EDITORIAL

November 9, 2006
Lebanon - The Daily Star - Original Article (English)    

George W. Bush: Press conference after his electoral rebuke, Nov. 8.

—C-SPAN VIDEO: White House press conference with
President Bush, where he responds to the resounding
rejection of himself and his party in the midterm
elections, Nov. 8, 00:43:11


—BBC NEWS VIDEO: Tectonic shift shows
quickly at White House, Nov. 8, 00:01:33

Democrats have triumphed, but will it affect U.S. foreign policy?
(L-R) Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman
Rahm Emanuel, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate
Democratic Leader Harry Reid, and Democratic Senate Campaign
Committee Chairman Charles Schumer.





The new Congressional leadership: House Speaker-Elect
Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader in Waiting, Harry Reid.

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It took six years, but American voters have demonstrated a belated understanding of what people virtually everywhere else have known for years: George W. Bush is a dangerous cowboy who needs to be restrained. It is only natural that Arabs and Muslims were the first to sound the alarm about the threat to international peace and stability posed by Bush's post-9/11 conversion to unilateral interventionism. For decades, the peoples of the Middle East have been paying the price for official U.S. duplicity and ignorance. But Bush's reign has exacerbated the situation by adding equal doses of unrealistic dogma and invincible roguishness. What remains to be seen is whether the rebuke delivered by American voters will be reflected in U.S. policies overseas, and there is little reason for optimism.

One practical obstacle to meaningful change is the fact that Bush's Republican allies have lost the House of Representatives - and possibly the Senate as well - to a crop of Democrats hobbled by a congenital inability to define a platform of coherent policies. And the only exception to this general rule is no cause for comfort either: Democrats are even more dependent on the pro-Israel lobby, both financially and politically, than Republicans. This means that Washington's mindless support for the Jewish state's intransigent approach to the Middle East's core problem - the Palestinian-Israeli conflict - is likely to remain intact. Given the impunity that this bequeaths to Israel's government, expect more incidents like Wednesday's massacre of 18 Palestinians in Gaza, including 13 from a single family. Also, expect Palestinian militants to eventually lose patience and end their de facto

Another reason for pessimism is the shamelessness with which the same Democratic Party has rolled over in the face of Bush's expansive vision of his "war on terrorism." There has been some sniping over the past couple of years, especially over Iraq, but by and large Democrats have looked the other way as the Bush Administration has unabashedly demonstrated its disregard for both international and American law.

This leads to a third probability that bodes ill for stability in this and other parts of the world: Historically, U.S. presidents who have abused the office in a bid to expand the power of the presidency (Richard Nixon and the impotent administrations of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter that followed come inevitably to mind) have triggered backlashes, resulting in unwieldy Congressional oversight that undermines the President's ability to act forcefully and quickly. As Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen noted on Wednesday, "the world needs a vigorous USA" - and thanks to Bush, it is unlikely to have one again for quite some time.