Bush Likens War on Terrorism to Cold War

President Bush, likening the war against Islamic radicals to the Cold War threat
of communism, told U.S. Military Academy graduates on Saturday that America's
safety depends on an aggressive push for democracy, especially in the Middle
East.

Here’s a quote from president Bush’s speech to the graduating class at West Point.

As President Truman put it towards the end of his presidency, 'When history says that my term of office saw the beginning of the Cold War, it will also say that in those eight years we set the course that can win it.' His leadership paved the way for subsequent presidents from both political parties - men like Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Reagan - to confront and eventually defeat the Soviet threat.

I entirely agree with the president's assessment, and wonder what isolationists would do differently to guarantee stability in the Middle Eastern oil market. I will be the first to say that Bush’s efforts in Iraq have been less than satisfactory, but I don’t think that his incompetence in prosecuting the war makes his overarching policy of stability via the democratization of the Middle East, any less valid.

Remember that Truman’s first substantial confrontation with communism in Korea was a nightmare. Truman had actually withdrawn all American troops from South Korea by 1949, which, as it turned out, was an open invitation for the communist North Koreans to invade. If Truman had been more resolute in his anti-communist convictions and maintained a strong military presence in South Korea, the war, in which 33,686 Americans perished, would never have occurred.