This article in the online Washington Post sums up in disquieting detail the number and severity of the crises now facing the United States, many of which have been exacerbated by the Bush-Cheney Administration's dishonesty and unbelievable ineptitude. The opening of the article:
From deteriorating security in Afghanistan and Somalia to mayhem in the Middle East, confrontation with Iran and eroding relations with Russia, the White House suddenly sees crisis in every direction.
North Korea's long-range missile test Tuesday, although unsuccessful, was another reminder of the bleak foreign policy landscape that faces President Bush even outside of Iraq. Few foreign policy experts foresee the reclusive Stalinist state giving up the nuclear weapons it appears to have acquired, making it another in a long list of world problems that threaten to cloud the closing years of the Bush administration, according to foreign policy experts in both parties.
"I am hard-pressed to think of any other moment in modern times where there have been so many challenges facing this country simultaneously," said Richard N. Haass, a former senior Bush administration official who heads the Council on Foreign Relations. "The danger is that Mr. Bush will hand over a White House to a successor that will face a far messier world, with far fewer resources left to cope with it." [Emphasis added]
White House officials emphatically reject such pessimism, and yesterday leading figures in both parties saw some diplomatic opportunity for the United States out of the missile failure. But the events on the Korean Peninsula underscored how the administration has lost the initiative it once possessed on foreign policy in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, leaving at risk the central Bush aspiration of democracy-building around the world.
They also showed how the huge commitment of resources and time on Iraq -- and the attendant falloff in international support for the United States -- has limited the administration's flexibility in handling new world crises. "This is a distracted government that has to take care of too many things at the same time and has been consumed by the war on Iraq," said Moisés Naím, editor of Foreign Policy magazine.
I have trouble thinking of an Administration that has handled diplomacy and foreign affairs worse than this one. I was, in the late 1970s, deeply critical of Jimmy Carter, who I saw--and still do--as someone who was in over his head in the Presidency. Carter let too many things get out of hand, despite his solid achievement in Middle East peace negotiating. But Carter at least was decent, honest, well-intentioned, and educated. Bush has none of those qualities (even though he would argue that his messianic, evangelical Americanism is well intended). Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld's utter mishandling of Iraq has done catastrophic damage to America's world standing and our ability to act in other spheres. We see again the tragedy that was inflicted on our country when the radical right was allowed to seize power in a coup in 2000. This coup put into office the most unprincipled, mendacious, and downright dangerous government in our history, the damage from which will be felt for decades.
Reality has this nasty habit of always winning. And in Bush's case, biting him--and all the rest of us--squarely on the rear end.
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