President George W. Bush's administration, with its media savvy public relations and image-conscious policymaking, has garnered the support of much of America. Past the facade of apparent achievement and lofty rhetoric espoused by neo-conservative ideologues in the administration, America is much worse off today than it was when Bush was elected. And the situation is set to get worse because of backlash to the crusade Bush began in the Middle East and his reckless tax cut.
Kudos to Bush and Blair for toppling the diabolical Saddam Hussein & Sons regime in Iraq. But, the anti-war movement did not doubt that superior American technology, troops and airpower could manhandle the bedraggled Iraqi armed forces in a swift assault.
Instead, it raised objections that the war on Iraq was an inappropriate remedy to the terrorist problem, would fuel the fire of anti-Americanism, would create a dangerous precedent of preemption that other states (such as China) could use in the future and could lead to a destabilized Iraq that would require complex nation-building and lots of American dollars for five, 10 or even 20 years. Now that the war is over, it is clear that much of the anti-war movement's apprehension about the preemptive attack was legitimate.
With the inability of coalition forces to find weapons of mass destruction, the argument that Hussein posed an imminent threat to the West becomes flat-out ridiculous. Investigations are now set to begin to discover the "official" reasons why the U.S. and Britain were so bent on warfare that they were willing to scrap 50 years of international coalition-building. The unearthing of mass graves validates already undisputed claims of Hussein's heinous totalitarian control, but this alone fails to explain why President Bush wasted taxpayer dollars on an avoidable war, sent our troops to search for WMD that may never have existed and risked the lives of American soldiers for crimes committed a decade ago while Hussein was an American ally. Those funds would have been much better spent fighting the war on terrorism directly. Instead, it made that war much harder to fight.
We all hoped that the war in Iraq would stop terrorism, but terrorism is more of a threat to Americans now than before. The odious war against Iraq armed Islamic fundamentalists with recruitment propaganda and increased the number of fundamentalist sympathizers worldwide. The recently coordinated al Qaeda attacks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Casablanca, Morocco, reflect the reality that the war against terror is going awry even as Bush spouts off flowery rhetoric about how al Qaeda is "on the run." In fact, a report by the International Institute of Strategic Studies, an independent and well-established organization in Britain, recently stated that al Qaeda is "just as dangerous" and "even harder to identify and neutralize" than it was prior to Sept. 11. In short, Bush's main foreign policy initiative (i.e. the war on terror) has been a major failure.
On the domestic front, Bush's tax plan has been ill-advised and will prove dissappointing. The Bush team is cutting taxes, while increasing government spending (mainly for war and military purposes, not vital social programs that Bush is actually cutting); the projected result is that the federal debt will hit a record level that will surely raise interest rates and hurt businesses in the long run.
In fact, a tax cut unaccompanied by cuts in expenditures is not a true tax cut but a tax postponement, left for future generations to pay. The tax cut's power to create jobs in the short-run is simply unproven, while its aid to rich Americans is a certainty. Ten Nobel Peace Prize economists condemned the tax cut as ineffective as a stimulant to the economy, and even FED Chairperson Alan Greenspan has expressed strong skepticism, explaining that the long-term negatives far outweigh the unproven short-run benefits.
The massive tax cut is also coming at a time when states could use federal money to combat their fiscal problems. Lack of funds are driving states to abandon many vital education, health care and social programs. The set-back to education is horrific: California (running a $50 billion deficit) had to fire 3,000 teachers; 90 of Oregon's 198 districts cut school days; policymakers in Florida were forced to cut two-thirds of preschool classes because of budget concerns; and in our own North Carolina (running a $2 billion shortfall), legislators passed significant cuts to elementary and pre-school breakfast programs and teacher assistant funding, not to mention numerous cuts to various social programs designed to help unemployed and working poor North Carolinian families.
In spite of this, the Bush administration has only seen it fit to allot $20 billion of fiscal relief to states (and reluctantly at that), while 37 states are running massive deficits. Some states report having deficits as high as $50 billion. President Bush and many other conservatives refuse to address the fact that the President's campaign promise to protect education has been abandoned, not to mention his pledge to take significant steps toward mending America's health care and Social Security problems. Instead, war-prone administrators boast of record high military spending that is reaching profligate levels in the hundreds of billions of dollars, reminiscent of the Cold War.
President Bush and his advising team seem to be quite adept at politicallysaavy shenanigans and superficial success-perfect for a media suffering from attention deficit disorder. Sadly, their priorities are misguided, and their policies will do more harm than good in the long-run. Bush caters to the military, rich Americans and oil companies. Perhaps he should seriously consider working at enacting proper policies that will provide tangible benefits for all Americans, rich and poor.
Amir Mokari is Trinity Junior and a regular Chronicle columnist.
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