Reckless Foreign Policy of George W. Bush Administration

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Reckless Foreign Policy of George W. Bush Administration

The Bush administration began to alienate the rest of the world when they lobbied for a UN resolution to invade Iraq. At the time, UN weapons inspectors were in Iraq and had been granted unprecedented access to facilities across the country such as Saddam Hussein�s palaces. The inspectors were not finding weapons of mass destruction (WMD), however, and the Bush administration was impatient with the process being convinced that Saddam was hiding significant WMD programs. It was during this period that Secretary of State Colin Powell made his now infamous presentation to the UN body where he provided shaky intelligence pointing to WMD sites in Iraq. The world was not convinced and, led by France and Germany, the Security Council did not authorize an invasion of Iraq, instead preferring to give the inspectors more time to search the country (Williams 12). The Bush administration was unhappy with this decision, deriding �Old Europe� for being hidebound and slower to accept the realities of the new post September 11 world than �New Europe.� Old Europe, of course, referre

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�If we're an arrogant nation,� said George W. Bush, �they'll resent us.� He was right.� The American Prospect. November. 2003. pg. 43.

Witt, Howard. �Rumsfeld's latest ad-lib riles Britain,� The Chicago Tribune. March 13. 2003. p. C-1.

Williams, Ian. �Washington's Hawks Making Life at the U.N. More Difficult for Themselves.� Ethnic NewsWatch: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Vol. XXII. No. 2. Pg. 12

When the U.S. directed the U.N inspectors to leave Iraq and subsequently invaded without a U.N. mandate, world opinion was squarely against us. The so-called coalition that invaded Iraq included troops from Britain, Australia and Poland�hardly a strong show of global support for our policies. While some countries have contributed negligible amounts of troops in the aftermath, they are defecting as the invasion has resulted in a quagmire of insurgency and boiling resentment against the occupying forces (Daalder 43). Additionally, the Bush administration�s decision to lock all non-coalition countries out of the rebuilding efforts has further driven a wedge between the U.S. and the rest of the world, especially France, Russia and Germany (Jehl

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		Some topics in this essay

		Security Council \| WMD Bush \| Ballistic Missile \| Europe� Bush \| George Bush \| Australia Poland�hardly \| C-1 Europe \| Colin Powell \| Additionally Bush \| French German \| bush administration \| bush administration�s \| france germany \| wmd bush administration \| �old europe� \| rest world \| invade iraq \| join coalition \| rebuilding efforts \| willingness alienate \| allies abroad \|