By D. LINDLEY YOUNG
The Modern Tribune - March 30, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. (3/30) - The Bush administrations proclaimed policy of preventive wars based upon unilateral preemptive military strikes on sovereign nations with little or no evidence of an imminent threat to America, should be strongly opposed as a marked departure from what American stands for and as policy that alienates necessary allies for the global war on terrorism. The Bush hubris, threats, name calling  and unilateralism has created a major long term set back after decades of establishing our role in the world as an example of what is just and fair. Our current unilateralist mentality - "you're either with us or against us" - is not a productive component for multi-nationalistic solutions or the path to a freer and more secure world. The Bush administration has destroyed the very concept - advanced by them - that democracies are less aggressive and are more peaceful because of the form of government. They have sharpened the argument that it is not the form of government that makes or avoids wars, it is the leadership and the ambitions and goals of that leadership that set the coarse.

The Bush administration has proven that a few people in power at the top of a strong media driven military government determine whether or not there will be war. The form of government does not matter. The doctrine of "just war" is out the window. We are now in the new American century where the war on terrorism is used as the tool to impose democracy by military might. Where moral clarity is a matter of military might. Where threat replaces persuasion. Where retaliation replaces reason and violence begets violence.

We appear set on a coarse creating a greater world war, pitting the East against the West, religion versus religion, and the strong versus the weak. We display our "shock and awe" and make examples of geographic areas in a war without geographic boundaries. This is done under the guise that the geographic region is harboring terrorists and it is there breeding ground.

The war on Iraq has created a new center for terrorism in and the war has clearly exacerbated the global terror threat. It played into the plans an predictions of bin Laden - who had warned for years that America would occupy an Arab country -  and has provided a tremendous recruiting tool for radical extremists.  Plans, if not threats, by the Bush administration to democratize the entire Middle East make things worse and ad to the perception that the Bush administration seeks to dominate the region through the use of military force. The US is not seen as a fair broker for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - a major motivation for terrorism. At the same time we threaten others in the Mid-east we protect, support, arm and favor Israel.  A strategy of US-Israeli dominance of the regional is not a path that will reduce, much less eliminate the threat of terror.

Creating the New Race for Nuclear Weapons

The Bush administration recently announced the proposed Energy Department Budget would boost funds for nuclear weapons. The Defense Science Board (DSB) has urged a reorientation of the U.S. nuclear weapons program towards smaller, more versatile weapons. For some reason, it is argued that more nuclear weapons are needed that produce much lower collateral damage.  The Bush plan to democratize the Middle East and increase US nuclear weapons capability,  cannot comfort most of the world.

Bush is creating more enemies and upping the anti - the stakes are higher - nuclear stakes. Bush has re-infused "nuclear" into the global conscience and is causing other countries to react, to plan, to build, and to defend. Bush says he'll use them for preventive war and from the level of evidence necessary for the war on Iraq that may amount to no more than the drop of a hat. Because of Bush's new US policy on preventative war with pre-emptive "nuclear" attacks, some fear we are approaching the potential for Armageddon.  There is now a global race to get or get more nuclear weapons and Bush jumpstarted the new race.

First Bush withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2001, then he personally  launches a barrage of indelible word bombs infused into the global consciousness -- threats of preemptive nuclear attacks, nuclear hit lists, preventative war,  and unilateral attack on Iraq and others (if Bush deems it necessary). Bush  has created a world much more volatile than it was before 9/11.  The number of enemies and the global  nuclear threat are growing every day. Bush set the tone and by opening a nuclear Pandora's box.

It is unrealistic to think that the entire world will just cower to his threats. North Korea openly gears up to make more nuclear weapons and that it will withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty . Russia announced it will begin making more nuclear weapons and announces it will withdraw  from the treaty. Britain has also abandoned the non-proliferation treaty, is installing the capacity to build a new generation of nuclear weapons, and has asserted its right to strike preemptively.  Iran may still be in the race for nuclear weapons. Syria and Lebannon are alleged to be in the thick of the plot. Certainly China, the EU, France and others cannot just ignore the race.

When Bush withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty  decades of apparent progress were destroyed and Bush may have commenced an irreversible coarse towards a much more dangerous world.  The world is not safer for the rhetoric that Bush carefully chooses. His words resound around the world and will shape the world perception of the US for decades.

