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Dec 22, 2003 Well it doesn't look like the democrats will win the election on domestic issues. Unemployment is down, the DOW is above 10,000, inflation is low, Medicare was reformed(sort of). That doesn't leave too much for the democratic nominee(most likely Howard Dean) So they will have to shift to foreign policy. Will this work for them? I doubt it. Bush ran on security and foreign issues in 2002 and the republicans won the senate back. Two dictatorships are gone. Husseins rape rooms are no longer in operation, and Mullah Omar is no longer running a medieval theocracy in Afghanistan. Now a third dictatorship is disarming without a shot being fired. This is supposedly a great failure for the adminastration. But what is the future of American foreign policy? We have Reaganites, Nixonians, Clintonistas what is going to be the fututre foreign policy for the forseeable future? Whether we like it or not, Wilsonian foreign policy is likely not going anywhere. Both parties have adopted it. As both parties have seen the spread of democracy as a good thing. Now we have preemptive strike. Something that Bush didn't invent. After all Reagan invaded Grenada in 1983 rather than let the country turn into an armed soviet camp. The clinton doctrine of appeasement and cosmetic military strikes has largely been discredited except by democrats who think that cruise missles fired into empty camps is a sign of strength. With the cold war over Reagans doctrine of turning back the communist nations is no longer needed as even the communist nations have abandoned marxism. I think that the Bush doctrine of premptive strikes and spreading democracy to countries that are suffering under dictatorships will likely be Americas foreign policy for some time now. I have no problem with this really. Democracies are safer for America, at worst they are obnoxious like the French and at best they are allies like Britain. Attacking the bully in the neighborhood before he can attack you makes total sense. With the successes of Bush's foreign and domestic policies this doesn't bode well for the democrats. ------------ Email Craig Chamberlain: craig_chamberlain@hotmail.com Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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