defense Archives - Page 4 of 16 - Foreign Policy In Focus

Budgeting for Empire: Ambitions Outweigh Strategy

by David Isenberg, Erik Leaver | Mar 27, 2007

One might think that given all the stresses and strains on the U.S. military caused by fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that the Defense Department would at least be doing its utmost to grasp the geostrategic realities of the day. But the Pentagon’s last Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), released on February 6, 2006 showed that American defense plans continue to fail engagements with reality. While the QDR was big on rhetoric, it was woefully short on action.

Not terrorism–China drives up U.S. military spending

by Michael Klare | Apr 11, 2006

Ostensibly, the growing threat of international terrorism is responsible for the Bush administration’s proposed 2007 military budget, of $439 billion: a 7-percent increase from last year’s record tally. Higher spending, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has indicated, would ensure U.S. success “in the long war against terrorist extremism.”

Democrats Talk Tough

by William D. Hartung | Apr 11, 2006

The conventional wisdom holds that a majority of Americans believe that Republicans do a better job of protecting America than Democrats do. This assumption has changed significantly as the Bush administration’s war in Iraq descends further into chaos and violence, but most high-ranking Democratic officials continue to believe that a "muscular" approach to national security is their best bet for returning to power. But trying to beat the Republicans at their own game–fear-mongering in the service of ever higher military budgets–is a losing proposition.
A better approach for Democrats would be to set a date certain for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, and then present a plan for investing the tens or hundreds of billions thus saved in non-military tools of security. A new security policy should be premised on the notion that every human being is precious, and that the government should endeavor to protect America and its allies from all threats to life, including terrorism, infectious diseases, natural disasters, environmental degradation, and entrenched poverty.

The War In Iraq Is Not Over and Neither Are The Lies To Justify It

by Foreign Policy In Focus, Stephen Zunes | Sep 8, 2003

President George W. Bush’s nationally broadcast speech Sunday evening once again was designed to mislead Congress and the American public into supporting his administration’s policies in Iraq. Despite record deficits and draconian cutbacks in government support for health care, housing, education, the environment, and public transportation, the president is asking the American taxpayer to spend an additional $87 billion to support his invasion and occupation of Iraq.

U.S. Policy Must Be Sensitive to Ukraine’s Balancing Act

by Robert M. Cutler | Jan 1, 2001

Ukraine’s positioning makes it a natural bridge between East and West. A wise U.S. foreign policy would be one that is sensitive to Ukraine’s function as a bridge between Russia and the Western military alliance.

Military Contractors Spent Freely To Influence 2000 Election, Future Policy

by Lauren Budnick, Miriam Pemberton | Jan 1, 2001

U.S. defense contractors were full participants in the last election cycle. Their contributions, totaling $13.5 million, were liberally distributed among both presidential campaigns, major party coffers, and House and Senate races, heavily emphasizing the members of both houses’ Armed Services Committees. This corporate campaign financing will help ensure that weapons industry interests will be well served in the coming year’s budget process.

The Bush Administration and Human Rights

by Neil Hicks | Jan 1, 2001

Human rights has been a central rhetorical foreign policy concern of successive U.S. presidents since the Carter administration. For all that, the international community remains deeply ambivalent about the American government’s self-appointed role as the world’s largest human rights organization. Many see self-interest behind U.S. claims to be upholding high moral principles, and they also see hypocrisy in the U.S. government’s reluctance to be bound by the same instruments it is so ready to apply to others.

Paternal Legacies

by Mary Ann Tétreault | Jan 1, 2001

There is a touch of poetic justice for George Bush the Younger in the current state of affairs in the Persian Gulf. Bush takes the White House after Saddam Hussein’s flamboyant success in making a shambles out of United Nations weapons inspections and in the midst of his audacious campaign to unravel what remains of UN economic sanctions against Iraq. Even other Persian Gulf countries have moderated their positions toward Saddam in light of his ostentatious and highly popular condemnation of Israel’s violent retaliation against the new Palestinian Intifada. What might this mean for the future of Kuwait and the other Arab gulf states?

Bush’s Foreign Policy in Latin America: Colombia and U.S. Drug Policy

by Coletta Youngers | Jan 1, 2001

The Latin American region received little attention during either the presidential campaign or in the press coverage of the incoming administration.

Africa: Off the Agenda?

by Salih Booker | Jan 1, 2001

Will Africa be “off the agenda” of a Bush administration? In the first week of Bush’s term, we can answer that question with a resounding no! It’s far worse than that. After four days, Bush in effect declared war on Africa and Africans.