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[Noel Fahden/The Daily Pennsylvanian] (David Young)

When President Bush delivered his annual State of the Union address last week, there was no shocking and infamous "axis of evil" remark like last year. By now, we are used to Bush's militaristic rhetoric. But one statement struck me as particularly fitting, in an ironic way.
"Throughout the 20th century, small groups of men seized control of great nations, built armies and arsenals and set out to dominate the weak and intimidate the world" -- a perfect description of the Bush administration's current foreign policy.
In expanding America's economic and military empire, Bush has pursued an aggressive, bullying approach to international affairs, relying on military force and intimidation. His polices exude hypocrisy and misrepresent a host of issues. And as we are beginning to see, bullying tactics always backfire in the long run.
The prospective war on Iraq is, of course, the foremost issue on Bush's agenda -- and it illustrates his manipulative ways. For example, regarding U.N. weapons inspections, the president said that the burden of proof is on Iraq to show it has destroyed all biological and chemical weapons. But there is no real way to accomplish this. The president can always claim that more, undiscovered stockpiles exist. Bush's rhetoric is a smokescreen; it tries to make him seem diplomatic while maintaining his pretext for war.
Also, while noting that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons in the past, Bush fails to mention that the U.S. government didn't care much while he did it. America supported Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. Ironically, Iran opposes the proposed U.S. invasion of Iraq, even though it has suffered from Iraqi aggression more than any other nation.
Bush also made a number of misleading statements about the so-called "war on terrorism" in his address, grossly exaggerating its effectiveness. The arrests of 3000 "suspected terrorists" indicate only suspicion, not success. Since Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist acts against U.S. interests have continued in several countries, including Pakistan, Yemen and Kuwait. And even the administration concedes that another attack on American soil is imminent.
While the U.S. has eliminated some potential terrorists, Bush's rhetoric and actions have motivated many others to join extremist groups. There is no justification for terrorist acts; however, we cannot treat terrorism like a defeatable enemy. It will always exist, and the only way to curb terrorist acts is to cease the administration's antagonistic and oppressive actions.
Moreover, as Washington Gov. Gary Locke pointed out in his response to the president, the U.S. still has not captured public enemy number one: Osama bin Laden. After the Sept. 11 attacks, Bin Laden's apprehension was at the forefront of the American agenda. In fact, at the time, the president stated that Afghanistan's Taliban rulers could avoid U.S. military strikes if they turned over bin Laden immediately. This was another illusion of diplomacy; if the U.S. military has not captured bin Laden in over a year, there is no way the much weaker Taliban forces could have done so in a few days, even if they wanted to do so.
In the State of the Union address, the president also claimed that the war against the Taliban "helped liberate an oppressed people." He ignored the lawlessness that currently reigns in most of Afghanistan, where the central government has little control outside of Kabul. For all of their barbarism and oppression, the Taliban brought a small amount of stability to this war-torn country, and the U.S. war campaign destroyed this stability without any adequate replacement.
But Bush's biggest foreign policy failure has been North Korea -- another member of the "axis of evil." In the wake of U.S. intimidation, North Korea President Kim Jong Il restarted his nuclear reactors and expelled inspectors from his country. This has created a dangerous situation on the Korean peninsula, and even longtime American ally South Korea has blamed Bush's rhetoric for the escalation in tensions. The Bush administration cannot wage war against North Korea without significant commitment and loss. So even though North Korea is just as repressive as Iraq's regime or the Taliban and is a far greater threat to its neighbors, the U.S. will not attack.
Ultimately, this is not just a hypocritical stance -- it also illustrates the shortcomings of the bullying approach. Bullies fight only the weak; they back down from anyone who is even a small threat. Bush's foreign policy actually encourages nuclear proliferation in other nations in order to avoid U.S. attacks.
And inevitably, it's against U.S. interests to wage wars of aggression. World powers ultimately fall by underestimating their opponents. The American Revolution itself was proof that David can beat Goliath. And if Bush's foreign policy continues, the sun will surely set on the American empire.
Vinay Harpalani is a Ph.D. candidate in Education and a Master's candidate in Bioethics from Newark, Del.