ANOTHER VIEWPOINT. AVP_NS121, February 2006 THR LEGACY OF PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH AND THE ARAB ISRAELI CONFLICT. Elias H. Tuma

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1 ANOTHER VIEWPOINT AVP_NS121, February 2006 THR LEGACY OF PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH AND THE ARAB ISRAELI CONFLICT Elias H. Tuma President George W. Bush has been in office for five years, and he has three more years to go. Like every other president, he certainly would like to leave behind a positive legacy as creative, efficient, kind, and a strong leader that others would want to emulate. Whether he will succeed remains to be seen, though the signs so far are not promising. Even so, it is still possible for him to rehabilitate his record and guarantee himself an enviable legacy by achieving peace between the Arabs and Israel. He certainly is capable of that achievement. Up to now President Bush has succeeded in piling up an unflattering record in both domestic and foreign affairs. As a starter, he has been described as the selected, not elected, president. The US Supreme Court came to his rescue and put an end to the challenge to his first term presumed victory. While some observers may regard his being selected in itself as an achievement, this is not how it sounds in a democratic framework. When he came to office the US federal budget was in balance. It took little time and effort for the President to turn the balance into a big deficit, and the trend has continued ever since. In spite of his promise of No Child Left Behind in education, he can hardly claim to have succeeded. Large 1

2 numbers of schools and school children lag behind in financing, equipment, and decent accommodations. In the field of health, the record has not been any better. The number of uninsured has increased. Costs of health care have continued to go up, and the costs of prescription drugs have soared. The new medicare plan for prescription drugs has been confusing, costly, and burdensome. Individual states have had to step in to rescue the needy patients, pending Federal reorganization to solve the problem. When the 9/11 disaster struck, the President was nowhere to be seen. The glory of leadership went to New York Mayor Giuliani instead. The President s performance after the Katrina hurricane disaster has been erratic, to say the least. He was praising the FEMA staff for their efficiency, even as their failures were unfolding. Now, months later, some victims of Katrina are still in dislocation and the city of New Orleans remains close to a ghost town. President Bush has tried to rescue the economy by implementing his favorite cure for all economic ills, a tax cut, which has favored the rich and penalized the rest. Yet, inequality in the US has been on the rise and real incomes have been on the decline. The economy has remained anemic, with little reduction in unemployment, while tens of thousands are now threatened of losing their jobs. Worker pension security in the private sector has been dwindling, partly because of business insecurity, and partly because the Bush administration 2

3 is anxious to weaken the labor unions, regardless of the impact on the workers. One more domestic issue deserves attention, namely spying on US citizens, without court orders, in contravention of the law. The President claims that he has inherent power to authorize such actions, but he has failed to show the legal framework that gives him that power. Adding up all these negatives can be threatening to the hoped for legacy of greatness. Unfortunately the record in foreign affairs is not any better, though the President seems proud of that record. The facts are clear: he waged a war that was not necessary, given that Saddam Hussein s emasculated regime was not going to last for ever; all diplomatic means were not exhausted; and the UN Security Council did not authorize the invasion of Iraq, in accordance with the UN Charter. In the process, Iraq has been ruined; over 2200 Americans have been killed and over 16,000 have been injured. The Iraqi dead and injured run into the hundreds of thousands, and the war is not over yet, even though the President has long ago declared the mission accomplished. The President went hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which turned out to be imaginary. He went there to build a democracy and ended up splitting the country into religious factions, a result that threatens the basic unity of the country. And now, three years later, the Iraqi economy is still in recession and the people are suffering from insecurity 3

4 and depravation. To add insult to injury, the Bush administration has been outsourcing torture interrogation by rendition of suspects to other countries where human rights are not well respected. This comes on the heels of discovery that torture, degradation, and sometimes death have occurred in Abu Ghraib, Guantanomo, and elsewhere, in violation of human rights and the Geneva Conventions. Unfortunately, these horrible facts add up to a poor record, which can hardly contribute to a desirable legacy. Even so, all is not lost and the President still has a major card he can play, not only to improve his record but also to guarantee an important place for himself in the history of the US presidency, and in the annals of peacemaking and conflict resolution. The President can achieve all that by taking charge and making peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors, thus putting an end to the 100-year old Arab Israeli war. President Bush has already set the foundation for resolving that conflict. He has recognized the right of the Palestinians to independence and has influenced Israel to do the same. He has led the Quartet (European Union, Russia, the United Nation, and the United States) into formulating a Roadmap to peace. To his credit, both Israel and the Palestinians have accepted that plan in principle. What remains is for the President to make sure the Roadmap is implemented, and that he can do. President Bush knows that Israel will not move toward peace unless pressured by the US on which it depends 4

5 materially, militarily, and diplomatically. Similarly, the Palestinians can hardly move, given their many weaknesses, without some backing from the US, especially by assuring them that moving toward peace and security would certainly bring them closer to statehood. The President has strong allies in the Middle East. If he were to focus on peacemaking in the region, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Tunisia will certainly stand by him to fortify his efforts, especially in dealing with the Palestinians. Both Israelis and Palestinians will have new leaders in the coming weeks. Israel has achieved most of what it wanted. The Palestinians are exhausted and have little leverage in dealing with Israel except violence, which has proved to be self-defeating. Both are, therefore, ready for a settlement and are anxious to have a third party smooth the way between them, in spite of Hamas victory in the lections. President Bush is in a good position to take charge, help implement the Roadmap, and make peace in the region. By doing so he will have attained a well-deserved legacy as a peacemaker, and the one who put an end to the suffering of both Arabs and Israelis and the one hundred year enmity and conflict between them. Let us hope that President Bush will succeed in making peace and in securing a most favorable legacy. AVP is a non-profit, non-partisan monthly published by Elias H. Tuma, professor emeritus of economics, University of California, Davis, CA. The views expressed above are those of the author and do not implicate the university in any way. Website: 5

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