Diplomacy vs Warfare

02/13/2007

Paul Munnis

Whereas Mr. Bush has decided that military action is the way to end American issues with other nations he is not having any success with war and yet the diplomat path which he rejects as being “too slow,” is doing just fine.

North Korea is on the verge of giving nuclear development of A-bombs up as a bad decision while Iran is chafing under sanctions and staring more sanctions in the face that could destabilize their government. As for the Palestinians, Saudi Arabia has given them a chance to negotiate their problems and they are realizing a need to stabilize internally and once they do it might be possible to finally work something out between them and Israel.

All is all we score Diplomacy as 3 for 3 with runners on base while War is 0 for 2 with no runners on base.

When Congress calls for an increase in diplomatic efforts in Iraq, Syria, Iran, and elsewhere Mr. Bush should listen to the wisdom behind that call.

It wouldn’t hurt Mr. Bush to get a capable diplomat to head the State Department. Condoleeza Rice is an old friend of the Prez and she has stood by him through shot, fire, and shell, but she isn’t a diplomat. In fact she is way too blunt for the diplomatic job. Also, being a female negotiator in an Arab world is a big problem for her. Sorry girls but its true. Arabs males have no respect for women. Ms Rice could still be effective if she puts veteran diplomats on the job – people like Christoper Hill who just scored one for the U.S. with North Korea.

Before Ms Rice, Colin Powell was a fizzle as the head of our State Department. His problem was not gender it was his prior military connection. It’s hard to see a warrior as a peacemaker. Generals deal peace out of a gun barrel.

We submit the reason that Mr. Bush lacks confidence in diplomatic solutions is that he does not have very competent people running the shop. It’s way past time for him to reorganize his Cabinet and his White House staff. It may be too late for that though.

We do realize that he is having trouble attracting good people to the White House staff and to his Administration. As a Lame Duck President the staff work is not very interesting and the clock is counting down the number of paychecks that anyone taking a staff job will get. At the Cabinet level prior people have left a mess and the new people can only hope to keep the lid on until they can dump the mess on the next presidency. That’s not a very good job offer to recruit help with. Those coming out of the Administration will have resume problems too. Working for W.’s Administration is not a good reference – just ask Scooter Libby.

As an aside, one thing that I am concentrating on in 2007 is the various candidates for the presidency. Like everyone else I’m shopping. I want to know who the candidates will tap for service in key posts and where their recruiting is going to come from. Those who are pushing people from Yale are not on my list to even look at. Yale has been a flop. Harvard isn’t doing too well either. People like Henry Kissinger have not been stellar performers since they went into business for themselves. There are candidates like Bill Richardson who have gone to the school of hard knocks. He has my attention because of his proven competency in key areas of government. Yes, Edwards and Clinton are on my shopping list too. Among the GOP only Pataki has my attention and that because he has proven his ability to work in a bi-partisan way to get the job done. McCain has sold his soul to the neo-cons and Rudy Guiliani is a bad joke. The rest are wusses.

We will be hearing less from the Administration and the Cabinet now that they are under scrutiny by Congress. We will also hear less from Condoleeza Rice until Mr. Negroponte quietly gets diplomatic fires stoked again. After that we might hear of more diplomatic success. Donald Trump says to fire Condoleeza Rice but we are more kind to her -- just find her a better position where she can serve successfully. Ms. Rice has talent but so far it hasn’t been used to best advantage.

Too bad Mr. Bush didn’t give diplomacy a more prominent position in his cabinet. He might have harvested more success.