Bill Press is a syndicated columnist, CNN political commentator and author of the newly-published book Spin This!

Bill Press: The Bush gang that can't shoot straight

WASHINGTON (Tribune Media Services) -- When it comes to foreign policy, things sure haven't turned out the way they were supposed to for the Bush administration.

Back in the 2000 campaign, Democrats raised a lot of questions about George W. Bush's inexperience in foreign policy. After all, as governor of Texas, his only foreign travel was next door, to Mexico.

Nonsense, the Republicans said. Bill Clinton spent too much time on foreign policy. Bush would focus mainly on domestic issues. So, it didn't really matter how well he knew world problems. Besides, they insisted, his own unawareness would be more than offset by the expertise and experience of his crack foreign-policy team: Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld.

Turns out they were wrong on both counts. Like it or not, thanks in great part, but not exclusively, to September 11, President Bush has almost abandoned his domestic agenda -- no more school vouchers, faith-based initiatives or privatization of Social Security -- in order to focus on world problems.

And, faced with serious challenges, Bush's foreign-policy team members haven't turned out to be such hot shots after all. They're looking more and more like the gang that can't shoot straight.

The war in Afghanistan is the one big exception. But that was easy -- and played into Bush's western sheriff mentality. You hit us: we hit you. Bring 'em back, dead or alive. You're either with us or you're against us. You can run, but you can't hide. Good will triumph over evil.

But Bush has discovered that the rest of the world is not so black and white. And beyond Afghanistan -- in the Middle East, Iraq and Venezuela -- Bush and company have made a mess of everything they've touched.

In the Middle East, Bush wasted 15 months trying to be the anti-Clinton: refusing to get involved, while accusing Clinton of spending too much time working for peace. When escalating violence forced him to engage, Bush at least said the right things -- calling on Israelis to end their occupation of the West Bank and Palestinians to stop the suicide bombings -- but, by that time, nobody was listening.

Stiffed by both Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat, Colin Powell threw in the towel and returned empty-handed. Not since the creation of Israel in 1948 has the United States been so helpless, or exercised so little influence, in the Middle East.

Of course, Bush himself compounds problems in the Middle East by continuing to pound the war drums for an invasion of Iraq: a nonstarter for several reasons. It would be insane for the United States to launch another war before we have finished one (the mission to clean out and rebuild Afghanistan is far from over). As odious as Saddam Hussein may be, there is no known connection between him and Osama bin Laden. If we go into Iraq, we would have to do it alone. No ally, with the possible exception of Britain, would join us.

As if that's not reason enough for cooling it over Iraq, Arab countries -- whose continued support we need in the war against terror -- have declared that an attack against Hussein would be considered an attack against all Arab nations. If this Bush team is so smart, why are they acting so dumb? Do we really want to destroy any chance of peace in the Middle East and risk launching a U.S. vs. Muslim war by bombing Baghdad?

And then there's Venezuela. In the shortest revolution in history, President Hugo Chavez was forced out of office by the military last week -- only to be restored to power, after massive protests, in less than 48 hours. The problem is, the Bush administration rushed to congratulate his successor, then was forced to retract and re-recognize Chavez. Again, how could they be so dumb? Didn't we learn anything in Guatemala or Chile?

Every new administration has a learning curve but, on foreign policy, we didn't expect the Bush team to need on-the-job training or make so many blunders. Maybe they should invite Bill Clinton back to teach them a few lessons.