Pinning the Blame

Who should be held responsible for the world’s problems?

By Kerry Eskenas
Posted on 10/16/06

It appears to have become a favorite pastime of the Democratic Party to pin the blame on President Bush for every injustice and all of the suffering that occurs in the world. It’s incredible to watch liberals speak with a straight face as they proclaim that the source of everything that is wrong in the world is not in the perpetrators themselves but is instead a consequence of the Bush administration. As time has gone on, this attitude has become crystallized in the words of prominent Democratic leaders and liberal interest groups.

I remember seeing a commercial about the campaign to end the genocide in Sudan for the first time. This commercial has been broadcast repeatedly, but every time I see it I feel a renewed shock and disgust. The woman speaking in this commercial lashes out in an accusatory tone, “President Bush! Stop the genocide!” If I didn’t know any better, I would assume that this commercial was referring to a genocide that President Bush himself was conducting. There is no mention in this commercial of how evil the perpetrators of this genocide are, and there is nothing that implies that there is any sort of responsibility for the genocide to be found in Sudan itself. It is obvious from the tone of the message that this interest group feels that the ultimate responsibility for the genocide lies with President Bush for ‘allowing’ the genocide to continue. No other country standing idly by is mentioned—according to this commercial, it is solely the United States that must be held accountable for this horror. The fact is that this world is full of battles, and there are only so many battles that one nation can fight. With limited resources, the United States can’t always be expected to act alone.

Another instance of the attitude that President Bush is responsible for everything that’s wrong in the world is to be found in a recent quote by Senator John Kerry. Regarding the testing of a nuclear bomb in North Korea, Kerry proclaimed that it should be called a “Bush bomb” because President Bush ‘allowed’ Kim Jong-Il to develop a nuclear weapon. Kerry makes no mention of the fact that North Korea has been developing this technology since the Clinton era. Further, he not only neglects to mention that it is Kim Jong-Il’s fault that North Korea violated the international norm against nuclear proliferation, but he specifically attacks President Bush rather than the leader of any other country for the fact that North Korea tested a nuclear bomb. Many other Democrats have criticized President Bush for refusing to hold bilateral talks with North Korea. These Democrats don’t have an answer when they’re confronted about the fact that they denounced President Bush for ‘going it alone’ in Iraq and yet somehow have the audacity to denounce President Bush for not ‘going it alone’ with regard to North Korea. The Democrats’ blaming of the Bush administration is constant, but the criticisms are inconsistent across different cases. The Democrats simply do not have a consistent foreign policy. All that the Democrats seem able to agree upon as a party is the fact that they hate President Bush.

The fact of the matter is that there is very little that President Bush can do when it comes to North Korea. Our military is already over-extended due to the Iraq War, and it is China and Russia that are in a position to cripple the North Korean regime through economic sanctions. These other countries have essentially enabled Kim Jong-Il’s nuclear program to continue by refusing to exert great pressure on the regime economically. Yet these other countries are not the objects of blame in the rhetoric of prominent Democrats. To them, it always has been and always will be the fault of President Bush—even though the North Korean nuclear program began before Bush was elected to the presidency and even though it is China and Russia rather than the United States that have the leverage to bring the North Korean regime down.

It is time for the Democrats to acknowledge that the United States cannot be expected to solve all of the world’s problems. As a superpower, it is true that the United States has many responsibilities in the world. But it is irrational to assume that the ultimate blame for all of the world’s problems can be pinned on President Bush. And, further, it is unfair to single the United States out for ‘not doing enough’ when there are numerous other countries that are doing essentially nothing to fix the world.

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