The $87 Billion Question

George Bush's $87 billion question for the American people and the world
This week has again seen yet another major example of current US administration turn around to the rest of the world (courtesy of George W. Bush’s latest address to the U.N.) and essentially display the same fundamental disregard for international opinion as it always has, the same attitude that got it into this expensive mess in the first place.

The sooner that stops then the sooner the US will find itself going a long way to getting assistance from the rest of the international community with the estimated $87 billion that it needs to rebuild the country that it destroyed in the first place.

Even domestically, the huge burdening cost of rebuilding Iraq is being questioned by both Democratic and Republican politicians alike. Democrats feel it is wrong that the US has to carry the weight of the total on its own simply because the Bush administration cannot garnish support from the international community, and Republicans feel uncomfortable with the notion that Iraqis are getting subsidized health care whilst their constituents are having to actually pay more for theirs.

Irrespective of which side of the political fence you straddle, conservative or liberal, the growing feeling in unison amongst many rank and file grass roots, local politicians in the US is that they just simply cannot afford to do this all on their own.

Having said that, whilst they are happy to accept your money, they don’t want to have to listen to nonsense from other countries on what it should be spent upon, which is a bit like the crack-head who lives in your neighborhood asking to borrow $20 off you as long as you don’t ask him what it’s for.

However, what is perhaps most bizarre about this scenario is that, whilst the US almost certainly does, in fact, need all of the financial assistance it can get it’s hand on from other nations, the small group of neo-conservative hawks seemingly at the helm of things in the White House currently actually do not believe that they need any help from anyone ironically.

President Bush had not even met with President Chirac in New York this week than well-known conservative Republican spokesmen were doing the rounds of the US Sunday morning political chat shows saying that they did not really think France had much to offer anyway.

With that sort of derogatory opinion, and bearing in mind that neither the France nor Germany economies are in such great shape right now anyway as to be helping anyone out with anything, then one wonders why any of these countries even bothers with offering assistance at all?

In reality, what underpins disagreements between the US and the rest of world over Iraq is a far bigger issue here. Those who are driving this American administration right now are diehard unilateralists at heart who fundamentally do not believe that the US should have to take into account the views of other smaller nations when it really comes down to it. Some believe that for reasons of morality in terms of being blinded by the good v evil struggle that they feel they are embroiled in. Some believe it for simple politically strategic reasons, namely that as a superpower that just should not be accountable to smaller nations.

Either way, the truth is that faced with that sort of an attitude, no amount of offering assistance to rebuild Iraq will be appreciated, and it most certainly will not bring about a compromise on anything, which is simply never going to happen from an administration that feels no sense of accountability to other nations within the world.

France and Germany and Japan and just about anyone else who wants to cough up some cash can sure do so but if they think that appeasing this administration is going to achieve anything then they are wrong.

In which case, why bother to help them at all then?

Arguably, the only way that the Bush administration is going to see the error of it’s ways is when it’s economy is bled dry by the financial cost of rebuilding Iraq and it’s voters throw them out of power in the next presidential election in November 2004 because they got sick of having to carry the whole burden themselves.

You just cannot kiss and make up with someone who believes that there is no need to kiss anyone in the first place.

It is an unfortunate truism in life that sometimes people will only learn the hard way.