by Andrew J. Grotto
August 31, 2004

President Bush is striving to present himself as a decisive commander in chief in a time of uncertain American national security. He has achieved limited success in this regard, as many of his supporters cite decisiveness as a key reason why they believe they are safer under President Bush.

A closer look at Bush's record, however, shows that his decisiveness usually consists of tough talk with little follow-up, and that where he has acted, his course of action has turned out to be decisively wrong. This is most evident in the president's policy failures on the greatest threats to American national security: North Korea's and Iran's nuclear ambitions, and nuclear terrorism.

The president has talked a tough game on North Korea and Iran ever since he lumped them into the "Axis of Evil" with Iraq. But despite the administration's evident lack of progress in resolving the crises, the substance of its "strategies" has gone virtually unchanged.

The rest is here.