To the Editor:
In his April 9 column in The Dartmouth, "A Charge To Keep," Brian Nick questions why Bush doesn't just "come out and [tell]" the American people that the real reason for the reversal of the "Bush Doctrine" of non-engagement is that the United States needs to rally support among allies for an invasion of Iraq. Nick argues that the ulterior military goals of sending Powell to the Middle East is already transparent to the public, so why bother with the peacemaking "doublespeak?"
Brian Nick's political reasoning is handicapped by the same blinders that plague most Republican discourse on international relations: an inability to view issues from any perspective other than the American one. One only need note the surprising lack of foreign political voices on conservative radio (relative to liberal radio) to realize the extent of the problem.
Although Nick recognizes that the purpose of the new Bush doublespeak is to gain international support, he fails to understand that support abroad can be as important as support at home. If Bush were to come out and say that he is only interested in peacemaking now in order to shore up support for future wars, as Nick recommends, he would doom Powell's mission to failure by exposing to the world that the United States is not at all interested in resolving the Palestinian conflict. It is bad enough that Bush's nefarious goal of "peacemaking" in one place in order to foment war in another is transparent to the world.
It is a mistake to assume that Bush is more honest than previous politicians simply because of his overall appearance. We must all recognize that, like his Middle Eastern counterparts, he is the heir to an oil mogul, and naturally he is always going to have interests to protect that are better left unsaid. I'm still amazed that he has maintained his image of honesty even through the Enron fiasco, and through his administration's "principled" refusal to turn over personally compromising documents to the Senate Appropriations Committee. People who still see honesty in Bush's eyes are gullible, and probably still have their money tucked away in Enron stocks, patiently waiting for the stock to rebound.
