NY Times: State of the Union Abroad

[La_Serpiente]

State of the Union Abroad

Last night President Bush surveyed the state of his foreign policy over the past year and, unsurprisingly, gave himself high marks. In truth, while there have been achievements, the last year of war in Iraq and stubborn unilateralism on issues ranging from the use of military force to environmental policy and trade have dominated and strained America's relationships with most of the rest of the world.

While it is too early to draw final conclusions about the ultimate success of military operations in Iraq, the fact is that Mr. Bush's decision to engage American forces so heavily without reliable intelligence, real international backing, legitimate United Nations authority or serious postwar planning has exacted a high price, for which he did not account in the rather glossy assessment in his State of the Union address. In last year's speech, Mr. Bush made frightening allusions to Iraqi unconventional weapons presumably available for immediate use, almost all of them subsequently discredited. A pale echo of those inflated claims appeared last night as cryptic references to Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction-related program activities."

It was fitting that Iraq figured prominently in Mr. Bush's speech. No decent person regrets the toppling of a heinous dictator who murdered hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and Mr. Bush can claim credit for his capture. Libya's decision to end its nuclear and other weapons programs and allow inspections was welcome. And Afghanistan is showing the first buds of a democratic government.

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State of the Union Abroad

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