The War on Terror and Core Values

William O. Walker III

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511811784.011

9 - The War on Terror and Core Values

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

William O. Walker III

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William O. Walker III: Affiliation:
University of Toronto

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Summary

I think for us to get American military personnel involved in a civil war inside Iraq would literally be a quagmire.…Once we got to Baghdad, what would we do?…I think it makes no sense at all.

Dick Cheney, 1991

[O]ur nation is best when we project our strength and our purpose with humility.

George W. Bush, 2000

Necessity creates war, not a hovering zeitgeist called “law.”

John Yoo

After taking office in January 2001, George W. Bush borrowed from his father and Bill Clinton as he prepared to chart the nation's course in foreign policy. Access to oil reserves in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere was, of course, a crucial policy objective. Cordial, if not close, relations with Russia would determine his success in the diplomatic realm. Hoping for more, Bush identified President Vladimir Putin as an ally on major issues like democratization, economic integration, and missile defense. The last was the core of an initiative that would entail abandoning the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union. Bush badly underestimated Putin's desire to restore Russia's global influence, which led to much unease in Moscow about the growing American presence in the greater Caspian region. Nor did he understand that differences of opinion with Russia were, in fact, substantive; as a result, there was great dismay as Putin opposed key aspects of U.S. security policy in the former Soviet republics, Europe, and the Middle East, where differences over how to respond to Iran's nuclear program soured U.S.-Russian relations throughout Bush's second term.

Type: Chapter
Information: National Security and Core Values in American History , pp. 259 - 292

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511811784.011 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2009

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