The Bush administration is finally waging diplomacy…and winning. For years Bush has firmly stated that America doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, rogue states, or members of the Axis of Evil and he has stuck by those words, choosing gun barrel diplomacy over discussions for those countries his administration feels unworthy of America’s attention.
Recently however, President Bush has quietly (and wisely) flip-flopped. Christopher Hill spent a grueling 5 days last week negotiating with North Korea in six party talks where, as Mr. Hill stated, an agreement was reached for “one phase of denuclearization.” All parties agree that negotiations with North Korea will continue to be difficult, but some progress is better than no progress.
Condoleezza Rice also spent last week negotiating, however her conversations were with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Ohlmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Ms. Rice is officially speaking with the same Palestinian Authority that recently signed a power sharing deal between the Fatah party and the Hamas party, a terrorist organization the United States has previously refused to acknowledge. Did anything come from these closed-doors-conversations? Nope. But any negotiation needs to start, or re-start, somewhere.
For the last six years the Bush administration has acted like an international bully. With the assumed righteousness of being the world’s only super power, Bush has dictated terms, refused to negotiate, and invaded countries based on a policy of pre-emptive defense. The problem is it didn’t work.
The past few years have been a wonderful example of why the concept of a “benign dictatorship” is a fantastic impossibility. Since 9/11 America has been as close as we have ever come to that mythical govenment system since FDR, because congress acquiesced it’s role as a balancer of executive power, and the media was either brow beaten into submission or infiltrated and manipulated.
There were no checks for the Bush administration’s plans except for one. Failure. The failure of Iraq and the growing failure of Afghanistan are a harsh reality for policy makers in the current administration. Our inability to fix the messes or even predict the problems that will arise in the Middle East exposes the United States as a “paper tiger.” We were stronger before we invaded Iraq because the world assumed we were a sincere military threat. Now they wonder. So we have to begin licking our wounds and looking around for help, finally agreeing to speak to the same people we refused to recognize even one year ago.
The other President Roosevelt, Teddy, said, “Speak softly, but carry a big stick.” However, President Bush has shown us that size doesn’t matter. In a world where the idea that “Might Makes Right” is no longer true, having the strongest conventional military isn’t worth nearly as much as having the world’s respect.
-SWL
