to 72 different countries during his presidency.
Taking office Upon taking office, Bush had little experience with foreign policy, and his decisions were guided by his advisers. Bush embraced the views of Cheney and other
neoconservatives, who de-emphasized the importance of
multilateralism; neoconservatives believed that because the United States was the world's lone
superpower, it could act unilaterally if necessary. Though the first several months of his presidency focused on domestic issues, the Bush administration pulled the U.S. out of several existing or proposed multilateral agreements, including the
Kyoto Protocol, the
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the
International Criminal Court.
September 11 attacks aboard
Air Force One, September 11, 2001. on September 14, 2001 Terrorism had emerged as an important national security issue in the Clinton administration, and it became one of the dominant issues of the Bush administration. In the late 1980s,
Osama bin Laden had established
al-Qaeda, a militant
Sunni Islamist multi-national organization that sought to overthrow Western-backed governments in
Saudi Arabia,
Jordan,
Egypt, and
Pakistan. In response to Saudi Arabia's decision to begin hosting U.S. soldiers in 1991, al-Qaeda had begun a terrorist campaign against U.S. targets, orchestrating attacks such as the
1998 United States embassy bombings and the 2000
USS Cole bombing. During Bush's first months in office, U.S. intelligence organizations
intercepted communications indicating that al-Qaeda was planning another attack on the United States, but foreign policy officials were unprepared for a major attack on the United States. Bush was briefed on al-Qaeda's activities, but focused on other foreign policy issues during his first months in office. On September 11, 2001,
al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four airliners and flew two of them into the twin towers of the
World Trade Center in
New York City, destroying both 110-story skyscrapers. A
third plane crashed into
Pentagon, and a
fourth plane was brought down in Pennsylvania following a struggle between the terrorists and the aircraft's passengers. Appearing on national television on the night of the attacks, Bush promised to punish those who had aided the attacks, stating, "we will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them." In the following days, Bush urged the public to renounce hate crimes and discrimination against
Muslim-Americans and
Arab-Americans. He also declared a "
war on terror", instituting new domestic and foreign policies in an effort to prevent future terrorist attacks.
War in Afghanistan shake hands in May 2005. As Bush's top foreign policy advisers were in agreement that merely launching strikes against al-Qaeda bases would not stop future attacks, the administration decided to overthrow
Afghanistan's conservative
Taliban government, which harbored the leaders of al-Qaeda. Powell took the lead in assembling allied nations in a coalition that would launch attacks on multiple fronts. The Bush administration focused especially on courting
Pakistani leader
Pervez Musharraf, who agreed to join the coalition. On September 14, Congress passed a resolution called the
Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, authorizing the president to use the military against those responsible for the attacks. On October 7, 2001, Bush ordered the
invasion of Afghanistan. While the Karzai's government struggled to control the countryside, the Taliban regrouped in neighboring Pakistan. As Bush left office, he considered sending additional troops to bolster Afghanistan against the Taliban, but decided to leave the issue for the next administration.
Bush Doctrine After the September 11 attacks, Bush's approval ratings increased tremendously. Inspired in part by the
Truman administration, Bush decided to use his newfound political capital to fundamentally change U.S. foreign policy. He became increasingly focused on the possibility of a hostile country providing
weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) to terrorist organizations. During his early 2002
State of the Union Address, Bush set forth what has become known as the
Bush Doctrine, which held that the United States would implement a policy of
preemptive military strikes against nations known to be harboring or aiding a terrorist organization hostile to the United States. Bush outlined what he called the "
Axis of Evil," consisting of three nations that, he argued, posed the greatest threat to world peace due to their pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and potential to aid terrorists. The axis consisted of
Iraq,
North Korea and
Iran. Bush also began emphasizing the importance of spreading democracy worldwide, stating in 2005 that "the survival of liberty in our land depends on the success of liberty in other land." Pursuant to this newly interventionist policy, the Bush administration boosted foreign aid and increased defense expenditures. Defense spending rose from $304 billion in fiscal year 2001 to $616 billion in fiscal year 2008.
