McCain Will Secure Bush's Vicious Circle

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Novosti, Russia

McCain Will Secure Bush's 'Vicious Circle'

"Bush continues to rely on force, thereby multiplying the army of terrorists more quickly than he can suppress them, while strengthening the conviction in Iran that possession of nuclear weapons is the only guarantee of its security. If John McCain becomes the next president, the United States and the situation in the Near and Middle East may never escape this vicious circle."

By Galina Zeveleva

Translated By Igor Medvedev

April 15, 2008

Novosti - Russia - Original Article (Russian)

President George W. Bush: A man apparently without doubts, delivers his latest major address on the Iraq War, April 10.
President George W. Bush discusses Iraq, April 10, 00:17:30

WASHINGTON: The latest major speeches to be given by U.S. President George W. Bush (April 10) seems to have escaped the attention of commentators. In vain - he identified two enemies which are impeding a U.S. victory in Iraq: "Al-Qaeda" with its "ideology of terror," and Iran, a stronghold of Islamic fundamentalism.

Note, both of these enemies - are ideological. For the American president, the Iraq War is the most important new front in the battle between the forces of good and evil since America's victory in the "Cold War." Bush believes that in the 21st century, America must once again "defend the values of freedom" and lead the fight against a hostile and dangerous ideology.

Before the beginning of the war in the spring of 2003, Bush declared that the main threat America faced emanated from Saddam Hussein, and as it turned out later, his non-existent weapons of mass destruction. However, U.S. plans went much further than the overthrow of the dictator. Bush announced that his aim was nothing less than building a "democratic" Iraq which would serve as a model for other countries in the Middle East and be an ally of the United States in the war on terrorism. Five years later, the United States doesn't intend to continue the war, and Iraq is far from being a functioning democracy. It's not quite clear who controls that country, if anyone does, and more importantly, what will happen to it.

Now Bush sees a new threat: He's afraid that some of Iraq's Shiite population and eventually the entire country may fall under Iran's control. In his speech, the president warned that U.S. and Iraqi relations with Iran depend on the choices made by the Islamic Republic's leadership. He has essentially offered the Iranian leadership an ultimatum: "The regime in Tehran also has a choice to make. It can live in peace with its neighbor, enjoy strong economic and cultural and religious ties. Or it can continue to arm and train and fund illegal militant groups, which are terrorizing the Iraqi people and turning them against Iran." The White House chief added, "America will act to protect our interests, and our troops, and our Iraqi partners." This is purely military language.

But to the American President, there is no less important front in the Iraq War than the ideological struggle between "freedom" and the "ideology of terror." Bush again resorted to his favorite parallel: that between the War on Terror and the "Cold War," and he sought to prove that the money that the U.S. spends on the Iraq War is just as important as the military spending during the era of ideological and military confrontation between the United States and the U.S.S.R.

Speaking of the military budget, Bush asserts that in some years during the "Cold War," it consumed 13 percent of the Gross Domestic Product of the United States. Bush asserts, "Our citizens recognized that the imperative of stopping Soviet expansion justified this expense. Today, we face an enemy that is not only expansionist in its aims, but has actually attacked our homeland - and intends to do so again. Yet our defense budget accounts for just over 4 percent of our economy - less than our commitment at any point during the four decades of the Cold War."

It's no accident that the White House chief focused on the financial aspects of the Iraq War. The vast majority of experts don't believe that the war is the cause of the current economic difficulties in the United States - but confronted with the unfolding crisis and the threat of recession, ordinary Americans are coming to connect the two issues. Fueling such suspicions is not only the deepening financial crisis but new data on the growing cost of the war. In his recently published book "The Three Trillion Dollar War," Nobel Prize winner in economics Joseph Stiglitz and his co-author, Linda Bilmes, have calculated that every 10 days, the Iraq War costs America $5 billion.

Despite the enormous cost, losses, and the resentment of Americans fed up with the war, and at risk of becoming America's least-ever popular president, Bush refuses to give up. He remains confident that in Iraq America's two greatest threats converge: "Iraq is the convergence point for two of the greatest threats to America in this new century: al-Qaeda and Iran." Fanatically, the president believes that victory is possible if America shows the same determination that it did during the "Cold War." The chief of the White House, along with many Americans, categorically refuses to accept the view that the central reason for the end of the "Cold War" - one in which there was no loser - was not the firmness or military power of the United States, but internal changes in the Soviet Union.

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

Senator John McCain: Would he reinforce exactly the wrong policies of the Bush Administration?

As difficult as it may be to believe, it seems that Bush and his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - although they are on opposing sides of the new ideological barricades that have replaced the Iron Curtain and the "Cold War" - speak the same language and have similar frames of reference.

Bush continues to rely on force, thereby multiplying the army of terrorists more quickly than he can suppress them, while strengthening the conviction in Iran that possession of nuclear weapons is the only guarantee of its security. If John McCain becomes the next president, the United States and the situation in the Near and Middle East may never escape this vicious circle.