The last four years through the looking glass.

• Author: Howell, Llewellyn D.
• Position: World Watcher - Foreign policy of George W. Bush

OVER THE LAST FOUR YEARS, Pres. George W. Bush continually has announced policies of what were declared as up, but then were pursued down slippery slopes into quagmires of obfuscation and contradiction. The Clear Skies Initiative permits more pollution; the Healthy Forest Initiative makes trees better by cutting them down; "reform" means the abolition of past policy. Maybe it's me. Perhaps I am seeing things backwards. As a New Year's resolution, let me try to get it straight. Let's take a new look at Bush's foreign policy initiatives over the last four years and see the positives in what has been accomplished.

The War on Terrorism. Following the attacks of 9/11, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and successfully displaced the Taliban from Kabul. Even though the Taliban continues to be a presence in the countryside, and warlords control much of the nation, we are building a successful narco state there, as poppy agriculture is thriving. Osama bin Laden is on the move somewhere ... and "He can run but he can't hide"--which is why he keeps appearing on TV, radio, and the Internet.

The war in Iraq. The invasion, pulled off" with practically no help at all, was completed so quickly that we were able to say "Mission Accomplished" within a month. In an unrelated war in that same country, we killed off Saddam Hussein's two sons and, within six months, announced that "We got 'im" with respect to Saddam himself--a great accomplishment, and the world has expressed a sigh of relief. We have been able to proclaim that the country is clear of weapons of mass destruction. A study published in Lancet, a London-based medical journal, indicates that more than 100,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion. This is a higher rate than even Saddam was able to achieve. The study also points out that the risk of death among Iraqis is 58 times greater after the U.S. intervention than before. The infant mortality rate, meanwhile, has doubled!

Iran and North Korea. These two rogue nations successfully have been isolated with their nuclear weapons. They may be capable of making them on their own, but they certainly will not get any help from us! While we may have a workable anti-missile system that will protect some parts of the U.S.--the ANWAR oil fields of Alaska and Key West--we need not worry about attacks on allies that we no longer have.

The Kyoto Protocol. We were able to relieve ourselves of the strictures of this 2001 agreement, which clearly would have...