gunnut,
Quote:
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Bush started to bully those who we suspect of helping Al Qaeda, not even harboring them. His plan works. Nations are less likely to give aid to our enemies if they know we just might invade them.
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there's a caveat to this. it works if we have the capability to back it up, and if we actually carry out the threat once in a while.
coercive diplomacy fails if there is no capability or if the bluff is called once too often without action (one reason why the iraq war was a good idea in the first place).
this accounts for why both iran and syria were positively crapping their pants in may 2003...and why they're smiling like the cat who swiped the milk now.