Imperial America: The Bush Assault on the World Order

This is an excellent book criticizing Bush foreign policy. It includes excellent profiles of Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Powell. It captures excellent geopolitical analysis of Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea. It also covers the impact of the neo conservatives policies.Colin Powell, Secretary of State, is the only one earning the author respect. Powell is a balanced, thoughtful, intelligent, and patient centrist. He has exceptional knowledge on issues. He is the most popular Secretary of State we ever had. Because he is isolated within a conservative administration, Powell has not been able to fulfill his potential. On most issues, he is at the loosing end, while being usually right.Dick Cheney, Vice President, is the most powerful Vice President, the U.S. ever had. He is very intelligent, and domineering. He is an harsh conservative. He operates through confidential communication with the President that no one else is privy too. As a result, his intent is almost impossible to overcome. Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, is the opposite of Powell. He is loud, impatient, arrogant, and constantly overreaches on issues. The gap between the State Department and the Defense Department has never been wider. The Defense Department has preempted the State Department on foreign policies resulting in a radical shift to the right. Rumsfeld is very intelligent and cunning. This makes him a formidable nemesis for Powell. The author is most critical of Bush. He knows little about foreign affairs. He is not intellectually curious. He has less knowledge of history than most other presidents. Regarding the Israel-Palestinian conflict, an official mentioned that "he does not have the knowledge or the patience to learn this issue enough to have an end destination in mind." The Iraqi invasion was ill advised. Iraq has little to do with terrorism. Hussein and Islamic terrorist networks had diverging objectives. Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction. Between 1991 and 1998, UN inspectors destroyed Iraqis nukes. But, the Administration became obsessed with regime change. Yet, the Administration lacks the necessary planning, and commitment of time and money the regime change entails. After WWII, the occupation of Japan lasted seven years, and Germany ten years. These societies were far less fractious than Iraq. It could take over 10 years to stabilize Iraq. Lawrence Lindsay, Bush first Economic Advisor, stated the cost of the Iraqi regime change will be $100 to $200 billion. After this statement, he was ousted. His estimate may be too low. For the author, Iran represents the best hope of stabilizing the volatile Middle East. Iran has its own history and natural borders (not fabricated by the West). It has free election, and rising pro Western reformers. The Bush administration should support Iran undergo its internal transformation. Instead, he notes that Bush has made Iran a member of the "Axis of Evil." Bush

As a Briton married to an American, and who is deemed an Honorary Virginian by marriage, I love the USA! But sad to say, I am in an increasing minority over in Europe where I spend much of the year. Yet after 9/11 there were headlines in French newspapers proclaiming "Nous sommes tous Americains". Why did the great and very genuine outpouring of love to the USA after the tragedy of 9/11 vanish into smoke? Why do MORE people hate your wonderful country than ever before? This book gives you the chilling answers: buy it, read it, digest it, give copies to all your friends and then vote accordingly in 2004. You are a great country and deserve to be loved - make sure you elect someone whose priority will be to restore the USA to its rightful place as the most deservedly well-loved of the world's nations. Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003)

This most timely tome surveys the landscape of the new Bush administration and finds it wanting. This is a scathing indictment of the spectrum of foreign policy failures of the Bush administration, which the author, John Newhouse, attributes to an intentional disregard for traditional diplomacy and a goal of establishing a new American hegemony over the landscape of the political world. According to his argument in "Imperial America", in its series of actions few fairminded people could conceive of as being unrelated, political operatives operating within the White House single-handedly managed to alienate most of the rest of the civilized world, thereby squandering a virtual tidal wave of good-will in the aftermath of the events of September 2001 from friends and supposed foes alike. The fact that we have done so can be traced with some confidence to the wrong-headed and quizzical disregard that the Bush administration has shown for the rest of the world.The list of particulars is especially damning for an administration that claims to be acting to protect us from a dangerous world. This view, according to the author, has the unfortunately paranoid perspective of a far-right radical bent toward the surrounding world, seing enemies everywhere. Indeed, without such an interpretation of the world views of such administration stalwarts as Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice (who appears here to be more opportunistic sycophant than intellectual heavyweight) and influential others such as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and John Bolton, it is difficult to comprehend the collective actions of the current administration in terms of its continuing callous disregard of former agreements, alliances, precedence, or international law. Whether referring to our handling of the war on terrorism, our attack on Iraq, or our diplomatic stumblings toward nearly everyone from the Russians to the Iranians, the Palestinians to the North Koreans, or the French to the Iranians, we have literally squandered our unique opportunity to use the massive goodwill of the post-911 world to reframe alliances, rebuild agreements, and solve long-standing difficulties with the Iranians, the North Koreans, and the Russians.For Newhouse, the singular disregard that the current crew in the White House has shown for multilateral diplomacy, and its corresponding penchant for such policies as preemptive strikes and unilateral action that vitiates long-standing agreements and alliances has turned the world against us, so that they are beginning to regard both us and our policies as those of what even conservative authors like Clyde Prestowicz calls a "rogue nation" in his book of the same name (see my review). -Are our leaders so singularly and so consistently inept as to have amateurishly bungled so many opportunities to strengthen alliances, reassure friends, and build bridges to adversaries? Or, perhaps, is this part of a new view on what constitutes American policy and a new v

Newhouse pulls no punches in demonstrating how the Bush administration has disastrously mismanaged national security. He demonstrates that at a time when we desperately need pragmatic policy, we have a leadership hijacked by radical right wing ideologue s. These characters, including the President, abandoned the realist/ internationalist course favored by Bush I. They have little use for allies or honesty. Coordination of policy, a job made for the National Security Advisor, is weak at best. Thankfully, this book should help destroy the false image of Condi Rice the media has promoted. She is not the savvy operator most accounts portray - she is weak and dangerously incompetent. Anyone who thinks that this Bush administration has a strong foreign policy record should use this brief survey of the world's mounting dangers to disabuse themselves of that absurd notion. Newhouse does a particularly good job showing how Bush let North Korea policy drift. Today that country may be cranking out nukes, yet the administration remains of several minds on how to respond. Skip the first, somewhat unfocused, chapter if you must, but be sure to read the last chapter. It deals with Russia's unprotected weapons of mass destruction and our shockingly niggardly efforts to help control them. Newhouse shows that in a world teeming with apocalyptic terrorists and proliferating WMD, the Bush administration's myopic focus on Iraq could portend unprecedented tragedy.

Newhouse does a great job showing how the Bush Administration has pursued and enacted a terrible foreign policy.This policy:- Has weakened relationships with our allies- Has shown the world that we don't care what anyone else thinks- Has the potenial, or already has, created more anti-American attitudes in the Middle East.- Has caused other Middle East countries to show less support for us, to appease their citizens, thereby weaking our chances at capturing and breaking up terrorist organizations- Has made the World a more dangerous place to liveBy bullying the World and ignoring advice from other countries, the Bush Administration has failed us in their most important task: To protect and defend its citizens.Highly Recommended