If at first you don't succeed, try the same damn thing again!
| By Siegez - Jul 24th, 2006 at 1:01 pm EDT |
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
For G-d's sake Condi, it's not going to work this time either.
Secretary Rice finally hopped on the shuttle to try to diplomat her way out of another Middle East crisis. Her credibility in the region is nil because of the Bush administration's six-year failure to engage but I'm glad she's there to try. Maybe her trip will give her at least enough credibility in the eyes of the Europeans to cause them to send troops as part of a future international peace-keeping force to establish law and order in southern Lebanon.
But other than photo-ops, and fake credibility, this trip is useless. You see, the scariest thing about the current mid-east conflict, the thing that makes it more dangerous than the usual skirmishes, is the involvement of Iran and Syria. Hizbullah is essentially the agent of Syria in Lebanon. You would think that diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict would therefore include Damascus.
Wrong!
Condi's shuttle is not going to Damascus because they're the bad guys. We don't negotiate with bad guys. Condi defended her decision, according to NBC news correspondent Andrea Mitchell, who's traveling with Rice, by saying that we have a diplomatic mission in Damascus so it was unnecessary for her to go to Syria.
Here's the thing, the US recalled its Syrian ambassador in February 2005 in protest of the Syria's meddling in Lebanon. Yes, there's a mission, but it is not the fully-staffed, robust diplomatic operation that would even have a prayer of a chance to diffuse the current situation. This is complicated stuff!
So instead of real diplomacy, our policy is to slap Syria around with our wagging tongues, close our eyes, and hope they go away. It's the Bush administration's preferred brand of diplomacy that stopped the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs. Oh, wait…
President Bush is a baseball guy. Could someone please enlighten me as to what possesses him to continue with an 0-2 strategy?
Secretary Rice finally hopped on the shuttle to try to diplomat her way out of another Middle East crisis. Her credibility in the region is nil because of the Bush administration's six-year failure to engage but I'm glad she's there to try. Maybe her trip will give her at least enough credibility in the eyes of the Europeans to cause them to send troops as part of a future international peace-keeping force to establish law and order in southern Lebanon.
But other than photo-ops, and fake credibility, this trip is useless. You see, the scariest thing about the current mid-east conflict, the thing that makes it more dangerous than the usual skirmishes, is the involvement of Iran and Syria. Hizbullah is essentially the agent of Syria in Lebanon. You would think that diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict would therefore include Damascus.
Wrong!
Condi's shuttle is not going to Damascus because they're the bad guys. We don't negotiate with bad guys. Condi defended her decision, according to NBC news correspondent Andrea Mitchell, who's traveling with Rice, by saying that we have a diplomatic mission in Damascus so it was unnecessary for her to go to Syria.
Here's the thing, the US recalled its Syrian ambassador in February 2005 in protest of the Syria's meddling in Lebanon. Yes, there's a mission, but it is not the fully-staffed, robust diplomatic operation that would even have a prayer of a chance to diffuse the current situation. This is complicated stuff!
So instead of real diplomacy, our policy is to slap Syria around with our wagging tongues, close our eyes, and hope they go away. It's the Bush administration's preferred brand of diplomacy that stopped the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs. Oh, wait…
President Bush is a baseball guy. Could someone please enlighten me as to what possesses him to continue with an 0-2 strategy?
!
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