Four More Years

A rogue state is one that ignores international standards of proper behavior and blatantly flouts international law. The term is used almost exclusively in the US —most countries disapprove of the very word—and perhaps because of this, President Bill Clinton replaced the term “rogue state” with the more PC “state of concern” in his last six months in office. The Bush administration returned to the original wording, and the State Department keeps an official list of Rogue States.

After eight years of Mr. Clinton’s presidency, this is a list of the nince Rogue States/States of Concern:
Cuba, Liberia, Libya, Zimbabwe, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, DPRK (North Korea)

No, I don’t necessarily blame Mr. Clinton for all of these, although he is partially responsible for Liberia (watching the country go to pot), Zimbabwe (ditto), Afghanistan (why stop with a few missiles at the terrorist training camps?), and the DPRK (thanks for letting Kim Gone Ill get nukes). The Republican congressional opposition bears as much responsibility for Afghanistan, but not the DPRK—they criticized the appeasement policy vigorously, thank you.

Dubya, to his credit, is on track to fix some of these mistakes. This is the list of remaining rogue states circa 2004:
Cuba, Zimbabwe, Syria, Iran, DPRK

Afghanistan’s been taken care of. Hussein was removed from Iraq and operations are underway to fix the place. Liberia is on the mend. And Libya’s been scared straight. Bush may inspire anger in the salons of Paris, the palaces of Pyongyang, and the Latin American street. But when it comes to this administration’s foreign policy, I want four more years.