The Bush-McCain Appeasement Doctrine

George Bush, has apparently decided to self-appoint himself as the official "Campaigner-In-Chief" for a third term of a nearly identical foreign policy as his own in the guise of John McCain. And McCain has so far done very little to disprove that his foreign policy will in any way way offer any real substantial differences from the Bush foreign policy in any constructive way, including a laundry list of serious MidEast failures.

Last week, in some highly inappropriate politically moltivated comments in his address to the Israeli Knesset, Mr. Bush kicked opened the door to some genuine hypocrisy criticism over who really practices "appeasement" in their foreign policy. Historically, many Republican politicians simply love to wrap themselves in the American flag and portray everyone outside of themself as something less of a patriot than themselves. To many Republican politicians, the term "appeasement" conjures up dirty images of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who had hoped to somehow construct a foreign policy of coexistence between a democratic Europe and a fascist Germany. Yet, during the Cold War years, and even now in the post-Cold War modern world with most nations still not democratic in nature, Republican presidential administrations including the Bush White House have simply practiced "appeasement" with undemocratic nations or leaders in some form or other.

If anything, North Korean Communist dictator Kim Jong-Il has simply proven that if you can create a serious enough nuclear weapons scare, than you can extort massive funds and other gifts from the American government. On the same day that Mr. Bush made his politically pointed "appeasement" comments in Israel, his administration was actually giving final agreement to giving the Communist Kim Jong-Il government 500,000 tons of food to distribute just at a time that American citizens are being forced to pay substantially inflated food prices here at home. Unfortunately this 500,000 tons of food was not even directly linked to any real nuclear weapons production halt treaty. In true Neville Chamberlain form, the Bush Administration merely hopes that the massive food gifts will somehow promote a "climate" more conducive to nuclear peace with North Korea. About all that the Bush Administration could really secure with their negotiations with the very hardline North Korea government was some agreement to keep most of the food from ending up in the hands of the North Korean military, the fourth largest army in the world. And while it is certainly known that North Korea has nuclear reactors, it is still a matter of some debate whether they really possess true nuclear weapons technology. One underground test gave seismographic readings to American investigators that strongly suggested that the blast was actually conducted with a large conventional explosives TNT blast, and was not nuclear in nature. If the test was simply a ruse, then the North Koreans have proven that if you can promote enough of a climate of nuclear fear from the Americans, than they will give you massive gifts. North Korea will also receive massive oil shipments from the U.S. as well, just at a time when Americans are paying nearly $4.00 a gallon for gas. If this isn't a foreign policy that's built entirely on "appeasement" with a seemingly potentially dangerous nation, than the term "appeasement" really means nothing.

And it is also the same Bush Administration that also gives massive American financial support to the corrupt Fatah government of the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas to promote "peace" with Israel despite the fact that most Palestinian people never really see any of the funds, with massive unchecked corruption within the Fatah government still more common than not. Theft of the funds which often end up in their own pockets or Swiss bank accounts is still common conduct, and was a major issue with their Hamas opposition. Fatah has really reformed very little from the days of corrupt leadership under Yasser Arafat, who left his widow millions upon millions of American dollars that he socked away in Swiss bank accounts almost as fast as Americans could give his government money. Despite years and years of American gifts to the corrupt Fatah government, "peace" with Israel remains as elusive as ever. And if anything, Mr. Bush has made "peace" even farther away from reality by pushing for democratic elections in a MidEast not yet ready for democracy, only allowing Hamas to win partial control of the Palestinian people, leaving Fatah greatly reduced in power. Democratic elections in Iraq and Iran were also disasterous, and in moderate nations such as Egypt or Jordan, would only bring radical governments into power.

Mr. Bush has simply practiced "appeasement" with bad governments in his foreign policy as much as he blames others for it. His calls for democracy in the MidEast have only brought radicals or rotten governments into power. And Mr. Bush's apparent successor, John McCain, has only proven very little willingness to substantially change any portion of this greatly flawed foreign policy which really hasn't worked very well at all so far. Foreign policy is one of the most critical areas for substantial change towards policies that actually work and really cement longterm peace goals with responsible governments.