February 4, 2006
Turning Back the Swells of an Isolationist Current
By Richard
Halloran
It may be
trite but nonetheless true that things unspoken may be more revealing
than what is actually said.
So it was
with President Bush’s address to the Congress on Tuesday
evening about the State of the Union, particularly on the president’s
plans and policies toward Asia this year. His silence on Japan,
China, and India, other than as economic competitors, seemed to
mean that no new U.S. initiatives will be offered in the foreseeable
future.
The president’s
address further suggested that relations with Asian nations will
be left to the State Department, the Pentagon, and other executive
agencies. It indicated that only in a crisis would the White House
itself turn its attention to Asia.
The few issues
in foreign affairs that the president did mention were the war
in Iraq and Afghanistan, the growing nuclear threat from Iran,
and the turmoil in the Middle East, notably the hostility between
the Arabs and Israel.
The president
said nothing about the resurgence of Japan as a U.S. ally, nor
about the rise of China as a vexing issue confronting America,
Asia, and the world, nor about the emergence of India as a political
and military power that Mr. Bush is scheduled to visit next month.
Moreover,
he said nothing about resolving troubling questions that affect
Asia as well as America such as persuading Taiwan to do more to
defend itself, forcing North Korea to give up its ambitions for
nuclear weapons, or reversing the steady deterioration of U.S.
relations with South Korea.
Instead,
the president’s annual report, with its focus on domestic
political and especially economic issues, reflected his concern
with Congressional elections in November. The president’s
Republican Party has the majority in both houses of Congress today,
but barely.
Throughout
much of the history of the republic, the party in power loses
seats in the mid-term elections. The president was clearly more
anxious to do what he could to keep his party in control than
to attend to relations with Tokyo, Beijing, and other points in
the East.
Beyond 2006,
the president seemed intent on setting a course for the rest of
his term, which ends in January, 2009, when a new president will
take office. With the end in sight, even if down the road, a U.S.
president’s power begins to slip away.
Polls show
that, with his approval ratings well below 50 percent, a majority
of Americans think he will not be able to get much done from now
on. Apparently, Mr. Bush was seeking to stave off that appearance
of weakness by emphasizing domestic issues.
In a subtle
way, the president seemed to be holding up a mirror that reflected
the mood of Americans today. Americans have been showing signs
of fatigue as a consequence of fighting in five foreign wars since
1941, exerting leadership in the international political arena,
and bearing a heavy economic burden such as the annual trade deficit
of nearly $800 billion in 2005.
In perhaps
the most surprising and striking passages of his address, President
Bush said "the road of isolationism and protectionism may
seem broad and inviting—yet it ends in danger and decline."
He asserted that Americans "cannot find security by abandoning
our commitments and retreating within our borders."
"America
rejects the false comfort of isolationism," he said, then
turned to the threat of economic isolation, saying "we’re
seeing some old temptations return. Protectionists want to escape
competition." He called that a form of "economic retreat"
that would lead "toward a stagnant and second-rate economy."
In those
passages, Mr. Bush evidently recognized what many polls have shown,
a gradual slippage in concern about events beyond American shores
other than the war in Iraq. A majority of those polled support
the war on terror, the prevention of nuclear weapons being spread,
and actions to secure adequate supplies of energy.
Beyond that,
however, a majority said it was not the responsibility of the
U.S. to protect weaker nations against foreign aggression, nor
to improve the standard of living of less developed nations, nor
to build democracy elsewhere.
Small majorities
said they were dissatisfied with the U.S. position in the world.
They asserted that the U.S. should play a major but not leading
role in solving international problems, with 55 percent contending
that the U.S. should let other nations be responsible for finding
solutions to those problems.
The president
thus seemed to be trying to turn back the rolling swells of an
isolationist current.
Richard Halloran, formerly
with The New York Times as a foreign correspondent in Asia and
military correspondent in Washington, writes from Honolulu. He
can be reached at oranhall@hawaii.rr.com
