Low Expectations

10/15/2007

Paul Munnis


When Condoleeza Rice opens a peace conference invitation with an announcement that she expects it to produce no breakthroughs then she has doomed the conference to mediocrity right from the start. That is exactly what she is doing in convening a hoped-for peace conference between Israel and Palestine at Annapolis, Md.

When she warns one of the principals not to put their ideas, no matter how controversial, on the table then it is not helpful to promoting peace.

If the parties told her to forget it and refused to come to the conference then I wouldn’t blame them a bit.

It is obvious to all that Israel and Palestine are struggling to find a way out of the morass of a 57 year battle over the territory. It is clear that they seek a peace. It is clear they are working towards it. It is clear that he Bush Administration is not helpful in the endeavor. It is clear that when a breakthrough comes that it won’t be because of anything that the GOP is doing. More likely it’ll be in spite of what the Bush Administration is doing. The peace process is laboring under very difficult circumstances and the U.S. is not a useful party to the peace.

When it comes to diplomacy, both at home and abroad, the Bush Administration is a failure. There is no way to paint it in a better color. Colin Powell was a total failure as a Secretary of State. Condoleeza Rice is a total failure as a Secretary of State. Dick Chaney has been a bad news spokesperson for America. He has sowed more dissension in the world than any VP before. John Bolton was a disaster as a UN representative. When Donald Trump says that if Rice worked for him then he’d fire her is an understatement of what is needed. North Korea is the single est diplomatic deal coming from the Bushies and Bush has nearly killed that deal several times with his neo-con nonsense and jingo phrases like: "Axis of Evil."

When it comes to creating a deal the first question the deal-maker asks is: "What can I bring to the table that is not there already that will motivate the Parties to the deal to accept my way of doing business?" The Bush Administration has little to offer that is new or motivational. Thus Ms. Rice is low-balling the coming meeting in terms of expectations. This is sad diplomacy and not vigorous selling by the Bush Administration. It reflects badly on the U.S.

It seems that what is lacking by the parties is a way to contain Hamas and to keep Gaza sewn-up while giving relief from mischief to both Israel and Palestine. Commitments to make that happen is what Ms. Rice needs to bring with her to the conference. But she has little to offer. Why? The needs are military and strategic and Iraq has eaten up all of America's resources. We are unable to make any new commitments. What's more we can offer no economic aid because Bush has created a huge deficit with his Iraq War spending and there is little left to even buy postage stamps with. Furthermore what the parties need is to create hope for their people and that is not the Bush Administrations stock in trade.

What is worse is that it may be too late to do anything about this State Department failure just as it’s too late to do anything about our malfunctioning Justice Department. We are stuck with these people until a regime change takes place.