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Good post.
The problem with Bush's foreign policy -- one of the many -- was that he played into the terrorists hands when he went into Iraq. Bush was clearly in over his head as president and he completely panicked after 9/11. (This may well be what the Mumbai attacks are hoping to precipitate, either by Bush himself or, more likely, the Indians against the Pakistanis.) The Iraq War was a gross overreaction to 9/11.
We had the entire world with us after the 9/11 attacks, and we had sweeping support for our war in Afghanistan. If we had stayed in Afghanistan we could have destroyed al Qaeda and the Taliban, and we could have done so with most of the civilized world working together with us. Instead, we did what we did, drove up terrorist recruitment and engendered anti-U.S. sentiment around the world. Now, our options are much more limited. But I think -- I hope anyway -- that with Bush leaving many other nations will once again give the U.S. a chance to work within the world community to combat terrorism. It can still be done. The terrorists offer nothing most people want. We just have to stop being so damn stupid.