Iraq Prelude to the war , including
Iraq During the
presidency of his father, the United States had launched the
Gulf War against
Iraq after the latter invaded
Kuwait. Though the U.S. forced Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait, it left
Saddam Hussein's administration in place, partly to serve as a counterweight to
Iran. After the war, the
Project for the New American Century, consisting of influential neoconservatives like Paul Wolfowitz and Cheney, advocated for the overthrow of Hussein. Iraq had
developed biological and chemical weapons prior to the Gulf War; after the war, it had submitted to WMD inspections conducted by the
United Nations Special Commission until 1998, when Hussein demanded that all UN inspectors leave Iraq. The administration believed that, by 2001, Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction, and could possibly provide those weapons to terrorists. and hoped that the fall of Hussein's regime would help spread democracy in the Middle East, deter the recruitment of terrorists, and increase the security of
Israel. Beginning in September 2002, the Bush administration mounted a campaign designed to win popular and congressional support for the invasion of Iraq. In October 2002, Congress approved the
Iraq Resolution, authorizing the use of force against Iraq. While congressional Republicans almost unanimously supported the measure, congressional Democrats were split in roughly equal numbers between support and opposition to the resolution. Bowing to domestic and foreign pressure, Bush sought to win the approval of the
United Nations before launching an attack on Iraq. Led by Powell, the administration won the November 2002 passage of
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441, which called on Iraq to dismantle its WMD program. Meanwhile, senior administration officials became increasingly convinced that Iraq did indeed possess WMDs and was likely to furnish those WMDs to al-Qaeda; CIA Director
George Tenet assured Bush that it was a "slam dunk" that Iraq possessed a stockpile of WMDs. After a
U.N. weapons inspections team led by
Hans Blix, as well as another team led by
Mohamed ElBaradei, failed to find evidence of an ongoing Iraqi WMD program, Bush's proposed regime change in Iraq faced mounting international opposition. Germany, China, France, and Russia all expressed skepticism about the need for regime change, and the latter three countries each possessed
veto power on the
United Nations Security Council. At the behest of British prime minister
Tony Blair, who supported Bush but hoped for more international cooperation, Bush dispatched Powell to the U.N. to make the case to the Security Council that Iraq maintained an active WMD program. Contrary to the findings of Blix and ElBaradei, Bush asserted in a March 17 public address that there was "no doubt" that the Iraqi regime possessed weapons of mass destruction. Two days later, Bush authorized Operation
Iraqi Freedom, and the
Iraq War began on March 20, 2003.
Invasion of Iraq , March 2003. U.S.-led coalition forces, led by General Franks, launched a
simultaneous air and land attack on Iraq on March 20, 2003, in what the American media called "
shock and awe." With 145,000 soldiers, the ground force quickly overcame most Iraqi resistance, and thousands of Iraqi soldiers deserted. The U.S.
captured the Iraqi capital of
Baghdad on April 9, but Hussein escaped and went into hiding. While the U.S. and its allies quickly achieved military success, the invasion was
strongly criticized by many countries; UN secretary-general
Kofi Annan argued that the invasion was a
violation of international law and the
U.N. Charter. On May 1, 2003, Bush delivered the "
Mission Accomplished speech," in which he declared the end of "major combat operations" in Iraq. Despite the
failure to find evidence of an ongoing WMD program or an
operational relationship between Hussein and al-Qaeda, Bush declared that the toppling of Hussein "removed an ally of al-Qaeda" and ended the threat that Iraq would supply weapons of mass destruction to terrorist organizations. Believing that only a minimal residual American force would be required after the success of the invasion, Bush and Franks planned for a drawdown to 30,000 U.S. troops in Iraq by August 2003. Meanwhile, Iraqis began looting their own capital, presenting one of the first of many challenges the U.S. would face in keeping the peace in Iraq. Bush appointed
Paul Bremer to lead the
Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which was charged with overseeing the transition to self-government in Iraq. In his first major order, Bremer announced a policy of
de-Ba'athification, which denied government and military jobs to members of Hussein's
Ba'ath Party. This policy angered many of Iraq's
Sunnis, many of whom had joined the Ba'ath Party merely as a career move. Bremer's
second major order disbanded the Iraqi military and police services, leaving over 600,000 Iraqi soldiers and government employees without jobs. Bremer also insisted that the CPA remain in control of Iraq until the country held elections, reversing an earlier plan to set up a transition government led by Iraqis. These decisions contributed to the beginning of the
Iraqi insurgency opposed to the continuing U.S. presence. Fearing the further deterioration of Iraq's security situation, General
John Abizaid ordered the end of the planned drawdown of soldiers, leaving over 130,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The U.S.
captured Hussein on December 13, 2003, but the occupation force continued to suffer casualties. Between the start of the invasion and the end of 2003, 580 U.S. soldiers died, with two thirds of those casualties occurring after Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech.
