Norman Podhoretz’s new book, “World War IV- The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism” is an enlightening description of the basic Neocon approach to the war in Iraq and the Bush Doctrine.
WWIII was the Cold War that lasted from 1947 to the disintegration o fthe Soviet Union. WW IV started on 911 and Iraq is only one front in the war. This is disctictly different from the Iraq obsession in the media and in the political arena.
Before 911 our foreign policy was to maintain stability in the existing regimes. Thus Bush I ran Iraq out of Kuwait, but allowed Saddam to retain his position in Iraq. Stability was the goal. But this ‘stability’ was to retain borders set by European colonialists only one hundred years ago, largely for their own ends, ignoring the ethnic realities they threw together. This approach led the west to support oppressive and corrupt regimes in the name of maintaining stability.
George W. Bush saw fit to change this policy; “For decades free nations tolerated oppression in the Middle East for the sake of stability. In practice this approach brought little stability and much oppression, so I have changed this policy.”
Bush II also abandoned moral relativism; “Different circumstances require different methods, but not different moralities”. He was criticized by many on the left for his ‘simplistic’ axis of evil approach. He also realized terror was not a product of economic factors but was a political tool; requiring another addition to the lexicon- regime change. Due to the nature of weaponry becoming available he felt it was too dangerous to wait until the mushroom cloud was visible and thus justified a pre-emptive strike.
These were huge changes in our foreign policy and such changes are painful, thus the scathing criticism. But it is hard to deny that the previous policies brought us 911. Expect WW IV to last for decades.
The book is a must read.
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