US Terror Strategy

President Bush released an updated report on the US Terror Strategy yesterday. It reaffirms the doctrine of preventive war against terrorists and hostile states who have WMD. The key phrase from the report describes the report as “idealistic about goals and realistic about means." If only this were true. This administration has followed the exact opposite policy. We invaded Iraq based on idealistic visions of being met in the streets by flower throwing Iraqis. We ignored hard evidence of a society that had only avoided Civil War because of Saddam’s brutal rule and we spent no time planning the post-war administration of an entire country.

This administration also reversed the Clinton approach to dealing with the world. Clinton said we would work with our allies whenever we could and go alone whenever we had to. In contrast, the Bush policy was to do it ourselves whenever we could and rely on allies whenever we had to.

We now are faced with a real threat - unlike Iraq - from Iran, North Korea, and fanatical Islamists. But we are mired in Iraq, deeply in debt, and will be greatly strained if we have to marshal resources if escalation occurs in any of those areas. We’ve also managed to make it very difficult for our foreign friends to convince their people that following the lead of the US is wise, so although we now need our allies our ability to attract them is limited.