Bad Days in Baghdad
O. Max Gardner III

The World is off balance. As Paul McCartney said in lyrics and as many policy makers are now saying in words, “bring back the USSR.” The fact of the matter is we currently have a World devoid of any semblance of a balance of power. If anyone doubted the overwhelming nature of U.S. military power, Iraq settled the issue. We won, or did we? Have we placed the fear of the CIA and of our Special Forces in the eyes and hearts of Al Qaeda, or have we jump started it's recruitment drive in response to the war on Iraq?

With the United States representing nearly half of the world’s total military expenditures, no countervailing coalition can create a traditional military balance of power. Not since the days of the ancient Roman Empire has one nation loomed so large above all of the others both collectively and individually. Many have argued that the lack of another Super Power has made the World a much more dangerous place. Whether they are right or wrong, there is no disagreement that the World today is a much more dangerous place than it was before September 11, 2001.

In 1992, Bill Clinton received many votes by proclaiming that the Cold War was over and Japan had won. It was all about the economy, stupid. Today, it's all about the security and it's no longer stupid. We may have won the War, but at what price? And if we did win, then preserving the Peace is Hell!

George W. Bush entered office committed to his campaign pledge to discard Clinton's “nation building” in failed states of the less developed world. We would no longer send U.S. troops to places like Bosnia and Serbia, said Bush, but would focus on dealing with the great powers such as China and Russia. One of Bush's closest advisors proclaimed in 2000 that as president he would no longer use "foreign policy as social work." Such an approach to foreign policy, it was argued, was bound to be both prohibitively expensive and unlikely to sustain the support of the American public.

But in September of 2002 the Bush administration did an about face and issued a new foreign policy security strategy, declaring that “we are menaced less be fleets and armies than by catastrophic technologies falling into the hands of the embittered few.” In short, the so-called “Weapons of Mass Destruction” were the new enemy of the State. Indeed, the justification for the Second Gulf War was based on keeping these weapons out of the hands of the Osama bin Laden’s and the various Jihad terrorist groups.

The new search and destroy mission for the WMD's also formed the justification for a basic change in American foreign policy—the right to launch a preemptive first strike rather than striking only in self-defense. Iraq was the first test of this new policy. Our inability to find any such weapons after almost three months of intensive searching has created a major credibility gap both at home and abroad. Moreover, the Bush administration is currently faced with another dangerous dictator who is months rather than years way from having nuclear weapons. North Korea may well prove to be the real first test of this new policy. Deterrence has worked so far, although in this case it was North Korea’s conventional ability to wreak havoc on 50,000 American troops and on Seoul in the event of a war that actually deterred U.S. military action.

Although Bush brazenly declared military victory in the War with Iraq on May 1, 2003, from the flight deck of a U.S. Aircraft carrier, it is now clear from the daily American and British casualty reports that the real war has just begun. Did we win the war and lose the Peace? Life under fire has become a bad dream for most of the American troops on the front and rear lines in Iraq.

And Bush’s response to this situation has been the typical big bully playground type reaction of “bring ‘em on!” This trumpeting of American power is extremely dangerous and only gives the Osama's of the terrorist world more fuel for their fires of American hatred. Such taunts also place our fighting soldiers who are still struggling to maintain a minimum level of control in harms way. Perhaps Mr. Bush should take some advice from another Republican President, Teddy Roosevelt, who implored our leaders to speak softly when you carry a big stick. And, I am sure the former President would also caution Mr. Bush to be careful who he hits with that big stick because thousands of small stones can be just as deadly!