Foreign Policy‘s blog, Passport decided to draw up a list of ten “good things” the President can take credit for in foreign policy in commemoration of his July 6th birthday.
Blake Hounshell suggests this list:
1. Boosting aid to Africa threefold
2. Preventing a nuclear war between India and Pakistan
3. Taking down the A.Q. Khan nuclear proliferation network
4. Getting Libya to give up its weapons of mass destruction programs and renounce terrorism
5. Turning independent-minded India into a strategic ally
6. After a rough start, sticking to a pragmatic China policy
7. Getting North Korea to shut down its nuclear reactor … eventually
8. Decapitating some two thirds of al Qaeda’s top leadership and not having a second 9/11
9. Giving immigration reform the old college try
10. Challenging his party over harmful agricultural subsidies while pushing free trade
The only thing I want to add to this roster is that Vice President Cheney, Scooter Libby, David Addington, and other members of their team have been either publicly or privatetely dismissive and unsupportive of this short list of Bush achievements.
Even the point on al Qaeda and stopping another 9/11 ought not go to Cheney’s credit because of the manner in which Cheney-driven policies have helped Al Qaeda recruit a whole next generation of followers disillusioned with the West. In fact, al Qaeda is back, reorganized, and moving to new targets according to many reports. Let’s give the Cheney-Bush crowd a lot of credit for that.
Keith Porter shares his views on Bush’s top ten list here.
— Steve Clemons
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