Bush's Overseas Hypocrisy

First, we have the Bush Administration, which is trying desperately to persuade Turkey not to invade northern Iraq to attack the bases of the Kurdish terrorists, the PKK. Then we have the Bush Administration signaling that they will support Pakistan's dictator General Musharraf as he uses martial law to crack down on his political opponents.

I have no problem with reality-based foreign policy. But the Bush Administration has spent years proclaiming proudly that they didn't give a flying fuck about reality, they viewed the world through an ideological lens and they acted based on that. The signature effort of Bush has been his self-styled "Global War on Terror." GWOT was used, in part, as the justification for invading Iraq and GWOT is cited repeatedly in the present-day attempt to whip up support for attacking Iran.

So where does the Bush Administration get off telling Turkey that they should not go after terrorists based not half-way around the world, but in a neighboring country? You can bet your last dollar that the Turks have not ignored that point.

Second only to GWOT was the Bush Administration's dedication to spreading democracy. Musharraf's imposition of martial law and cracking down on political opponents flies right in the face of that, and by continuing to support Musharraf, what the Bush Administration is doing is sowing the seeds of widespread hatred towards the US among the Pakistani people, who will no doubt remember that the United States supported Musharraf and will no doubt keep in mind that the military aid and supplies given by the US to the Pakistani military was used not to fight terrorism but to suppress freedom and democracy.

This will come back to haunt us.