END OF COLD WAR

Comment on the following two posts separently. Focus on their arguments, new concepts you learned from their post, where you agree and disagree with their point, etc.

POST 1:

The end of the Cold War created the conditions for an effervescent political climate in the United States. Vice President George H. W. Bush run for President and won an easy victory against the Democratic Dukakis. President Bush reinforced the political landscape of the nation by establishing a new order that influenced international behaviors.
Although communist conflicts ceased in Europe, regional disputes flourished in Central America. President Bush conducted foreign police to reinforce the potency of the nation as the remaining superpower and its humanitarian character. Interventions in Panama to capture drug smuggler Noriega and the Operation Desert Storm, characterized President Bush’s procedures (Schaller, 1054). However, by 1992 Bush’s popularity decreased and the elections of 1992 presented a new President to the United States of America: Bill Clinton. The new president was a new kind of Democrat, with proposals that embraced new cultural trends. His administration took a more modern approach, which consisted of promoting globalization, a phenomenon that enhanced the nation’s economy, technological advance, and an alert state of mind against Islamic terrorism. Somalia, Yugoslavia, and Haiti represent a continuity of the humanitarian interventions of the 1990s as part of the foreign policy (Schaller, 1069).
Republicans and Democrats held disagreements in the post-Cold War period. Republicans gained control of Congress, which led to severe disputes with President Clinton’s policies. As a result, government shutdowns occurred. Although differences emanated between Democrats and Republicans, the President recognized a bipartisan agreement in his State of the Union address in 1996. They all agreed that the permanent deficit spending must end since it will balance the budget and benefits business and ordinary people (Source 30.3). Another step that brought Republicans and Democrats closer was the approval of the American Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) by the end of 1993, which created one of the world’s largest free trade zones (Schaller, 1064).

POST 2:
The end of Cold war between 1919 and 1991 came along with favorable political conditions for the U.S. Experts predicted that people would “soon adopt U.S and Western European values of free market, capitalism, representative government, free civil institutions, and the rule of law” (Schaller 1046). Nevertheless, the collapse of Eastern Europe did nor favor these expectations at all. The military intervention in the Western Hemisphere and the war against Iraq left civilians in deplorable conditions. During that time American people gave more importance to their economic livelihood than his foreign policy expertise, reason why they defeated president Bush for reelections in 1992. Consequently, the 46-year-old governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton was elected as president. 
    The “New Democrat” promised tax cuts for the middle class, reconstruction of the nations bridges, roads, and airports, and an ambitious plan to provide health insurance for everyone in the country (Schaller 1055). As soon after taking office he started to work on the numerous international conflicts. His foreign policy included the deployment of military force in many regions primarily for the purposes of protecting civilians, or armed humanitarian intervention, as the result of civil war, state collapse, or oppressive governments, which would occur in Somalia and Rwanda, in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Yugoslavia and in Haiti. Clinton also worked his foreign policy on long-running conflicts in Northern Ireland, and in the Middle East he successfully mediated the half-century-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians (Schaller 1069).
     Republicans and Democrats went trough serious disagreements during Bush and Clinton years. There were multiple shutdowns in the government because the Republicans didn’t agree with Clinton’s policies and had most of the Congress control. Nevertheless, policies and agreements like the “Bipartisan Agreement” and the “North American Free Trade Agreement” helped both parties cooperate and succeed (Schaller 1064).