Not Only Moral Authority Squandered In Bush Foreign Policy

Something just didn’t feel right last Friday as Russia crossed the border of a sovereign nation with tanks and airplanes while President George W. Bush enjoyed the opening of the 29th Olympiad.

Friday stretched into all weekend as Bush could be seen by the entire world knee slapping and cheering on the American team in Beijing.

It used to be in this great big world of ours that the United States could be counted on to take the lead and at the very least feign righteous indignation when a big kid on the international playground picked on a wimp.  It used to be that even the appearance of piqued U.S. interest could make the world’s bullies think twice — perhaps even mitigating already in-progress disasters.

That was before eight years of the strategically blind leading the stupid in the U.S. executive branch.  That was before this great country of ours hastily left the war on terror and world support behind and created the mother of all messes in Mesopotamia.  That was before the President’s and U.S. Department of State’s traditional powers were usurped by Dick Cheney and some half-assed lawyers who drove the nation down the trail to torture — squandering what was left of the U.S.A.’s moral authority around the globe. [Read more...]