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Does Mr. Bush's Foreign Policy Mirror The American Peoples' Soul? By Evan Augustine Peterson III J.D.,September
28, 2004 "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin
of little minds, adored by little statesmen..." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Occasionally a writer
sums up a great deal with one metaphor, and the pen proves
to be mightier than the sword. And so it is with American
novelist E. L. Doctorow's essay,
The
Unfeeling President. Mr. Doctorow finds Mr. Bush's glibly-Reaganesque capacity to emotionally disconnect himself from the people he's devastating, while simultaneously waxing optimistic about the harm he's inflicting, to be a metaphor for America's anesthetized descent into a collective state of shrivelled soullessness. Hence, realists who've retained soulful feeling are experiencing the Bush presidency as "mourning in America." They grieve the loss of our liberal foreign policy, which was strongest when we focused not on the example of our force, but on the force of our example. They agonize over the fact that the USA's 2003 military budget of $450 billion constituted almost half of the world's total 2003 military expenditures of $958 billion. They openly question the effectiveness of the USA spending fifteen times more on its own military (i.e., $450 billion) than it did on foreign aid (i.e., $15 billion) in 2003. Indeed, the American people
seemingly have become morally-blind to their own bullying by inventing
for themselves a new type of quasi-cinematic Spectator War, in which
indifference to the mass killing of innocent civilian non-combatants
is perceived as normal, while the rest of the world perceives it as
evidence of a superpower gone rogue. Some would go so far as
to suggest that there are historical parallels between Germany in
the 1930s and the USA in 2004: The
Psychology Of Mass
Subservience To Tyranny
Here are two possible reasons for that trait of deadly indifference, in addition to psychological denial, subconscious racism, and the long-term absence of international warfare on American soil: (A) David Mamet's "Bring It On: Violent Movies - And War Movies - Give Us The Thrill Of Victory. But What Happens When War Becomes Reality?"; and (B) Joan Ryan's "Army's Computer War Game Recruits Kids" And what about the American peoples' ongoing indifference to the illegality of the Iraq War under international law: Was The Iraq War Legal, Or Illegal, Under International Law? Conclusion: Mr. Doctorow
arrives at the unstated-but-implicit conclusion that a national electorate
tends to unconsciously assign to itself exactly the kind of "heroic"
leadership that it truly deserves, as in Life
Imitates Art: They Call Them Heroes.
The Bottom Line: (1) Shouldn't
we be using this presidential election as a referendum
on the unwise militarization of American foreign policy?; (2) Isn't
Mr. Bush's neocon strategy of "Waging
Aggressive War For Peace In The Mideast" the
diplomatic equivalent of "Holding Orgies For Monogamy In The Marriage
Bed"?; and (3) If so, shouldn't
Mr. Bush be promptly turned out of office for his dangerous
militarization of US foreign policy, which has alienated our allies,
isolated us from the world community,
and inflamed global anti-Americanism -- Islamic
and secular alike -- to unprecedented levels?
Executive Director
American Center for International
Law ("ACIL")
©2004EAPIII
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