President Bush is playing a game of high stakes poker. He has bet his political career, his administration, his place in history, and the future of American foreign policy and position on the world scene all on this showdown with Saddam Hussein.
All of the small countries around the world, (including the European Union) are not sure what to think of the United States now. The Soviet Union was another “big kid” on the block that helped keep the balance of power. Now that the Soviet Union has dissolved, America is the only “big kid” left. To the small countries, the “big kid” is now picking on one of their own. And no one is around to stop the him. (France and Germany tried.) Every leader of a small country is now thinking about how far can they go without pissing off the Americans before they come in and get him.
It has been reported that all of the countries around Iraq agree that the region would probably be better off without Saddam Hussein, but who gave the right to the Americans to oust him?
From the perspective of the North Koreans, I don’t blame them for starting up their nuclear reactor again and testing a few of their missles. They think that they’re next on America’s list. Didn’t President Bush list them as one of the nations belonging to the “axis of evil” after September 11th?
And what about our close friends in this game of poker. In the past several months, the relationships between America and its allies have been highly strained, more so than any other time since the end of World War II. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has staked his political career in this too. He has ante upped the stakes right along with Bush.
War is imminent. President Bush may win this hand of poker, but in the end, will America loose the poker game?