Foot-in-Mouth in the US (aka Mad Cowboy Disease)

"I wouldn't have sent troops to Haiti. I didn't think it was a mission worthwhile. It was a nation-building mission. And it was not very successful. It cost us billions, a couple of billions of dollars, and I'm not so sure democracy is any better off in Haiti than it was before. . . . I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building. . . . I think what we need to do is convince people who live in the lands they live in to build the nations. Maybe I'm missing something here. I mean, we're going to have a kind of nation-building corps from America? Absolutely not." -Republican Presidential Candidate George W. Bush during a debate with then-Vice President Al Gore on Oct. 11, 2000, in Winston-Salem, N.C. During his administration, the US has spent over US$300 billion in sending troops on nation-building missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti. For a guy who had only left North America 3 times before the 2000 election, who could not name the leaders of India and Pakistan, and who thought Nigeria was a continent, it's remarkable (and perhaps alarming) that his tenure has been dominated by foreign policy issues. A former alcoholic and now born-again Christian, it seems Bush does not believe in half-measures.