The Taliban, Saddam, and other terrorists have seen what happens when a president firmly wields America's big stick. Fortunately, President Bush also understands the value of the carrot. Gadhafi, who has felt America's stick several times in the past, finally decided to pursue the carrot after years of supporting terrorism. In an extraordinary move, Gadhafi agreed last December to dismantle Libya's biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs. Since then President Bush has been slowly rewarding Libya's good behavior by first allowing Americans to travel to Libya and recently moving to allow resumption of oil imports and most commercial and financial activities.

This has two key benefits. First, it shows that we reward nations for good behavior. Second, it will also eventually put more oil on the market (Libya's oil production is about half of what is was before Gadhafi consolidated his power and lead his country down the terrorist path).

Libya still has a long way to go before they are fully trusted again. President Bush is being careful to keep some restrictions on Libya – I imagine he will carefully remove them as Libya continues to improve. However, it is nice to see some progress.

Libya serves as a dramatic counterpoint to Syria who continues to resist the war on terror. So three days ago, President Bush waved a stick in their direction by creating an executive order forbidding all American companies from selling goods to Syria other than food or medicine.

I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, hereby determine that the actions of the Government of Syria in supporting terrorism, continuing its occupation of Lebanon, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and missile programs, and undermining United States and international efforts with respect to the stabilization and reconstruction of Iraq constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.

Wretchard has some interesting comments on how this action continues to put pressure on the traditional Sunni leaders. I do not know enough about these politics to judge, but Wretchard's comments seem reasonable. For my part, I think Bush also timed this to closely follow the events in Libya. Bush continues to use both the carrot and the stick in his war on terror, at least the part that is visible to onlookers. I strongly believe that President Bush is also using the stick and the carrot behind the scenes, but if this is done properly, we will never hear of it - at least not for twenty-five years or so.

We do indeed live in interesting times.

Email this entry to:


Your email address:


Message (optional):