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On September 20, 2001, in his speech before a joint session of Congress, the president set forth his doctrine for America's war on terrorism. He said that
[e]very nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime. On January 29, 2002, in his State of the Union speech, President Bush said that
Mr. Bush went on to describe an "axis of evil" comprised of North Korea, Iran, and Iraq. As many have written, including me, the president's statements were Churchillian. He rallied the American people to a righteous cause with moral clarity and steely resolve. And after eight years of Clintonian dodging and word parsing, at long last we had a plain-speaking, straightforward president. Then, on April 1, 2002, came Mr. Bush's stunning equivocation. When asked if he'd label Yasser Arafat a terrorist, the president said:
Mr. Bush made this statement despite the fact that during the last several weeks alone, hundreds of Israeli citizens have been murdered and injured by Palestinian suicide bombers at a Seder dinner in a hotel, Bat Mitzvah celebration, supermarket, discotheque, pizzeria, cafe, shopping mall, and on buses. He made this statement despite the fact that Israel intercepted a 50-ton shipment of arms from Iran headed for the Palestinian Authority; terrorist groups specifically named by the president — Hamas and Hezbollah — are training and arming suicide bombers operating from areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority; and Saudi Arabia and Iraq, both of whom are Arafat allies, are paying blood money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Two of the three nations in the "axis of evil" are direct sponsors of terrorism against Israel. Moreover, a few days ago, the Israeli military secured documents from Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah revealing the Palestinian Authority's direct payments for explosives and other weapons used by suicide bombers. Still, Mr. Bush refuses to acknowledge that Arafat is a terrorist and that his regime perpetrates terrorist acts. Whereas President Bush has asked the civilized world to stand with the U.S. against terrorism, Israel, which is beseiged by terrorists and their sponsors, is not receiving the administration's unqualified support. By his own words, the president has effectively rescinded the Bush Doctrine. In its stead, the White House is imposing a policy on Israel akin to America's approach to the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, our political leaders would not allow our military to take the war to the enemy. In order to "contain" the war, enemy supply lines, staging areas, and camps in Cambodia and Laos were not targeted. In only the most exceptional circumstances were U.S. forces allowed to undertake military operations in the North. In 1973, the U.S. signed a peace treaty with the Communists, which the South Vietnamese government opposed but was forced to accept under extreme U.S. pressure. The agreement, among other things, made territorial concessions to the North and the defense of South Vietnam impossible. The Communists considered the treaty an act of surrender by America. In 1975, the South was overrun by the North. The Bush administration, like the administration before it, has no intention of allowing Israel to defeat the terrorists who seek its destruction. The president underscored the point in his speech this morning when he insisted that Israel withdraw its troops from Palestinian areas and act quickly to accept a Palestinian state on its border. This will neither appease nor contain the ambitions of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Authority. In fact, the message is that terrorism works when unleashed against Israel. When Arafat rejected Ehud Barak's offer of a Palestinian state, he was speaking for all the Arab regimes that seek Israel's extinction. President Bush is offering the Palestinians what they've already rejected. Moreover, if they accept this time around, it's nothing more than another strategic step toward their ultimate goal. The Israelis support the Bush Doctrine. The president should as well. |
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or the Left, every
U.S. military action they've opposed in the last quarter century was said
to be the next Vietnam. We were going to be bogged down in one endless
war of attrition after another — including our latest action in Afghanistan.
They were wrong. However, the analogy largely works when applied to the
policy the U.S. is seeking to impose on Israel today.
