Second Bush Term More Homogenously Right-Wing Than First

International desk: Mehdi Shakiba'i: "The choice of individuals in a government is an indication of that government's future political approach and direction in its domestic and foreign arenas." (Punctuation as published here and throughout.) Many political and international analysts believe that statement to be true.

The elections in America in the year 2000 and the subsequent make up of the administration in that country in the first term of Bush's presidency seem to provide a good test for understanding the above statement. In the first administration of Bush's presidency his team needed to be made up of all the party spectrums and tendencies in order to win the trust and support of the opponents as well as the supporters inside the Republican Party for unilateral policies. Personalities such as General Colin Powell with liberal and moderate tendencies, John Scowcroft (name as published) with religious tendencies (right-wing Christian), Donald Rumsfeld from the newly emerged neo-conservative Republicans with extremist tendencies, etc., all came together for devising and implementing a new agenda at least to preserve the internal cohesion of the Republican Party in leading programs that eventually even managed to constitute a historic basis.

The events of the 11th of September and its subsequent events in Afghanistan and Iraq constitute that historic basis that requires a different team in order to lift up the idea of the document of America's national security in the 21 Century and place it in the hands of those who had devised it in America's research and study centers regardless of all its shortcomings.

Now, the plan is going through its initial stages of the process of implementation. Four years have passed since the formation of the first team in George Bush's presidency and the tenants at the While House have made notes, just like a football coach, of all the shortcomings of their team in an 8760-hour long competition during a period of four years. Now, during the first half-time of the second Bush presidential term, they do not intend to repeat the same mistakes.

On the basis of the new thesis, all the decision-making must be carried out inside the White House, the place that is attended by Bush's deputy Dick Cheney attends. Taking a look at the new Bush administration composition in the ministries and institutions that are affiliated to the White House reveals that powerful and influential neo-conservative leaders that earlier were busy in America's research and study centers such as the American Enterprise, the Heritage Institute, the Near East Political Institute, etc., devising and drawing up projects such as the "New American Century", the national security document, have been transferred from centers of producing ideas to centers of decision-making.

Steve Hadley is one such personality that according to latest reports is going to replace Condoleezza Rice as Bush's national security adviser.

He, just like Rice and "Paul Wolfowitz", who is said to be likely to work alongside Rice at the State Department, is among the new generation of American Republicans; that is to say, the neo-conservatives.

"The choice of individuals can provide an indication of the political approach and direction of any government." The statement might now be assessed in view of the changes that are happening at present in Bush's new presidential term. Through these changes Bush and his team in the White House will embark on strengthening their role, in particular in foreign policy.

The 2004 elections made Bush's colleagues to come to the conclusion that the results were different from those in the 2000 elections and the Republicans will no longer have to make considerations for certain points of view and stances. They have found an endorsement for their policies of four years ago in the recent elections. Therefore, they do not see any need for concealment or, perhaps, moderation in their policies. It is only natural that in such a climate moderate personalities or those who had got into President Bush's first team because of their religious background (Scowcroft) should be sent away.

Analysts believe that in the political arena, a correcting factor or element is necessary even for those politicians that are elected democratically. According to a report by Deutsch Welle, now the correcting element no longer exists. Bush's cabinet has moved towards becoming homogenous on political, ideological and intellectual grounds. In view of all that, everything will be reduced to one word: Neo-conservatives.

Now, Bush does not see any impediments domestically for himself and his policies. The true corrector of his policies will be the outside world. However, is the outside world going to be able to correct his policies or will it align itself with him just like his domestic impediments? In the first term there were three decision-making institutions in the Bush administration that had differing ideas. 1 ' The State Department. 2 ' The Department of Defense with the support of the research and study centers. 3 ' The White House with the support of the vice-presidential office and the National Security Council.

Now, all those three institutions have become integrated with the White House and even changes in the post of the Secretary of Defense, regardless of their nature, will serve the axial role of the White House.

As a result of the inordinate closeness of America's study centers and the institutions that devise ideas to the White House, from now on during the second Bush presidential term plans would most certainly become more academic. Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Frank Gaffney, David Vermers (phonetic, not traced), Richard Haass, and William Kristol along with study centers such as the American Enterprise Institute, the American Council on Foreign Relations, the Bradley Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Middle East Institute in Washington, etc., will be playing a role with extremist tendencies in America's foreign policy.

In the second presidential term, the White House will not have the headaches of the first term. Although Rice is considered to be number one in America's diplomacy establishment, because of her closeness to Bush, she has to have foreign policy plans endorsed by the White House, a place where the neo-conservatives have concentrated.

(Description of Source: Tehran E'temad (Internet Version - WWW) in Persian -- Reformist daily published in Tehran; licensed to the Majles deputy from Rasht Elias Hazrati and managed by Behruz Behzadi)

Translated from the original by WNC.