Karl Rove is right
Foreign policy during the Cold War was supposed to be “politics stopped at the water edge,” or that as least was the public face of it. Republicans accused President Kennedy of using the Cuban Missile crisis to help Democrats in the mid-term elections, and Democrats defined Reagan’s invasion of Grenada as “gun boat diplomacy.”
However, publicly we were all together. The Cold War ended 11 years ago, and foreign policy no longer has great influence in domestic politics. Neither Clinton or “W” could not have been elected during the Cold War. Phrases like “I feel your pain” and “I can see in his soul” do not work when you are talking to a world leader that can vaporize your country in less than an hour. With the exception of China, the Cold War ended in a fizzle, and the American people realized that it was “the economy, stupid.”
The term “dumbass” might have been more appropriate, for the next president was going to define the international system. The best president in foreign policy since President Nixon, President George H. Bush, was replaced by a president that was worse than a novice. President Clinton gave legitimacy to the European Idea that the international system of anarchy had been replaced by a coherent international value system that could be enforced be a universal judicial body.
Events in the last week have proven that those strategies are at best faulty and may even be dangerous. Karl Rove stated in a campaign speech last year that Republicans are better trusted on foreign policy than Democrats. Republicans have come under fire ever since.
In this new uncharted world where our enemy is not clear and present, we must first agree that we have an enemy. The Religious Right got more criticism for saying Progressives caused the Sept. 11 tragedy than Leftists did for saying America deserved what it got. Now, one can say that those Americans who claim that the “School of the Americas” justified the murder of 3,000 fellow citizens do not hold the same political power as the Religious Right, but is that really true?
President Clinton was given credit (by some) for solving irreconcilable conflicts, for bringing peace to Northern Ireland, peace to Israel, and disarmament in North Korea. Well, at least he disarmed one side in Korea. In the past week, all of those agreements have fallen apart along with the international meaning they held, making last week more important than Sept. 11.
Of course, it will never be seen that way, but there should be no stigma attached to those who wish to point out the failure of Clinton and Europe. To say that Republicans are calling Democrats unpatriotic for not backing the war in Iraqi is a way for Democrats to avoid the larger issue.
I – and hopefully, Karl Rove – am not calling patriots like Senator Cleaving of Georgia or Senator Kerry of Massachusetts unpatriotic; I am just calling them inept. Maybe not them personality, but at least the special interests that hold the Democrats chains and made the most conservative Democratic President since Grover Cleveland enforce their values.
In 1994 President Clinton signed an agreement with North Korea, which, in reality, was a return to appeasement. The North Koreans were backing out of the 1986 non-nuclear proliferation treaty and Clinton did not want a problem. Weather he believed in the ideas of peace achieved through an international process or not is inconsequential; he gave the idea legitimacy. For all we know, they bribed the scumbag.
The new Nobel peace prizewinner, former president Jimmy Carter, was the front man for Clinton in 1994, saying of the tyrant that he was “vigorous” and “intelligent.” President Carter’s approval was all that was needed for the Clinton administration to indirectly fund North Korea’s nuclear program. The promise of oil and the promise to build a nuclear reactor allowed the North Koreans to develop a nuclear weapons program. Clinton pushed appeasement in full gear and gave North Korea more aid than any Asian country, which Bush, to his detriment, has continued.
North Korea is the most immoral regime in the world. They process grass to feed their people, just to shut them up for a few moments. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright went to North Korea in early 2000 and danced liked an idiot for those dictators – that should be more embarrassing than former President Bush throwing up on the Japanese Prime Minister.
President Clinton’s dealing with North Korea is nothing short of appeasement. President Carter is a good man, but is not someone to lay a blueprint for peace. He is too naive – almost every aspect of his presidency proved that. He thought the Cold War could be talked about. During his presidency, Afghanistan was invaded. (To his credit, he did fund the freedom fighters.) And, the Camp Davis Peace Accords never mentioned the Jewish stalemates – the biggest problem in the Middle East peace process that no one talks about. Plus, is Israel really that much safer now?
We must strike fear in the hearts of nations like Iran, North Korea, and China for we cannot intimidate the new breed of terrorist. Rove needs to make the ability to point that fact out acceptable for public debate.
