‘Bush Doctrine’ hurt the Arab people
Charles Krauthammer’s column on March 7 is at best a righty’s wishful view of current events. At worst it is dangerously ignorant of the consequences of recent history. The Arab World is indeed embracing a “Freedom Agenda,” one about as foreign to the “invade and control” agenda of Bush and his Neo-Cons as halal meat is on Saint Patrick’s Day.
They are fleeing Bush’s tragic and destructive legacy as quickly as individual fingers can pass the word on social networking websites. Bush enriched the despots the Arab peoples are overthrowing. Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak and Moammar Gadhafi were beneficiaries and willing accomplices of the “Bush Doctrine.” They grabbed what they could from the friendly U.S. military-industrial complex and kept the lion’s share for themselves, barely passing a few pennies to their suffering peoples. Then-President Bush even brought Gadhafi in from the cold in October 2008 with Executive Order 13477, which specifically immunized Gadhafi from lawsuits arising from the colonel’s terrorist past.
The people of Tunisia and Egypt learned of the debauchery through WikiLeaks, and they fought with their marching shoes and protest signs. The people of Libya are not so lucky, as their battle will be much tougher. Bush’s “Freedom Agenda” passed two wrecked and occupied nations to President Obama to somehow deal with. Even now, “freedom” has clearly not taken root in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands of U.S. and coalition troops and private contractors are dead. No one bothered to keep an accurate count of civilian deaths resulting from Bush’s “Freedom Agenda.”
When Bush claimed that certain people “hate our freedom,” he created false impressions. Arab peoples do want freedom and they’re willing to fight for it. Just not from beneath the heel of the U.S. military-industrial complex.
Paul Dombrowski
Mount Prospect