Continuing occupation After 2003, more and more Iraqis began to see the U.S. as an occupying force. The fierce fighting of the
First Battle of Fallujah alienated many in Iraq, while cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr encouraged
Shia Muslims to oppose the CPA. Sunni and Shia insurgents engaged in a campaign of
guerrilla warfare against the United States, blunting the technological and organizational advantages of the U.S. military. While fighting in Iraq continued, Americans increasingly came to disapprove of Bush's handling of the Iraq War, contributing to a decline in Bush's approval ratings. Bremer left Iraq in June 2004, transferring power to the
Iraqi Interim Government, which was led by
Ayad Allawi. In a December 2006 report, the bipartisan
Iraq Study Group described the situation in Iraq as "grave and deteriorating," and the report called for the U.S. to gradually withdraw soldiers from Iraq. As the violence mounted in 2006, Rumsfeld and military leaders such as Abizaid and
George Casey, the commander of the
coalition forces in Iraq, called for a drawdown of forces in Iraq, but many within the administration argued that the U.S. should maintain its troop levels. Still intent on establishing a democratic government in Iraq, the Bush administration rejected a drawdown and began planning for a change in strategy and leadership following the 2006 elections. After the elections, Bush replaced Rumsfeld with Gates, while
David Petraeus replaced Casey and
William J. Fallon replaced Abizaid. Bush and his National Security Council formed a plan to "double down" in Iraq, increasing the number of U.S. soldiers in hopes of establishing a stable democracy. After Maliki indicated his support for an increase of U.S. soldiers, Bush announced in January 2007 that the U.S. would send an additional 20,000 soldiers to Iraq as part of a "
surge" of forces. Though Senator McCain and a few other hawks supported Bush's new strategy, many other members of Congress from both parties expressed doubt or outright opposition to it.
Nouri al-Maliki shake hands in July 2006. In April 2007, Congress, now controlled by Democrats, passed a bill that called for a total withdrawal of all U.S. troops by April 2008, but Bush vetoed the bill. Without the votes to override the veto, Congress passed a bill that continued to fund the war but also included the
Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, which increased the federal
minimum wage. U.S. and Iraqi casualties continuously declined after May 2007, and Bush declared that the surge had been a success in September 2007. He subsequently ordered a drawdown of troops, and the number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq declined from 168,000 in September 2007 to 145,000 when Bush left office. In 2008, at the insistence of Maliki, Bush signed the
U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, which promised complete withdrawal of U.S. troops by the end of 2011. The U.S. would
withdraw its forces from Iraq in December 2011, though it later re-deployed soldiers to Iraq to assist government forces in the
Iraqi Civil War.
Guantanamo Bay and enemy combatants , January 2002 During and after the invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. captured numerous members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Rather than bringing the prisoners before domestic or international courts, Bush decided to set up a new system of
military tribunals to try the prisoners. In order to avoid the restrictions of the United States Constitution, Bush held the prisoners at secret
CIA prisons in various countries as well as at the
Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Because the Guantanamo Bay camp is on territory that the U.S. technically leases from
Cuba, individuals within the camp are not accorded the same constitutional protections that they would have on U.S. territory. Bush also decided that these "
enemy combatants" were not entitled to all of the protections of the
Geneva Conventions as they were not affiliated with sovereign states. In hopes of obtaining information from the prisoners, Bush allowed the use of "
enhanced interrogation techniques" such as
waterboarding. The
treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, a U.S. prison in Iraq, elicited widespread outrage after photos of prisoner abuse were made public. In 2005, Congress passed the
Detainee Treatment Act, which purported to ban
torture, but in his
signing statement Bush asserted that his executive power gave him the authority to waive the restrictions put in place by the bill. Bush's policies suffered a major rebuke from the Supreme Court in the 2006 case of
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, in which the court rejected Bush's use of military commissions without congressional approval and held that all detainees were protected by the Geneva Conventions. Following the ruling, Congress passed the
Military Commissions Act of 2006, which effectively overturned
Hamdan. The Supreme Court overturned a portion of that act in the 2008 case of
Boumediene v. Bush, but the Guantanamo detention camp remained open at the end of Bush's presidency.
