Pentagon says Bush budget cuts and go-it-alone strategy have hurt the war on terror

Great. So George Bush's go-it-alone America-is-above-the-law policies have now jeopardized the war on terror. And I'm not the one saying it, senior US military officials are the ones saying it.

The Bush administration and Congress have slashed millions of dollars of military aid to African nations in recent years, moves that Pentagon officials and senior military commanders say have undermined American efforts to combat terrorist threats in Africa and to counter expanding Chinese influence there.

Since 2003, Washington has shut down Pentagon programs to train and equip militaries in a handful of African nations because they have declined to sign agreements exempting American troops from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in The Hague....

Some cite this as a case where the unintended consequences of the go-it-alone approach to foreign policy that Washington took after the Sept. 11 attacks affected the larger American efforts to combat terrorism....

Some military officials also argue that the aid cuts have given China an upper hand in what they describe as a modern Great Game — a battle for influence in Africa between the powers, similar to the 19th-century rivalry in Central Asia between the British and the Russians....

Passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in August 2002, the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act prohibits certain types of military aid to countries that have signed on to the International Criminal Court but have not signed a separate accord with the United States, called an Article 98 agreement....

White House opposition to the court led Congress to severely restrict military and economic aid to countries that have not signed Article 98 agreements.

Bush didn't want international law to apply to Americans, so in order to get his way, he got together with his Republican-controlled Congress and passed legislation that hurt US national interests and the war on terror. All because Bush had a bright idea and the Republicans refused to challenge him on it, or anything else.

And now America is less safe.