Over the past few weeks President Bush
has done everything possible to bring an avalanche of criticism upon
himself from environmentalists and globalists in America and around the
world. He has been called a mass murderer by British Liberal Democrat MP
Malcolm Bruce for rejecting the Kyoto Protocol (the global warming treaty)
and a warmonger by China, Russia and the European Union for insisting on
building the Antimissile Defense System. He has also come under sharp
criticism for taking a hard stand against Russia, North Korea and China, a
bully for bombing Iraq and an isolationist for taking a hands-off approach
with Northern Ireland and Israel. Is this president inept, or are we
witnessing something else?
Bush may be many things, but he is
certainly not what he is being demonized for above. It is too early to
tell yet, but we may be witnessing the first real statesman with guts we
have seen since Winston Churchill in World War II. He is even taking a
much harder stand for America than Reagan did during his presidency. Yet,
he is being demonized by our allies and bullied by our enemies--who like
British Prime Minister Chamberlain during World War II, insist that their
enemies will just leave them alone if they appease them.
Even so, Bush knows when to apply
diplomacy. On March 23 he met with China’s foreign policy czar Qian
Qichen and diplomatically told China there will be no more free ride. The
US will no longer be a patsy for China, as was the case with the Clinton
administration. China, stunned, tested Bush’s mettle the following week
when one of their jet fighters collided with the US EP-3 spy plane by
flying too close. With all the bluster and indignation they could muster,
China tried to bully Bush into apologizing for their own mistake when they
ordered their pilot to fly dangerously close to the US plane over
international waters.
Bush would have none of it. Other than
an appropriate extension of regret for the loss of the Chinese pilot, the
Chinese did not get so much as a hint of an apology. The Chinese will try
to play the incident for all its worth, but will not have any success in
bullying Bush like they did Clinton.
Bush may have another agenda that will eventually prove
us wrong, but he seems to be acting like a statesman for America, and
makes no apology for it. The rest of the world doesn’t know what to do
without their US whipping boy to demonize and blame for all the world’s
problems. The big test for Bush will be whether he can keep from meddling
in the affairs of other sovereign nations like an imperialist--something
his predecessor was incapable of doing. Until he proves his agenda is not
honorable, he needs all the support we can give him. V
mc
