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  • Essay / Chemical and Biological Warfare

    The 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, served as president from January 21, 2001 to January 20, 2009. The Bush administration's principal foreign policy advisors were Secretary of State State Colin Powell. (2001-2005) and Condoleezza Rice (2005-2009), Vice President Dick Cheney (2001-2009), and National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley (2005-2009) (Miller Center, 2017). Under Bush's presidency, his foreign policy expanded to parts of Africa, Europe and the Middle East. However, early in his term, the country faced one of the greatest terrorist events of all time: September 11, which changed foreign policy forever. In this essay, I will discuss his administration's Bush foreign policy strategy and describe its biggest decisions and their impact. I will conclude by analyzing his successes throughout his term as president. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Unlike other presidents, there was no grace period for Bush; Less than eight months after he was sworn in at his inauguration, the tragedy of 9/11 occurred. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Bush visited a school in Sarasota, Florida, to talk about his new education reform policy (History, 2009). That's when he was told that a small plane had hit the World Trade Center. Bush perceived this, at the time, as a horrible accident or error on the part of the pilot (History, 2009). That was until his office was informed that it was not an accident and that a second airliner had hit the second tower. After leaving school, aboard Air Force One, he was informed that a third plane had crashed into the Pentagon (History, 2009). Soon after, all commercial flights were grounded and all aircraft in the air were ordered to be shot down. Air Force One, after making brief stops in Louisiana and Nebraska to provide security for the President, then landed in the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., where the President's Cabinet and the President began deliberating on the incident (History, 2009). After the meeting with his cabinet members, Bush spoke to the media and addressed the nation. This is where his foreign policy position changed forever, where he declared: “We will make no distinction between those who committed these acts and those who harbored them” (US Department of Defense, 2001 ). Bush then set out strategies for the future: 1. Stop terrorists from striking again; 2. Make the other country understand that the United States has embarked on a fight against terrorism; 3. Help affected areas recover and ensure that terrorists do not succeed in crippling the economy or dividing society. These strategies were immediately implemented and the United States led a NATO invasion of Afghanistan, thus triggering the "war on terror." The War on Terrorism was the name of the United States' campaign to combat terrorism. This includes the Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen, NATO-led international involvement in Afghanistan, the Iraqi conflict, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa insurgency, and the international campaign against ISIL. At that time, the American people were inclined to trust Bush because they believed in his ability to keep them safe. In the two weeks following the September 11 attacks, Bush's approval rating rose to 90 percent, still the highest approval rating since the introduction of thepresidential popularity measurement system (Gallup, 2001). The president's choice was to get involved in the Iraq War, in response to global terrorism. This was a plan presented to Bush to resolve two problems: the growing tension between the Iraqi government's action towards its people and surrounding nations, as well as to ensure national security, with the Bush administration believing that the Iraqi government was working with terrorist groups and developing weapons of mass destruction (Richelson, 2004). It began with President Bush's State of the Union in January 2002, in which he addressed Iraq as a member of the "Axis of Evil" and declared that the United States would not allow the most dangerous regime in the world to threaten others using the most destructive weapons in the world (The White Maison, 2002). Subsequently, Bush began appealing to the international community to join the war effort. Unfortunately, the UN found that US intelligence was not powerful enough to justify this type of involvement. Allied countries such as the United Kingdom agreed with the United States, while France and Germany were skeptical of the plans. In March 2003, the UN inspector found no significant information indicating that the country had used or possessed weapons of mass destruction. Contrary to the UN's claims that no significant information has been found against Iraq, the US Congress passed the "Iraq Resolution" authorizing the president to use any means necessary against Iraq. However, the international community does not deviate from its positions. In order to further justify the measures taken by the Bush administration against Iraq; Secretary of State Colin Powell went to the United Nations to assert that Iraq did indeed possess weapons of mass destruction. It was a losing effort as the majority of voting members of the UN voted for the United States to continue diplomatic negotiations with the nation to resolve the problem. However, the Bush administration continued with the invasion of Iraq. In March 2003, the military invasion began without a declaration of war or UN support. The aims of the war were to end Saddam Hussein's regime, thereby eliminating Iraq's weapon of mass destruction (later untraceable) and capture all of the country's terrorists. On April 9 of the same year, Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, fell to American control, ending the reign of Saddam Hussein and the giant iron statue built in his image. It was a symbolic victory for Americans back home who supported U.S. action. After this victory, on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln was a banner reading “Mission Accomplished” (NY Times, 2010). Bush also delivered a speech declaring that major fighting was over in Iraq, "a victory in a war on terrorism that began on September 11, 2001, and continues" (NY Times). However, this does not mark the end of major fighting as the insurgency spreads across the country. These actions placed the Commander-in-Chief in a bad situation as it forced the US military to reorganize its forces. This resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Iraqi civilians and police; Bush's estimate of the war was wrong and the most dangerous part of the war began after March 2004. After this followed an increase in military involvement in the region as well as other Middle Eastern countries. , which still lasts today. , George W. Bush's successes occurred primarily early in his term.. 2010