What Drives Bush Administration Foreign Policy?

Central to the Bush administration's approach to defense policy appears to be a desire to punish those who have snubbed it. Thus, we find that the Pentagon is about to spend billions of dollars to move US bases out of Germany and into Eastern Europe. Certainly the cost of living is lower in Eastern Europe and it is closer to some hot spots writes Lawrence Korb in a NY Times editorial The Pentagon's Eastern Obsession. However, Korb explains that Easter Europe's transportation infrastructure is inferior to Western Europe meaning slower troop deployment times, the new bases will have to be built as the Soviet ones are in a state of decay, and these governments (unlike Germany) are not in a position to help pay some of the costs for keeping US troops there. I don't see the Bush administration's foreign policy as being dictated by national security interests, or even strategic forethought about securing oil reserves for US industry. Petty grudges against old allies can't be the whole story here either. I suspect that the Bush foreign policy is simply a calculated strategy to profit members of the administration and their financial backers through military and energy contracts on one hand and tax cuts on the other. Will new bases in Eastern Europe be constructed Texas based companies with links to the administration? I’d like to know the answer to this question.

Killer App Alert

I hate backing up my files, but after losing my last laptop in the attack on the WTC, I have been trying to change my ways. Now I may not need to. Novell has a killer app called ifolder that conveniently, securely, and efficiently backs stuff up over the net. Novell also has a great web-based email program at myrealbox.com. The beta version provides you with 10 megs of free storage.

Anything would be better than nothing

Bush's great error was not to have prepared the public for the possiblity that Iraq might not be a cakewalk. Bush skipped the "blood, toil, sweat and tears" speech. Saw no need for that. Neither did he say anything to the effect of "ask not what your country can do for you..." Why has so much been asked of those 18 year olds coming home in body bags -- guys who wouldn't have been allowed to legally drink beer in the USA for another four years, and so little been asked of the rest of America? This is not how a leader unites a great country. A nation pays a price when it lets 99 percent of the population off the hook while a few kids give everything for the war. F or one thing, it fosters a collective sense of guilt. It also breeds the feeling of impotence that comes from the misplaced belief that one has nothing to contribute to the effort. Such states of mind a true leader would fight like the plague. He'd ask something of his fellow Americans: A tax hike to increase military pay. A big push towards energy conservation. Anything would be better than nothing.