The Return of Multilateralism

[Nancy Waterman]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EH06Ak01.html

The US invasion of Iraq was regarded within the neo-conservative circles as the shining moment for the notion of regime change, and a triumph for the Bush doctrine. However, the growing quagmire in Iraq is proving to be the beginning of the ultimate triumphant return of multilateralism, a tradition that the US so deftly used to build the post-World War II non-communist global order, but has spurned during the presidency of George W Bush.

America's triumphant moment in the aftermath of the toppling of Saddam Hussein seems to have long departed, as the spirals of anti-Americanism are rising with the almost daily deaths of American troops. Bush might not yet be having conversations with the ghost of President Lyndon B Johnson, but one wonders whether, or how often, in the privacy of his mind, Bush is thinking of LBJ, the burdens that he bore, and the agony that he experienced when he watched his beloved country slide toward a sure defeat. America's power was enormous then, compared to the rag-tag army of guerilla forces of North Vietnam. Still, the political realities of that era created the conditions of its ultimate defeat. Today, America's military might is even more awesome. Yet Bush might be wondering whether his troubles in Iraq are the making of another American defeat.

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The most difficult reality related to the worsening political situation in Iraq is that the neo-conservative aspirations - that America should reshape the Muslim Middle East in its own image - are about to be shattered.