 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
'Axis of evil' draws unease for diplomats
© St. Petersburg Times WASHINGTON -- When President Bush threatened North Korea, Iran and Iraq in his State of the Union speech, he was braced for a hostile response from all three nations. But he apparently had no idea how much criticism he would get from his foreign policy allies at home and abroad. Experienced U.S. diplomats, Republicans as well as Democrats, said Thursday the president indulged in unnecessary saber rattling by falsely suggesting American troops are ready to invade the countries. And, they added, Bush's term for the three nations, "axis of evil," is simply inaccurate because they are not connected in any way. Iran and North Korea are widely viewed as less hostile to the United States than Iraq. Nor are they the only countries developing nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. "I think it was a mistake," defense analyst Ivan Eland of the libertarian Cato Institute said. "Even if you're doing it to rattle the saber, it gets very uneasy. It fuels fundamentalism, with the world seeing the United States willing to violate anybody's sovereignty." Likewise, Anthony Cordesman, a foreign policy scholar who has worked in both Republican and Democratic administrations, went so far as to describe Bush's rhetoric as Clintonesque -- possibly the worst thing that can be said about the foreign policy of a Republican president. "President Clinton also used grandiose rhetoric and carried a big "soft,' " Cordesman quipped. Around the world, some allied nations expressed similar fears, suggesting that Bush's success in Afghanistan may have made him overconfident. "Any consideration of military action that will go to punish the Iraqi people for the sins of Saddam Hussein will not be acceptable," said Prince Turki al-Faisal, intelligence chief in Saudi Arabia, whose support the United States would need against Iraq. In London, Britain's foreign secretary, Jack Straw, indicated his government disagrees with Bush, at least when it comes to Iran. "We are very concerned indeed about terrorism," Straw said. "We're concerned about Iraq; we're concerned about North Korea, and, of course, we're concerned about terrorism which may be supported by parts, the unelected parts, of Iran." While Bush's aides quickly sought to downplay the bellicose words delivered by Bush on Tuesday night, the president himself was anything but apologetic. "The rest of the world needs to be with us, because these weapons could be pointed at them just as easily as us," Bush declared in a speech Thursday. His hard-line sentiments were echoed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who said the nation is vulnerable to new forms of terrorism ranging from cyberattacks to attacks on U.S. military bases abroad to ballistic missile attacks on American cities. "Our job is to close off as many of those avenues of potential attack as is possible," he said. Bush's usual critics on Capitol Hill were silent on the subject. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., predicted Congress would support whatever actions Bush takes against Iraq, Iran and North Korea. "If it takes pre-emptive strikes, pre-emptive action, I think Congress is prepared to support," he said. Nor did Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., who is the GOP's traditional voice of calm on foreign policy topics, quarrel with Bush's tough talk. In fact, Lugar recently called on NATO to get involved in dealing directly with countries such as Iran, Iraq and North Korea that are amassing weapons of mass destruction. Instead, most of the criticism in Washington of Bush's speech came from experienced diplomats and foreign policy strategists. Richard Holbrooke, the Clinton administration's ambassador to the United Nations, said he agreed with White House press secretary Ari Fleischer's observation that Bush's words were "great rhetoric." He noted that by using the word "axis," Bush invoked the memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II, and "evil" recalled Ronald Reagan's critique of the Soviet Union. "But the problem with "axis of evil' is it just isn't true," Holbrooke said. "There is no axis between Baghdad and Tehran. Iran and Iraq hate each other, fought a brutal war and killed over a million people. North Korea has only the most tangential connection to either." Eland of the Cato Institute said Bush's effort to expand the war on terrorism took away from stated U.S. policy to defeat the al-Qaida terrorist network and further undermined relations with North Korea and Iran, which appeared to be warming. "The United States cannot afford to divert its attention toward terrorist groups that do not have the United States as the primary target, for example, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Jaish-e-Mohammed, toward intervening against oppressive nations such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq, or even intervening in "timid' nations," Eland said. Warren Bass, director of Special Projects/Terrorism at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said the "evil axis" phrase reflects the president's desire to prepare Americans for what lies ahead. "The message that comes through in the State of the Union is, "Get ready for the long haul,' " Bass said. Bass and others said the most likely military target is Iraq because it poses the greatest threat to the United States in the form of Saddam Hussein. Politically, Bass noted, Bush cannot afford to back down against Iraq because his father, former President George Bush, was widely criticized for failing to oust Hussein after the 1991 Gulf War. Since 1998, Iraq has refused to let U.N. inspectors test its facilities for weapons of mass destruction. Cordesman, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said action against North Korea is unlikely because it would cause "a major regional war" and would require the support of China, Russia and Japan. By identifying Iran as a target, he added, the president is identifying with Israel's objectives, which are not shared by the United States' other allies. Meanwhile, Jack Spencer, a military analyst with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, defended Bush's use of the term "axis of evil" on grounds that all three countries are developing deadly weapons. He said Bush was not threatening military action, but saving it as an option. "When (Bush) says, "Look, Saddam, you have to stop making weapons of mass destruction, quit being a regional belligerent,' the threat is the removal from power," Spencer said. "You have to follow through. How do you follow through? You have to use whatever military resources are required to remove him from power." -- Information from the Associated Press, CNN and ABC News was used in this report.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
