Morphing From Failed Diplomacy

09/20/2006

Paul Munnis

In the past Mr. Bush has complained that diplomacy is pretty slow at producing results. Yet in Iran, North Korea, and now in Palestine, the U.S. is being forced to resort to diplomacy more and more as a necessary approach to international conduct. You can’t just blow away or lock up everyone that disagrees with America or the Bush Administration.

Yesterday in a CNN interview, David Gurgin, a thoughtful GOP reporter, observed that the Bush Administration is painting all of Islam with the same broad brush. In doing so, they fail to recognize the fact that there are deep divisions among Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic Brotherhood, and among the various member states of the Arab League.

Gurgin observed that these religious, national, and theological differences are all fruitful areas for a diplomat to use in diplomatic positioning. He observed that the infamous Richard Nixon would have been all over those differences to set faction against faction and to weaken their united front of hatred for the U.S. He went on to state that the U.S. War in Iraq is providing Islam with a theme and a rational for recruiting of terrorists, for the unification of disparate Islamic groups, and providing a pretext for Anti-American and world conflict; a bully pulpit against America and its ideals. America is in a losing diplomatic position as a result.

Frankly we can see that Condoleeza Rice is tying to get her boss to step up to the tasks of international diplomacy and that he is reluctantly doing so. As was observed by the NY Times in an editorial yesterday the situation with Iran is approaching a diplomatic level of negotiation as the Bush Administration is forced to drag their disputes into the halls of the UN, the seat of world diplomacy.

For Bush, he is forced to exhibit patience and to express himself clearly on the world stage, and thus his stock is rising with the public who can see that he is doing more than rattling swords and ranting about his righteousness but is indeed genuinely seeking peace. The more that he uses the world stage to express American principles of liberty, justice, human rights, and democracy, the higher his stock will rise. He can rant and rave all he wants to in political speeches on TV but few listen to him. However UN speeches, wherein American ideals are clearly expressed, are a forum with diplomats who are all ears and who have receptive minds.

Mr. Bush has one major handicap however and it is the U.S. record of human rights in the treatment of detainees. By his conduct verses the expression of his positions, combined with his willful violation of international law, he has taken on a losing position in diplomatic circles. He has America saddled with a double standard of saying one thing but doing another. His words and his deeds do not match.

In order for the U.S to go to War with Iran it must be a moral war and for it to be a moral war all diplomatic attempts at resolving differences with Iran must be exhausted. For Mr. Bush that means having to confront his own devils and getting his diplomatic act together. Doing so is the key to recovering his image with American voters and the nations and people of the world.

Ms. Rice is doing Mr. Bush a great favor by putting his feet on the diplomatic path to negotiation and diplomacy but the shoes of diplomacy pinch Mr. Bush’s feet greatly.

America cannot just throw its weight around if it wants to win the hearts and minds of others and unless we do so then we are in for continuous strife and warfare. For example the only resolution of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars is to win the hearts and minds of those nations yet Mr., Bush has not even one visible diplomatic initiative going on.

After five years of holding the office of President we welcome the focusing of Mr. Bush to this job of the Presidency of America and hope that he now “get’s it.”