Bush's Iraq Policies Likely To Inspire A New Isolationism In American Foreign Policy

One surprising difference between the U.S. and parts of the world community is that while the Bush plan to send 21,000 more troops into Iraq draws bad reviews among most of the public in the U.S. , the plan actually draws some support abroad in the world community. The EU, Britain, Australia and Turkey all voiced some support for the plan.

If anything this displays the differences between a war weary American public who believe the Iraq War to be a major foreign policy mistake, and just want to leave this problem behind, and a world community that believes that restoring security to Iraq is important. The UN and other organizations such as NATO are often called on to act as peacekeepers in world trouble spots. But the American public no longer sees the U.S. role in Iraq of that in the aftermath of the 2003 Iraq War. Support for the U.S. policing the violence in Iraq also draws some surprising support around the world. In Vietnam, a former Communist North Vietnamese soldier who fought against U.S. forces in the Vietnam War expressed support for the American role in Iraq as one helping the people" compared to the Vietnam War when the U.S. tried to destroy their Communist government.

Much of the world sees the problems in Iraq as one of lawlessness and violence, that needs to be policed by someone. But the U.S. public only sees 3,020 Americans dead, more than 22,000 wounded, and hundreds of billions of dollars wasted. Should the U.S. withdraw from Iraq soon and the violence only increase with more sectarian violence, will the American media begin to ignore this and not really report it much longer because the American role is over, but not the violence. In areas like Darfur there is actually a call for American or international community peacekeeping by many.

One interesting side effect of the improper Bush use of U.S. forces in invading Iraq in 2003, is that any legitimate role of peacekeeping by the U.S. is probably dead for quite some time and a new form of isolationist thinking will rule American foreign policy for some number of years. This will have it's own consequences as well.