Tom Barry: State of Delusion


February 7, 2005 © The Center for War, Peace and the News Media. All Rights Reserved.
State of delusion By Tom Barry Global Beat Syndicate SILVER CITY, N.Mex.—President Bush says the “state of the union is strong and confident,” but Americans and the rest of the world have good reason to be skeptical about the president's claims that his domestic and foreign policies are producing widespread prosperity and peace. Dividing the union and the world was the main accomplishment of the first Bush administration. The president's State of the Union address, despite the flurry of commitments to diplomacy abroad and improving the well-being of Americans, outlined a new policy agenda that is a commitment to endless war and confrontation abroad. Bush's foreign policy vision, with its emphasis on the U.S. role as a global cop and cultural missionary, will make us less secure and further alienate our country from the international community of nations. The president's description of the state of the union and of the challenges of international relations was deceptive and dismissive of the facts in both categories. On the state of the economy, Mr. Bush hailed his record of job creation when in fact more jobs have been lost than created during his first administration. He promised to cut the record budget deficit about $450 billion this year—in half by the time he leaves office in 2009. But he did not mention that he came into office with a budget surplus, or that he recently asked Congress for an additional $75 billion to support the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Nor did he mention the plunging value of the dollar, the record trade deficit or the debilitating $4.3 trillion national debt. The president has outlined major increases in the military and homeland security budgets, but he promises to cut 150 unnamed programs. Given the record of his first administration, it is likely that many of these programs that “do not fulfill essential priorities” will be the ones that provide services to the disadvantaged or protect the environment.

Mr. Bush's goal of increasing the country's energy self-sufficiency is a laudable one that deserves widespread support. But his first term demonstrates that this means increased government support for energy industries, the abandonment of environmental regulations, and further penetration of wilderness areas by coal, uranium, and petroleum corporations. His emphasis on government support for the nuclear power and coal industries is particularly worrisome because, by no means have they proven to be “safe” or “clean.”

Most worrisome, however, is the president's resolve to stay the course in his “war on global terrorism” and his “forward strategy of freedom” in the Middle East and elsewhere. No doubt our country needs a national security strategy that targets international terrorists or that we should ally ourselves with democracies and human rights activists. But our interests and security have been sidelined by the new idealism and ideological fervor of the Bush administration's top leaders.

The president praised the “idealism” of our troops in Iraq, but U.S. men and women in uniform enlisted to protect our nation's security—not to participate in quixotic crusades to rid the world of tyranny or to attempt to fashion U.S.-style governments in ethnically and religiously divided countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.

A year ago we were told that we were waging preventive war to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and to cut its ties to Osama bin Laden. But we have found no WMDs or any evidence linking Iraq to the al-Qaida terrorist network that attacked us on 9/11. The global war on terrorism has since been turned into a global crusade to promote freedom and liberty—lofty rhetoric to be sure, but Osama bin Laden has not yet been captured and Iraq has now become a magnet for anti-American militants and global terrorist units. Meanwhile, our chief regional allies in the war against terrorism and for freedom are such international pariahs as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Israel.

President Bush's depiction of the state of the union and global affairs is delusional. The United States is not going “forward with confidence” and unity here at home, or in Iraq.

Yes, “God bless America,” as the president said, but God help us if we continue on this path of arrogance and self-delusion.

ABOUT THE WRITER Tom Barry is policy director of the International Relations Center (IRC), with offices in Silver City and Albuquerque, online at www.irc-online.org . He is the author of numerous books on U.S. foreign policy and is founder of the Washington-based think tank Foreign Policy In Focus.

© 2004. The Center for War, Peace and the News Media. All Rights Reserved. The Global Beat Syndicate, a service of The Center for War, Peace, and the News Media, provides editors with commentary and perspective articles on critical global issues from contributors around the world. For more information, check out http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/syndicate/.

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