Gordon Adams’s op-ed in Foreign Policy on Iran and the U.S. Administrations

One of the things that struck me about George W. Bush’s foreign policy was that it was clear and consistent, both in goals and in implementation. In policy, you knew what he was for; you knew what he was against. The themes were clear: nonproliferation, counterterrorism, and democracy promotion. They were outlined in a 2002 National Security Strategy that was brief (a mere 35 pages) and to the point. At the heart of that strategy was the notion that the United States was prepared to confront its adversaries and quite ready to do so unilaterally.