Iraq War Critics: Bruce Nussbaum

Bruce Nussbaum in his Business Week column has been a perceptive critics of the Bush Administration foreign policy. In the fall of 2002, he critiqued the new Bush National Security Strategy, which officially adopted preemptive war - really preventive war - as the country's official policy. In "Foreign Policy: Bush Is Half Right" (Business Week 10/07/02), Nussbaum warned:

<< Despite loose talk today about a benign new Pax Americana, many Americans and many more people overseas are uncomfortable with the image of an America acting unilaterally around the world, breaking treaties at will, giving lip service to allies and international institutions while claiming for itself the sole legitimate use of force anywhere, anytime it feels threatened. That is the text and subtext of much of the National Secruity Strategy report. >>

He noted that the report reflects a seemingly deep-seated suspicion of the international community. "Ironically, this international community is the very one the U.S. has spent decades building to spread American values of rule-of-law, democracy, and free markets all over the globe."

The arrogant disregard of allies and treaties is a dangerous departure for American foreign policy. "Certainly, all international agreements have flaws. But America, as a world power, is obliged to make them better, not simply dump them."

Although Nussbaum went along in this piece with the progagandistic use of "preemption" to describe what is really a preventive war doctrine, he accurately observes, "An American strategic policy of preemption without internationally agreed-upon rules could increase global violence and instability." He notes that Russia and China were already starting to use the "language of preemption" in justifying actions that the US may not approve.

He also raises a serious question about whether the notion of freezing US global superiority in place indefinitely is viable. He sees China as the most likely country against whom this policy might be invoked. But, in fact, a common European defense force is a more obvious danger from the standpoint of the Bush Doctrine in terms of immediate potential to be a counterweight to American military dominance.

Tags: iraq war