Bush’s failed freedom agenda, Bob Burnett

admin — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 13:26:41 +0100

The George W Bush administration has in recent years labelled its interventionist foreign policy "the freedom agenda". Although based upon values shared by all Americans - freedom and democracy offer the best alternatives to repression and radicalism - the freedom agenda's focal concept is deeply ideological: capitalism produces democracy. In application, this idea has had dreadful, unintended consequences: it has tarnished the reputation of the United States and soured the appeal of democracy to most of the world.

The United States's latest National Intelligence Estimate (completed in April 2006, and selectively leaked in September) stated that the "war on terror" is failing: the war in Iraq has actually increased the worldwide threat of terrorism. As a result, a cornerstone neo-conservative notion - it's in the world's best interest for the US to act unilaterally whenever it feels it needs to - has been discredited. Nonetheless, a closely related assertion - unfettered capitalism inevitably produces freedom and democracy - has gone unchallenged in the United States. Yet, this notion has also been proven false.

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Bush’s failed freedom agenda, Bob Burnett