THE BUSH DOCTRINE

NEWSWEEK (2008) 1/28  30-34

President Bush faced a difficult task in defining himself in the election of 2000. His father had been called a wimp by his political enemies and that his dad lacked a grand vision. So Bush 43' wanted a strong doctrine and a masculine image. Michael Gerson in his new book THE BUSH TRAGEDY

discusses of all of this and more when he describes the president that he served for years.

President Bush began with a position akin to isolationism and realism. BUSH DOCTRINE 1.0

was UNIPOLAR REALISM. This means the USA is a country unto itself. Diplomacy and related were much less necessary than the 2 people he wanted to differentiate Bush the Elder and

William Jefferson Clinton. Bush 43' broke off ties with other democracies, restarted the ABM

research, and broke off negotiations with North Korea.

After 9/11, BUS DOCTRINE 2.0 was WITH US OR AGAINST. This divided the world into 2 places. They were good guys who favored us and bad guys who did not. Afghanistan went well,

but Iraq after an initial set of victories fell into a guerilla war. Our friends the Canadians did not support the Iraq effort as did many other democracies. However, Tony Blair of the UK was an ardent supporter.This phase was also a real concern that Anthrax could be easily distributed throughout the USA and kill millions of people.

BUSH DOCTRINE 3.0  was PREEMPTION. Other presidents had done so and so did Bush.

The emphasis was essentially changing the political climate of Iraq and the utilization of the second largest oil reserve in the world. Bush's preemption lacked the support that others had previously and some attacks from the USA were based on a previous event that may or may not happen that would draw our country into war.

BUSH DOCTRINE 4.0 became DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST. This was a harder more difficult position to take as Sunni and Shia major wings of  Islam had been fighting for a thousand years. Further, a guerilla wars was now in full bloom and there were rumors that internally

America was becoming less democratic through various intelligence gathering including torture.

BUSH DOCTRINE 5.0 emerged as FREEDOM EVERYWHERE. This is a difficult stand to take. Many of our allies are not democracy. This would include Saudia Arabia. One of our major trading partners is China, a command socialist country has turned fascist. Nearly 80%

of the world live mainly under former left wing or right wing authoritarian states or dictatorships.

From there, Bush has no longer developed a doctrine at this writing.Both his father and Clinton have generally grown in reputation to the son. Recently, Clinton has been campaigning for his

wife and some his luster has been diminished. Bush will serve out his last year unless there is a dramatic change in the future as a doctrine free president.

THE NEW REPUBLIC (2008) 1/30 13-15

Barak Obama may soar with his rhetoric about coming together and not giving up on hope, however in reality he is very pragmatic. What can get done and how do you get from one place

politically to another.

ROMNEY WHISPERS

There was a major stage whisper to Mitt Romney. It may have been an aide in the audience or someone else whispering in an open mike. In other words, it is not necessarily a plot.

However, judge for yourself. Go to Google and enter ROMNEY WHISPERS.

Incidentally, you may also see the ROMNEY-KENNEDY debate of 94' Again some of the

extractions are probably biased. You judge.