President Bush has started his multi nation trip to Asia as part of his effort to contain his “axis of evil” – North Korea, Iraq and Iran.

The first leg of his trip brings him to Japan, where he plans to discuss issues with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. One of Bush’s major points will be ways in which he believes Japan can strengthen its economy which otherwise may prolong the U.S. recession, or even deepen it.

But Bush is in for a surprise if he thinks this is going to be easy. Aside from the obvious point that Bush himself should do things to strengthen the U.S. economy and then strengthen the economies of others, Bush has to look to the bridges he has already burned.

Only last year Bush abandoned the 1997 Kyoto treaty on global warming in which the U.S. recognized its responsibility of being the No. 1 emitter of most greenhouse gases, followed only by developing countries like China and India.

While trying to step around this land mine Bush also needs to avoid the appearance of badgering Japan over their weak economy, especially after criticizing former President Clinton for the same thing. Although it looks as though that will happen with the U.S. automakers crying and pouting all the way to Bush.

This will likely lead to the counterattack by Japan on how Bush dropped the ball on the global warming treaty. No matter what side of the global warming debate you fall on, it certainly can’t be said that any of the gases being put out are a good thing for our environment, and as in the past, we’ve blown off another of our responsibilities. In terms of foreign relations this has hurt us in the eyes of many countries because of the constant willingness of the United States to break a treaty the moment it begins to inconvenience us, or until big businesses begin to funnel money to the president.

The United States has a responsibility as one of the highest emitters, yet with the smallest population compared with the China and India. The waste of the United States has once again become more than apparent to the ever-watching world.

And now that Bush is on his “axis of evil” kick, he expects everyone to fall in line as they began to right after Sept. 11th, but he’s likely to find resistance to his policy of “with us or against us” as he fights the war on terrorism.

This hard-line stance is likely to harm him, as no one likes a bully and right now that is the position Bush is taking. Stopping terrorism is an important thing, but Bush seems to be hearkening back to the days of the Cold War, where the United States would do anything to contain the evil communists, spreading their godless ways of life. With one swift motion Bush has condemned three nations as terrorist nations that must be stopped from gaining weapons of mass destruction, because those toys are only for the big boys.

Without opening any sort of communication with these nations, we have set them apart and will be all too quick to group any nations that don’t help us with them as well. Japan is likely to be open about containing North Korea, but in face of the other two Japan might show resistance, because recently Japan fired their first shots in anger since World War II at a suspected North Korean spy vessel.

As a world hegemon we’ve lost a lot in the last year and we have no one to blame but our leadership. We can’t blame our weak economy on other countries and expect them to fix their own so we can do better. We can’t brand three countries as enemies when we have yet to talk to any of our allies and ask what they think.

And we certainly can’t afford to lose any more face in front of the world by throwing our weight around and breaking treaties if we really expect to combat terrorism in an effective way.

Blaine Moyle is a senior in English and secondary education from Des Moines.