The urgency of a second Bush term
Adam Wolfson makes the case that we MUST re-elect GWB to a second term next year to continue and finish what we started:
*snip*One should not underestimate the obstacles to Bush’s foreign-policy aims: The most difficult of these begin not in Iraq’s Sunni “triangle” but at home. Can the president convince enough Americans that his is the best course of action? Securing democracy in Iraq alone will require at least a second Bush term in order to see through the policy. The victory of a Democrat in 2004 would likely mean an American withdrawal from Iraq or handing the problem over to the United Nations — hardly a friend of democracy or America’s best interests. Unlike during much of the Cold War, when it could reasonably be expected that a change of administrations would not mean a radical change in the policy of containment, there is no bipartisan consensus in the post-9/11 world.
The perils are great indeed. The war in Iraq was launched in the name of American security, but it was also inevitably a promissory note of sorts to the Iraqi people: for a better, freer life, and more decent, representative government. To pull out of Iraq before this is accomplished would be to break this promise, and to turn Iraq over to the terrorists bent on America’s destruction.
Thus Bush’s most-urgent task is the creation of a bipartisan consensus on the fundamentals of his Mideast policy. Such a consensus cannot be formulated in Washington, D.C. by striking deals with the likes of Senator Ted Kennedy or horse-trading one program for another. A bipartisan consensus must start not from above, but be built from the ground up. It must be rooted in a broad and abiding public opinion.
The 2004 election will be the most momentous at least since 1980 when Americans chose Reagan’s defense build up over four more years of drift and appeasement under Carter. Just as Reagan became a shaper of public opinion, so too must Bush. Only in doing so can he insure that the new policy he calls “a forward strategy of freedom” will endure in the years and decades ahead, whether a Democrat or a Republican is in charge. These are the stakes.
Excellent. We’re at a turning point in this country. Do we (Americans) go back to the appeasement stance or do we play hardball & let the terrorists know we mean business? The answer should be crystal clear.