPE YEN, Associated Press WritersTue Jan 31, 10:41 PM ET
WASHINGTON -President Bush set energy self-sufficiency goals Tuesday night that would still leave the country vulnerable to unstable oil sources. He also declared he is helping more people get health care, despite a rising number of uninsured. Whether promoting a plan to “save
Social Security” or describing Iraqi security forces as “increasingly capable of defeating the enemy,” Bush skipped over some complex realities in his State of the Union speech.
ENERGY:
By identifying only Mideast oil imports for reductions, Bush was ignoring some of the largest sources of U.S. petroleum, among them Canada, Mexico, Nigeria and Venezuela. The U.S. considers Venezuela a source of political instability in the region; relations with Mexico have been strained over immigration; and violence has curbed nearly 10 percent of Nigeria’s oil output.
Imports of oil and refined product from the Persian Gulf make up less than a fifth of all imports, according to the government.
Bush has spoken of reducing reliance on foreign oil in every State of the Union speech, if not as explicitly as in this one, and presidents back toRichard Nixon outlined similar goals, to little or no effect.
Nixon announced Project Independence in 1973, setting a goal of energy self-sufficiency in seven years. Then, the U.S. imported 35 percent of its oil; now it’s close to 60 percent. This, despite substantive steps taken by Nixon and Jimmy Carter to spur both supply and conservation, including construction of the Alaskan oil pipeline and reduction in the highway speed limit to 55 mph for many years.
HEALTH CARE:
Noting that the government must help provide health care for the poor and elderly, Bush asserted, “We are meeting that responsibility.”
It is true that a new prescription drug benefit took effect this year, a new entitlement for up to 42 million disabled and older people. But implementation has been rocky: Mark McClellan, the administration’s top Medicare official, recently acknowledged that tens of thousands of recipients probably didn’t get medicine due to confusion and computer glitches, prompting some lawmakers to seek an extension of the May 15 signup deadline to work out the snafus.
An incomplete picture also emerges on health care for the poor.
The number of uninsured has increased nearly 5 million since Bush took office in 2001, to 45.5 million in 2004, two-thirds of the total from low-income families, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
And while total federal spending on the health care “safety net” for the uninsured edged up from 2001 to 2004 — adjusted for inflation, slightly more than 1 percent — spending actually decreased from $546 to $498 per uninsured person due to the jump in uninsured, the Kaiser group said.
Bush actually is expected to propose curbing the growth of benefit programs such as Medicare and Medicaid in his 2007 budget request next week.
SOCIAL SECURITY:
Bush said Congress did not act last year on his “proposal to save Social Security.” In fact, his plan does not take care of Social Security’s future solvency; instead, he wants to let younger workers divert some of their Social Security payroll taxes into private investment accounts to take advantage of the possibilities for a better return.
IRAQ:
Bush’s upbeat account of progress inIraq, coupled with an acknowledgment that “our enemy is brutal,” left unstated a variety of setbacks in turning control over to Iraqi forces, including Iraqi Army desertions in the volatile west.
KATRINA:
Addressing Hurricane Katrina aid, Bush said a hopeful society “comes to the aid of fellow citizens in times of suffering and emergency” and the government is meeting New Orleans’ “immediate needs.”
Federal money is indeed being used to build stronger levees and provide business loans and housing assistance. But the government has declined to rebuild levees strong enough to sustain a Category 5 hurricane, and it recently rejected as unnecessary a $30 billion redevelopment plan for Louisiana that state officials considered the cornerstone of their hopes for rebuilding.
HOMELAND SECURITY:
Bush urged Americans to back his secretive domestic spy program, saying he was using his “authority given to me by the Constitution and by statute” and noting that “appropriate members of Congress have been kept informed.”
Bush did not address the counterarguments that he failed to heed a separate 1978 law that specifically calls for court approval to conduct the surveillance. Some lawmakers have also questioned why Bush did not brief more than eight members of Congress about the program, which has been in effect since 2001.
EDUCATION:
On the theme of improving math and science education, Bush boasted, “We have made a good start in the early grades with the No Child Left Behind Act, which is raising standards and lifting test scores across our country.”
In 2005, fourth-graders and eighth-graders posted their highest-ever math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and black and Hispanic children narrowed their achievement gap with whites in both math and reading. But the fourth-grade reading performance was essentially flat, and in eighth grade, reading scores dropped.
SPENDING:
The president said that “every year of my presidency, we have reduced the growth of non-security discretionary spending.” That doesn’t tell the full story because the category he cited omits big-ticket spending items like Iraq, natural disasters such as Katrina and homeland security.
He spoke of saving taxpayers $14 billion next year if his budget proposals are adopted, not mentioning some of those savings would come from health care programs such as Medicaid.
The interesting thing is that earlier in the century, conservatives WERE isolationist. That of course (like many things) changed with Nixon. . .
. . .or maybe earlier (any historians out there?).