Israel Mahmoud Abbas, President Bush, and
Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon in June 2003 The
Israeli–Palestinian conflict, ongoing since the middle of the 20th century, continued under Bush. After President Clinton's
2000 Camp David Summit had ended without an agreement, the
Second Intifada had begun in September 2000. However, Bush's support for a
two-state solution helped smooth over a potential diplomatic split with the Saudis. In hopes of establishing peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, the Bush administration proposed the
road map for peace, but his plan was not implemented and tensions were heightened following the victory of
Hamas in the
2006 Palestinian elections.
Free trade agreements established a free trade are between the United States and several countries in
Latin America. Believing that protectionism hampered economic growth, Bush concluded
free trade agreements with numerous countries. When Bush took office, the United States had free trade agreements with just three countries: Israel, Canada, and Mexico. Bush signed the
Chile–United States Free Trade Agreement and the
Singapore–United States Free Trade Agreement in 2003, and he concluded the
Morocco-United States Free Trade Agreement and the
Australia–United States Free Trade Agreement the following year. He also concluded the
Bahrain–United States Free Trade Agreement, the
Oman–United States Free Trade Agreement, the
Peru–United States Trade Promotion Agreement, and the
Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement. Additionally, Bush reached free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama, though agreements with these countries were not ratified until 2011.
NATO and arms control treaties In 2002 the
US withdrew from the U.S.-Russian
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. This marked the first time in post-WW2 history that the United States has withdrawn from a major international arms treaty. China expressed displeasure at America's withdrawal. and subsequently in a 1 March 2018
Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly announced the development of a series of technologically new missile systems in response to the Bush withdrawal. In
Oliver Stone's 2017
The Putin Interviews, Putin said that in trying to persuade Russia to accept US withdrawal from the treaty, both Clinton and Bush had tried to convince him of an emerging nuclear threat from
Iran. On 14 July 2007, Russia announced that it would suspend implementation of its
Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe obligations, effective after 150 days. This failure can be said to mark the start of the
Putinian Revanchism.
Russia Bush emphasized creating a better personal relationship with
Russian president
Vladimir Putin in order to ensure harmonious relations between the U.S. and Russia. After meeting with Putin in June 2001, both presidents expressed optimistic views regarding cooperation between the two former
Cold War rivals. After the 9/11 attacks, Putin allowed the U.S. to use Russian airspace, and Putin encouraged
Central Asian states to grant basing rights to the U.S. In May 2002, the U.S. and Russia signed the
Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, which sought to dramatically reduce the nuclear stockpiles of both countries. Relations between Bush and Putin cooled during Bush's second term, as Bush became increasingly critical of Putin's suppression of political opponents in Russia, and they fell to new lows after the outbreak of the
Russo-Georgian War in 2008.
Iran In his 2002 State of the Union Address, Bush grouped Iran with Iraq and North Korea as a member of the "Axis of Evil", accusing Iran of aiding terrorist organizations. In 2006, Iran re-opened three of its nuclear facilities, potentially allowing it to begin the process of building a nuclear bomb. After the resumption of the
Iranian nuclear program, many within the U.S. military and foreign policy community speculated that Bush might attempt to impose regime change on Iran. In December 2006, the
United Nations Security Council unanimously passed
Resolution 1737, which imposed sanctions on Iran in order to curb its nuclear program.
North Korea North Korea had
developed weapons of mass destruction for several years prior to Bush's inauguration, and the Clinton administration had sought to trade economic assistance for an end to the North Korean WMD program. Though Secretary of State Powell urged the continuation of the rapprochement, other administration officials, including Vice President Cheney, were more skeptical of the good faith of the North Koreans. Bush instead sought to isolate North Korea in the hope that the regime would eventually collapse.
North Korea launched missile tests on July 5, 2006, leading to
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1695. The country said on October 3, "The U.S. extreme threat of a
nuclear war and
sanctions and pressure compel the
DPRK to conduct a
nuclear test", which the Bush administration denied and denounced. Days later, North Korea followed through on its promise to
test nuclear weapons. On October 14, the Security Council unanimously passed
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, sanctioning North Korea for the test. In the waning days of his presidency, Bush attempted to re-open negotiations with North Korea, but North Korea continued to develop its nuclear programs.
AIDS relief Shortly after taking office, Bush pledged $200 million to
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Finding this effort insufficient, Bush assembled a team of experts to find the best way for the U.S. reduce the worldwide damage caused by the
AIDS epidemic. ==Controversies==