Toward a Humanist Foreign Policy‪.‬

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH has proved to be as much of a disaster on foreign affairs as on domestic issues. More, if possible. And not just on Iraq. On many other issues, including global warming, missile defense, population growth, and now Iran, he has been just as flagrantly wrong as he was on the supposed weapons of mass destruction held by Saddam Hussein. It's not just that he's getting bad advice: his narrow worldview is upside-down to begin with. Combine that with his desire to seek advice only from people who will fortify his prejudices, rather than from the ones who know and understand the issues, and you get a dangerous combination. It was a national tragedy that we had this kind of person at the helm when the terrorists struck on September 11, 2001. Bush used the attack to justify a foreign policy aimed at world domination, accompanied by an even more systematic and thorough attack on our civil liberties, all in the name of "protecting" us against further terrorist assaults. As a result we are no longer admired abroad--we are feared and hated--while on the home front we face an erosion of our rights, an extraordinary accession of executive power, and an assault on the wall separating church and state.