In a little noticed article, the Financial Times reported this week that the Bush administration is planning on releasing a new a national security strategy softening the prior doctrine of pre-emption. The article says the new strategy ‘is being drafted by National Security Council officials, led by Peter Feaver, a former Duke University academic.’ We did a quick check to see who Peter Feaver is. According to the Washington Post, Feaver is an expert on public opinion, who Bush consulted earlier this year in crafting a series of foreign policy speeches.* This comes as no surprise. Bush, despite his many statements to the contrary, is just as much a poll-follower as Clinton was and has been from the beginning. Nonetheless, it is telling evidence towards just how visionless this president is that he is consulting public opinion experts on the one issue he appears to care or know anything about.
*Update: An astute reader points out that Feaver is also the author 'of the 35-page “Our National Strategy for Victory in Iraq” document' that informed Bush's December speeches.
1 Comments:
The "Victory in Iraq" document allows marketing and presentation techniques to overshadow the chance to explain a comprehensive and coherent strategy for the meaning of a real "victory" in Iraq. It is repetive without reaping the benefits of substantial context, and though pays homage to the eight pillars of Islam through its organizing of its main points into eight pillars, focuses very little on how to integrate Islam into the grand strategy for the victory. Islam.
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