Time - Man of the Year/Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso/moy/011392/01130010.000

Text File | 1992-08-29 | 6KB | 118 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 29

AMERICA ABROAD

The Low Point of the Bush Presidency


By Strobe Talbott


    In November 1990, during the buildup to Operation Desert
Storm, James Baker tried to shore up support on the home front
for the dispatch of U.S. troops half a world away. "To bring it
down to the level of the average American citizen," he said,
standing up to Saddam Hussein "means jobs." Then, to make sure
everyone understood, he said it again, "If you want to sum it up
in one word, it's jobs."

    In one sense, Baker was merely stating the obvious. Of
course the U.S. had an economic stake in the Persian Gulf. He
would have been just as correct to say the magic word was oil.
Trouble in far-off lands can raise prices and cause long lines
at gas stations in the U.S., and high energy costs can force
companies to lay off workers and close plants. That is part of
what global interdependence is all about.

    Yet Baker's attempt to make the showdown with Saddam into
a pocketbook issue backfired. He was widely clobbered for being
patronizing; most Americans like to think their country's role
in the world is more than just a matter of looking out for No.
1.

    So George Bush realized. When he offered his own
justification of the gulf war in the State of the Union message
last January, the President said nothing about jobs or oil.
Instead he invoked a loftier theme: "We are Americans, part of
something larger than ourselves." The U.S., he continued, was
fighting for "the universal aspirations of mankind -- peace and
security, freedom, and the rule of law."

    There may be more than a touch of arrogance in such
rhetoric, whether its source is Bush in 1991 or Franklin
Roosevelt in 1941 or Woodrow Wilson in 1917. But there is also
nobility and immense political force in the claim that American
power is an instrument of universal values as well as national
interests. Throughout this century that idea has helped rally
other countries when U.S. Presidents have called. It enabled
Bush to mobilize a mighty international coalition that cut
across the traditional divides of East and West, North and
South, and gave meaning to the phrase new world order.

    From the day Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990 until it
was evicted nearly seven months later, Bush operated on the
conceit that he was the leader not only of the U.S. but of the
world. No one had elected him to the latter post, but almost no
one except Saddam objected. Quite the contrary, the world was
eager for someone to follow, and Bush obliged. For a long, proud
moment, he conquered the vision thing. It was the high point of
his presidency.

    This week marks the low point. When Bush set off for
Australia and the Far East last Monday, he virtually apologized
to his constituents for leaving the country. He promised he'd
make it up to them by devoting the tour to one goal: creating
"jobs, jobs and jobs" in America.

    Like Baker in November 1990, Bush is right that there is
a connection between a vigorous foreign policy and a healthy
economy. He is right that world commerce in general and
U.S.-Japan trade in particular must be fair as well as free;
indeed, it must be fair in order to be free. Those are
legitimate points for Bush to impress on Prime Minister Kiichi
Miyazawa. But then the two leaders should turn the matter over
to their aides and move on to other business.

    Together, the U.S. and Japan account for 40% of the
world's economic output. The interconnectedness of their
economies makes a broader strategic partnership between
Washington and Tokyo essential, especially since Japan's
neighbors include a Russia that is in deepening crisis, a North
Korea that has the most militaristic and totalitarian regime on
earth and a China that could, in the next few years, undergo a
power struggle of epic proportions.

    Yet Bush has consigned geopolitics to second place so that
he can concentrate on a detailed discussion of auto parts,
semiconductors and rice. By bringing along an entourage of 21
corporate executives, a number of whom are outspoken
protectionists and Japan bashers, the President has turned the
trip into a trade mission and himself into his own Secretary of
Commerce. To such a visitor, the Japanese will find it all the
easier to say no. So even in terms of his own obsessively
repeated objective, the J word, Bush is likely to fail.

    By pandering to domestic politics, Bush diminishes his
nation, his office and himself. He betrays a weakness of
character -- a lack of grace, and guts, under pressure. His
campaign for re-election hasn't even got tough. So far he faces
opposition from a conservative pundit and TV talking head who
has never run for dogcatcher, a former Nazi and Ku Klux Klan
Pooh-Bah who was recently rejected by the good people of
Louisiana, and a Democratic field that has yet to close ranks
behind a compelling candidate or a coherent platform. Yet
already Bush is running scared. Even when he is more than 5,000
miles from the nearest primary state, he is on the hustings,
pleading for another term from the folks back home.

    It is not a pretty sight, and it raises disturbing
questions. Was the leadership Bush showed during the gulf crisis
an aberration? What if some similar challenge arises in the
months ahead? It's hard to have confidence in a President who
so blatantly and abjectly puts his country and the world on
notice that the job he is most concerned about is his own.