Reply #2: I suggest splitting the difference. Bush is misapplying the Clinton precedents [View All]

[Bucky]

Clinton's foreign policy was dubbed "expansion and enlargement"--referring to the realm of democracy in the world. Where democracies existed, Clinton's policy was to ensure that it was stablized, protected from military coups (think about Haiti), and expanded to include more groups within a given society. Where it did not exist, democracy was to be patiently pursued and encouraged---but in little steps with a combination of carrots and sticks.

The Bush policy has been to force democracies on societies at gun point, tossing in a few pro-US business contracts in the mix. Both approaches lead to nation building. The difference is huge, tho. Clinton's nation building actitivies were mostly effective, if still somewhat challenging to implement. Bush's two efforts have mostly failed because he was working against the political forces in Iraq and Afghanistan instead of with them, as Clinton's teams did. Actually Afghanistan very nearly became a success. It's really only been since Iraq that things started to deteriorate there.

There's nothing wrong with nation-building; it only needs to be done wisely and patiently. The next projects we'll end up needing to undertake are Somalia, Sudan, and probably Lebanon. In the medium term future we may end up needing to stablize North Korea, too. In all these cases, except Lebanon, China will end up being our partner--scary thought.