Analyze This

I recently heard some news, or news analysis (I'm not sure what they'd call it) on the radio about the Bush Administration's new push toward diplomacy. I won't rehearse the whole thing, but let me describe the highlights.

State Department officials who favor diplomacy (whatever that means, since everyone favors it) and oppose the war, and only such people, were interviewed to explain the latest Condi Rice maneuvers on the world scene. The central concept was now that the Iraq war has failed, the Bush people have been forced to go back to rational, proven methods.

Let's look at the record, shall we? Diplomacy with Iran and North Korea, which we've been working at for years, has a record, as far as I can tell, of utter failure. It's just a game where they say what they think we want to hear while they do whatever they want. Meanwhile, the Iraq war has been a success, removing an extremely serious threat (luckily for those who oppose the war, Saddam is vanquished so they can pretend he wasn't a problem) and replacing it with a country that is moving towards democracy. We should continue with diplomacy, as we always have, but I think it'll work a lot better on countries like Iran if they understand our patience is not unlimited.

Now if we can only get this concept through to the chuckleheads at the State Department, who don't see dictatorships and democracies, but just bunches of folks they talk to.

I also caught an analyst on CNN (sorry, didn't catch the name) who said we had to pull out of Iraq immediately to win the war on terror. Why? Because our occupation of Iraq works against us and makes Arabs and Muslims suspect our motives and doubt our good will.

Leaving aside that an immediate pullout would give the terrorists a huge victory, what bothered me most was that lack of follow-up. Why didn't Wolf Blitzer (I use the name generically--I don't know who was interviewing this expert) ask "do you believe we want to see Democracy succeed in Iraq and, while we obviously have our own self-interest, too, would also like to see it spread throughout the Middle East, along with peace and prosperity?"

If the expert believes we don't care if Iraq is a democracy or becomes a fascist state again, he's too stupid to listen to. If he thinks we do care, then it would mean the problem is one of perception in the Arab world. We, in fact, are not working against them, but (according to this analyst) they think we are. This would then mean that this expert feels it's better to appease people who believe racist lies than try to explain to them that they are mistaken.