"Bush will hand over White House...that will face a far messier world..."

[dajoki]

WP
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13709074/

A driven president faces a world of crises
Beyond Iraq, Bush confronts a bleak foreign policy landscape

ANALYSIS
By Michael Abramowitz and Robin Wright

Updated: 5:35 a.m. ET July 6, 2006

From deteriorating security in Afghanistan and Somalia to mayhem in the Middle East, confrontation with Iran and eroding relations with Russia, the White House suddenly sees crisis in every direction.

North Korea's long-range missile test Tuesday, although unsuccessful, was another reminder of the bleak foreign policy landscape that faces President Bush even outside of Iraq. Few foreign policy experts foresee the reclusive Stalinist state giving up the nuclear weapons it appears to have acquired, making it another in a long list of world problems that threaten to cloud the closing years of the Bush administration, according to foreign policy experts in both parties.

"I am hard-pressed to think of any other moment in modern times where there have been so many challenges facing this country simultaneously," said Richard N. Haass, a former senior Bush administration official who heads the Council on Foreign Relations. "The danger is that Mr. Bush will hand over a White House to a successor that will face a far messier world, with far fewer resources left to cope with it."

White House officials emphatically reject such pessimism, and yesterday leading figures in both parties saw some diplomatic opportunity for the United States out of the missile failure. But the events on the Korean Peninsula underscored how the administration has lost the initiative it once possessed on foreign policy in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, leaving at risk the central Bush aspiration of democracy-building around the world.

They also showed how the huge commitment of resources and time on Iraq --and the attendant falloff in international support for the United States -- has limited the administration's flexibility in handling new world crises. "This is a distracted government that has to take care of too many things at the same time and has been consumed by the war on Iraq," said Moises Naim, editor of Foreign Policy magazine.

[Lisa]

1. "a far messier world" -- and whose fault is that?

I wish they would drop the ambiguous "mistakes were made" tone!

[Placebo]

2. Pretty amazing to have a former member of the administration...

saying all of these things.

And sadly, it's all true.

Imagine if after Bush we get another Republican. Could our nation survive?

[MissWaverly]

3. you watch all throughout the inauguration; he will be laughing

real proud of his little mess; let's see 'em deal with this, heh, heh, heh. Bills coming due
soon. heh. heh. heh. Nobody will blame me. heh. heh. heh.

[dajoki]

6. Just like the spoiled child he is...

He'll take his toys and go home, screw the next guy.

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. But he better not plan on visiting any of the friends he's made

overseas over the past few years. He could find himself being plucked off a plane in Frankfort, en route to visit Putin, and next thing you know he's in the dock at The Hague.

[MissWaverly]

19. I agree

[AX10]

4. Bush is either directly or indirectly responsible for this.

On many fronts, Bush created the mess, on others he decided that it was not "his problem" to deal with. In 2000, we crossed the "Bridge to the 21st Century" and the horizon looked bright as day, some 5 and a half years later, we are are looking into a bleak future. I am EXTREMLY DISGUSTED WITH WHAT GEORGE (SOB) BUSH has done to our nation. I do NOT like what has occured over the past 5 and a half years.

[Selatius]

5. Bush took a steaming piss on the world, and we get this in return

He has single-handedly made the world less secure and less safe. He has cost countless lives in his stupid wars and has made the US government the most feared entity on the planet both abroad and here at home.

Bush's wars have set the tone for the 21st century the same way World War One set the tone for the rest of the 20th century. He may have just turned the 21st century into another century of war.

[Auntie Bush]

7. Maybe if he'd do some "Hard Work" in the Whitehouse instead

of napping, exercising, chopping wood and lying....he could get us out of the messes he's gotten us into. Fat chance!

[CoffeeCat]

8. Can you imagine...

...what the state of the world would be like--had Kerry been elected? Now there's a man who knows
how to communicate, compromise and represent the United States like a true statesman. The man seethes diplomacy and maturity.

It hurts just thinking about it.

You may not agree with Kerry on every issue, but by God--the man would accomplished so much on the foreign-policy/international-relations front. We sure wouldn't be sitting in the giant mess in which we're currently floundering. We wouldn't be hated. We wouldn't be ashamed. We'd be fighting an effective war on terror, without losing our civil rights.

I'd better stop. I'll get lost in my own daydream.

[dajoki]

9. I've been in that dream n/t

[rubberducky]

10. "W" needs to go do some "hard work" on the ranch

For the next couple of years. Leave the country the hell alone. We can do far better without you that with you.

[dajoki]

11. "hard work"=vacation...

either way, we're better off.

[Erika]

12. My GOP friend said she voted for W so he could clean up

the war he started. She doesn't talk war much any more. She's bribed her boy with college, race cars, etc to keep him from going into the service.

[dajoki]

16. she made a big mistake n/t

[Vidar]

13. Way too true.

[ArkySue]

15. It's gonna be F***ed up alright

I feel guilty asking anyone to run for Prez...what a load of crap to have to clean up. It will take decades to repair the damage. Ughhh...!!!!

[bdamomma]

17. it will take decades to clean up bush's mess

he never had to worry because he has always had someone clean up after him all through his life.

He just does not care, I want to see Cheney the Dark Side gone.

[Skittles]

18. it is a huge shit sandwich

and we're all gonna have to take a bite. Thanks bush voters, you f***ing ingorant bastards.

[dajoki]

20. it's been shoved down our throats for the last 5 1/2 years n/t

[Skittles]

21. babe, you don't know the half of it

I live in Texas; I have had to put up with this incompetent bastard for well over a decade and I work with people so f***ing stupid they STILL SUPPORT HIM

[dajoki]

22. You have my sympathy n/t