by Sir Arthur Foulkes
For very obvious reasons the destiny of the Bahamas has been and will for the foreseeable future be inextricably linked with that of the United States of America. The US is our chief trading partner. Millions of Americans visit every year to experience our hospitality, our salubrious climate and our sparkling natural environment.
This trade has enabled the Bahamas to achieve and maintain a level of prosperity that is the envy of many other small and developing states.
Bahamians enjoy the advantages of living next to the greatest marketplace in the world. We import almost everything from the US and, on a per capita basis, more Bahamians visit America than any other nationality.
As a matter of fact there is that oft-repeated observation that Bahamians believe that going to Florida is their God-given right.
There is this story about a Bahamian who years ago went to the US consulate for a visa and thought he was given a hard time by the staff. His reaction was: “Dey mussy don know Ise a Bahamian!”
As far as he was concerned the consulate was there to serve him with the same obligation as any department of the Bahamas Government.
We have had our ups and downs, of course, but more ups than downs. We have benefited from the positive aspects of American culture including its marvelous capacity for invention and innovation and its sheer energy.
We have also been affected by some of the more negative aspects of American culture including, from our point of view, its puzzling commitment to the idea that citizens have a right to bear arms.
Our relationship with America has become even closer as our ties with the former imperial power, Great Britain, have slackened. There was a time, for instance, when Bahamians thinking about going abroad for education turned first to the United Kingdom especially for law and medicine.
Nowadays Bahamians think first of America when contemplating an education abroad, with a majority of our medical students going to US institutions. Some Bahamians still go the UK for law because we share the English system. But there are a number of Bahamians who also read law in the US.
Except for some demented religious fanatics, everyone recognizes that a strong, secure and prosperous America is good for the whole world. Such an America is not only good for the Bahamas but indispensable to our own security and prosperity.
So when America is in trouble Bahamians are understandably concerned, and there is no doubt that the US is going through a particularly bad patch right now. Many of its friends around the world are very apprehensive.
Some political observers say that the trouble started with the highly controversial election of President George W. Bush in 1999 and his taking office the following year.
Mr. Bush seems to be much more of an ideologue than his father, President George H. W. Bush, and does not share his father’s more balanced view of the world and the limits of American power. In fact, it appeared that the new president held some views, especially about the Middle East, that were clearly opposed to those of his father.
But the September 11 attack on the US by Muslim terrorists evoked a surge of sympathy and support for the US around the world and esteem for Mr. Bush rose dramatically at home and abroad.
There was strong international support for America’s invasion of Afghanistan to root out the murderous Al Qaeda and its ally, the unbelievably retrogressive Taliban regime.
Then Mr. Bush and his neocon advisers with the support of British Prime Minister Tony Blair decided to invade Iraq on the pretext of destroying that country’s alleged huge stock pile of weapons of mass destruction. The trouble was that there were no weapons of mass destruction and so the rationale for the war was expanded in other directions.
A worrying aspect of all this was the astonishing connivance or impotence of the US mass media which became a cheering section for the administration instead of trying to expose the truth to the American people.
It took a British MP, George Galloway, in a dramatic appearance before the US Senate to tell the American people that their government had taken them into a war based on “a pack of lies”.
Not only was the justification for the war false but it also became painfully clear that the administration had seriously underestimated the danger it was getting into and had failed dismally to plan for the orderly occupation and pacification of Iraq. America’s stock in the world plummeted.
As if to add insult to injury President Bush has appointed John Bolton, the ultimate “ugly American”, as his ambassador to the United Nations. Even representations by Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw seem to be having no effect on Mr. Bolton as he launches his attack on the multilateralism represented by the UN.
At home Mr. Bush pressed his neoconservative agenda with generous tax cuts for the richest Americans while slashing social programmes and running up huge deficits.
The infrastructure of the country was neglected. An American journalist stationed in Britain said on the BBC television programme Dateline London that on visits home he noticed the neglected state of the infrastructure including rusting bridges.
It was this neglect that left the defences of New Orleans so utterly inadequate in the face of hurricane Katrina and contributed to one of the worst natural disasters in US history.
Mr. Bush’s approval ratings at home continued to suffer along with America’s image in the world.
That, very briefly, is where things stand at the moment. Enemies of America and the West should not take comfort in what is happening and should not indulge in idle dreams that they are witnessing the end of America.
History has shown time and again the resilience, determination and resourcefulness of the American people and no doubt those qualities will triumph once again as they did over the isolationism of the last century, McCarthyism, the Vietnam War, Watergate and other homegrown and external threats.
The Bahamas is very small and can do little to help except to assure our American friends of our goodwill. That does not mean that we should support everything the US does or that we should be content to do precisely as we are told.
You are not a good friend when you seek to ingratiate yourself by encouraging someone to indulge in foolish and destructive behaviour. When your friend comes to his senses he will have less regard for you and you will have less respect for yourself.
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