The Discerning Texan
All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.
-- Edmund Burke
-- Edmund Burke
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Bush's Multilateralism
Instapundit pointed me today to an excellent piece on Tech Central Station that discusses the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) and the Caspian Guard, two collaborative efforts with other nations led by President Bush. The PSI describes the efforts of the group of countries who together are lobbying for North Korean disarmament. This effort includes assistance from China, not exactly an American ally. The other multilateral initiative, called "Caspian Guard" is:
"...ostensibly a three-way alliance between the United States, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan for the integration of several interlocking program elements, namely airspace and maritime surveillance and control systems, reaction and response forces, and border control."
Special efforts are being made in the Caspian Guard iniative to encourage member cooperation with issues concerning the increasingly disturbing activities of Iran. Both of these initiatives are excellent examples of the Bush Administration successuflly using multilateralism and new alliances, as opposed to the often-heard shrill screams of "unilateralism" from the Democrats and "mainstream" media. The article's author, Bryan Preston, concludes with this summary of the President's efforts:
"For all the abuse that the Bush administration receives for its conduct of the war on terrorism, the Proliferation Security Initiative and Caspian Guard stand as examples of the other side of the war as conducted by a serious administration that knows we are all in for a long twilight struggle. Only by removing or intimidating terror-sponsoring states into renouncing terrorism, and only by stopping the spread of nuclear and other mass killing technology in its tracks, can the free world hope to win this war without incredible loss of life. Bush administration critics and the media -- often one and the same -- consistently fail to take the existence of the PSI and its start-up sister Caspian Guard into account when assessing how we are doing in the war. The existence of these organizations indicate that for all the squabbling over Iraq, most of the world's major powers do regard terrorism and weapons proliferation as serious conjoined threats, and are willing to band together to do something about it. And they are willing to be led by the unilateral cowboy from Texas who defied several of them to topple Saddam Hussein."
Couldn't have put it better myself.
"...ostensibly a three-way alliance between the United States, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan for the integration of several interlocking program elements, namely airspace and maritime surveillance and control systems, reaction and response forces, and border control."
Special efforts are being made in the Caspian Guard iniative to encourage member cooperation with issues concerning the increasingly disturbing activities of Iran. Both of these initiatives are excellent examples of the Bush Administration successuflly using multilateralism and new alliances, as opposed to the often-heard shrill screams of "unilateralism" from the Democrats and "mainstream" media. The article's author, Bryan Preston, concludes with this summary of the President's efforts:
"For all the abuse that the Bush administration receives for its conduct of the war on terrorism, the Proliferation Security Initiative and Caspian Guard stand as examples of the other side of the war as conducted by a serious administration that knows we are all in for a long twilight struggle. Only by removing or intimidating terror-sponsoring states into renouncing terrorism, and only by stopping the spread of nuclear and other mass killing technology in its tracks, can the free world hope to win this war without incredible loss of life. Bush administration critics and the media -- often one and the same -- consistently fail to take the existence of the PSI and its start-up sister Caspian Guard into account when assessing how we are doing in the war. The existence of these organizations indicate that for all the squabbling over Iraq, most of the world's major powers do regard terrorism and weapons proliferation as serious conjoined threats, and are willing to band together to do something about it. And they are willing to be led by the unilateral cowboy from Texas who defied several of them to topple Saddam Hussein."
Couldn't have put it better myself.