Bush Creating Greater Anti-American Sentiment

Anti-American sentiment grows the more the US rattles the sabers and pounds the war drums. The number of potential terrorists appears to be growing exponentially. There appears to be an increase in terrorist acts around the world which parallels Bush's laser focus on democratizing and occupying the Middle East. The stupidity of what appears to be deliberate provocation, if not creation of the enemy by Bush,  lies in the fact that we are not even prepared to protect our own borders. The 454 page Homeland Security Act -- which is still years away from full implementation and full funding -- provides little security to the US right now, yet, Bush forges ahead daily increasing the threat and the enemy. These are the acts of a fool not acts of courage.

There is no question that global terrorism has increased in frequency of attacks, magnitude of attacks, and the scope of hatred toward America and its allies, since the war on Iraq. Now, there is no safe haven - Bali, Madrid, Turkey, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and others have been subject to major attacks. Today in Britain eight terrorist suspects were arrested and a half a ton of ammonium nitrate - used to make bombs - was seized as British authorities broke up an apparent terrorist plot. Twice in the past week explosives were found on railway routes in the UK. Also, today Madrid-level' terrorist attacks were averted in the Philippines with the arrest of four terrorist suspects and seizure of thirty-six kilograms of TNT.

Anybody but Bush

Why anybody but Bush? If Bush is elected in 2004, from the perspective of other nations, the Bush administration, and terrorists, the Bush will have a mandate from the American people for more wars - to pursue and expand democratization of the world - the Bush colonialism - by military means, under the guise of fighting terrorism. We can no longer say we did not know his plans. The American people will be held directly responsible for accelerating global instability and jeopardizing the security of on Americans and the world for generations if Bush is elected.

If Bush is reelected, America will have elected him knowing that he plans further wars. We and future generations will pay the consequences of his unilateralism and preventive war policy. One of the hostages of the Chechen rebels rebels in the theatre in Moscow October 2002, asked one of the terrorist why they were threatening to kill innocent Russian citizens. The terrorist said: "You elected your leaders."

Many in the world are concerned about the ambition for power by Bush. As some of them see it, the only hedge on Bush's ambitions may be less or weaker alliances by other countries with America at a time when they are most needed to fight terrorism. As put by Professor Gabriel Kolko: "America will be more prudent and the world will be far safer only if the Bush Administration is constrained by a lack of allies and isolated." 

Kolko noted: "If Bush is reelected, America's allies and friends will have to confront such stark choices, a painful process that will redefine and perhaps shatter existing alliances. Independent, realistic foreign policies are likely to be the outcome, and the dramatic events in Spain over the past days have reinforced this probability."

America Now Knows What it is Getting

We are still in two wars - Iraq and Afghanistan - with plans on the table for several more - the blueprint, the "Greater Middle East Initiative" and Project New American Century. Now that we have Iraq -- which is centrally located -- we have the staging ground to allow pre-positioned troops to bring pressure on Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and others. Washington has been pushing the IAEA to declare Iran in breach of its duties as a Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty signatory and Syria has been accused of having Saddam's WMD. The stage is set.

This is a clear threat to many nations in the world and the fuel for greater terrorism and anti-American hatred. The world can not be expected to just sit back and become dominated by US Military force. China, Russia, the EU and others will perceive the long-term threat to them. They are preparing and will have to accelerate in the new arms race.

Professor Kolko noted: "The Bush Administration, through ineptness and a vague ideology of American power that acknowledges no limits on its global ambitions, and a preference for unilateralist initiatives which discounts consultations with its friends much less the United Nations, has seriously eroded the alliance system upon which U. S. foreign policy from 1947 onwards was based. With the proliferation of all sorts of destructive weaponry, the world will become increasingly dangerous."

We are on a dangerous path. Bush is destroying the alliance system that is so crucial to real American power while he seeks to democratize the Middle East through the use of military power. The threaten and kill policy of Bush will not work. It has not worked in Israel. You cannot just kill people and expect what made them terrorists to just go away. There must be elimination of the cause for them becoming terrorists. Alienating allies and giving terrorists greater cause for there mission is not the solution.