Mission Accomplished

Michael Hirsh at Newsweek has a great indictment of the President's mishandling of the war on terror...

Clumsy Leadership-

The furor over Dubai's planned takeover of some U.S. ports is a sign of how out of control the ‘war on terror’ has become.

Key excerpt:

...It is just as sad to remember the support that once existed for the United States, then at the pinnacle of its power and prestige. On 9/10/01 America had adversaries, but mainly on the fringes. The invasion of Afghanistan brought barely a peep from the Arab street. No one had much use for Al Qaeda, even in the Islamic world. Global polls like those taken by Pew and the German Marshall Fund showed a remarkable degree of global consensus in favor of a one-superpower (in other words, American-dominated) world. The silver lining of 9/11 was a chance to reaffirm the legitimacy of America's role as trusted overseer of the international system. That is why Bush had so much support when he ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan, who were clearly harboring bin Laden, and so little backing when he shifted attention to Saddam, whose connection to bin Laden was plainly manufactured. The post-9/11 period was a fantastic opportunity for alliance- and institution-building. All that was required was American leadership.

How then did we arrive at this day, with anti-American Islamist governments rising in the Mideast, bin Laden sneering at us, Qaeda lieutenants escaping from prison, Iran brazenly enriching uranium, and America as hated and mistrusted as it ever has been? The answer, in a word, is incompetence...

If only the Democrats had a little Michael Hirsh in them, we could be having a national debate on this. This aspect of Bush's failures highlighted here is, to me, one of the most significant. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, support for America (at home and abroad) was at a high not seen since the end of WWII. And this administration pissed it away without a care. How quickly and thoroughly they pissed it away has been unbelievable to behold. And a total disgrace.

(See link above for a full analysis)