While pouring myself some coffee a few moments ago, I caught a snippet of this morning’s Matt Lauer interview of Joe Biden, who is poised to take over as Senate Foreign Relations Chair. Biden, looking as fierce and resolute as anyone who still uses Brylcreem really can, broke out his signature tough talk—telling Lauer that, like Tony Blair, he advocates opening up talks with Iraq’s neighbors, Iran and Syria, as a way to secure Iraq’s sovereignty. Only, you know, unlike Blair, he’d had the idea for a while now.
And why not? Iran isn’t really the threat we’ve made them out to be, Sy Hersh is going to tell us (and please, forget for a moment that plutonium residue, you pantswetting neocon chickenhawk war profiteers), and Syria—well, they, too, are simply a misunderstood daddy figure to a recalcitrant Lebanon in need of a little tough love.
The idea here is that diplomacy and backroom deals will convince Iran and Syria to keep from meddling in Iraq—something they kept right on doing the last time we tried this kind of diplomacy, mind—but hey, at least they’d probably tell us publicly they wouldn’t meddle, and to the neo-realists in the Democratic party, appearances and compromised deals are what counts, because they conveniently give the impression of progress while in effect kicking the problem down the road, so that we can concentrate on the really important things. Like, you know—global warming. Or increasing taxes. Or government-run healthcare. Plus, it’s like, so totally Kissingeresque!
In short, this type of realpolitik is a recipe for “success” only inasmuch as one defines success as looking like you’ve achieved something while not caring one whit about whether or not you actually have. Or better, it is success defined by a constant stream of feckless “proaction”—change—when what is needed is the balls (take that, O’Reilly!) to refuse to turn away from growing threats by pretending the threats have been contained (and even though years and years of experience tell you quite adamantly that the method of containment you’ve chosen will not work with those who are posing these particular threats).
The most cynical part of all this being, of course, that any attacks or escalation against the US or its interests will be reliably pinned to the Bushies, who “misled” the poor, confused Democrats who now control Congress into a “quagmire”—the truthiness of which is now an article of faith. Which, well, that’s what having the press on your side will do.
And so it’s win-win, the Democrats think—in the short term, they can boast of a diplomatic achievement with hostile regimes, and ride that “achievement” into the White House. Then, when those with whom they struck deals inevitably break those deals—Iran will go on with its nuclear program as will North Korea, and Syria will keep exporting terrorists—the Democrats can cry foul and blame the perfidy on the threatening or “agressive” rhetoric of neocons having spooked the erstwhile peaceful Iranians and Syrians and North Koreans.
In the meantime, those Muslim countries who’d been coming around to democratic reform will realize, yet again, that the US is unreliable—and they will move to protect themselves and their own interests, while terrorist organizations and their state sponsers will be emboldened.
And voila! We’re right back where we started.
Hell. Maybe Madeleine Albright will even come out of retirement to dance a jig with Achmanididididididjihad. You know, for old time’s sake…
Why they haven’t mounted a full frontal assault on that lie and the lying liars who repeatedly tell it is beyond me. They ought to be stuffing the words of each and every one of these weasels down their throats every time they open their mouths. And yet, they let it live and fester and become part of the record.
I guess it’s not news that this administration simply cannot communicate effectively.
If freedom weren’t free, it would be expensivedom!
Since everyone else posted it, I didn’t bother, but “conservatives” more generous than “liberals.”
Meanwhile, in the reality-based community, Kissinger has become a leftie darling for being a “realist,” and John Kerry’s insisting that his “botched joke” won’t affect his chances to run in 2008. I agree with him in that one respect: I think he’d blown his chance well before then.
You got that lot right; especially the business about
“the Democrats can cry foul and blame the perfidy on the threatening rhetoric of neocons having spooked the erstwhile peaceful Iranians and Syrians and North Koreans.”
And, sadly,
“In the meantime, those Muslim countries who’d been coming around to democratic reform will realize, yet again, that the US is unreliableâ€â€and they will move to protect themselves and their own interests.”
Not just the Americans, of course. The British have been unreliable concerning Arabs for over a century now, and as for the French; Quel Beau Geste.
Wasn’t Joe Biden the one who was so barren of ideas he actually thought it would be productive to plagiarise Neil Kinnock? There is something so pathetic there it is almost endearing.
PALOMINO!
So they’ve stopped trying to have him charged with “crimes against humaniy”? Or is that still on?
Whatever.
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Not a lot of people know that.
What day is it?
You’re right, Jeff. I can never pronounce that guy’s name.
Ah-med-djinn-ee-jad?
Why can’t they just rename him like, Robert, or Frank, or James, like every other civilized nation?
Oh, wait. Ok, that question kind of answers itself (albeit in an ironic anglo-centricly insensitive way.)
Every time I read ‘cynical’ I just replace the word with ‘cyclical’.
Because the cynic is the man who smells his farts but still chases his ass.
Guess that explains the Democrat party in a nutshell.
Actually, if you are interested in carrying the Democrat metaphor to the logical conclusion:
They are the man who smells his farts, blames the rank odor on “swiftboating” and calls for hearings as he slinks out of the room.
Just wanted you to know…
“They are the man who smells his farts, blames the rank odor on “swiftboating†and calls for hearings as he slinks out of the room.”
Or they just fart in their hand, grab a whiff or two, and walk away smiling…….
“I thought that we, as a nation, had moved past these swiftboat style attacks on Democrats’ farts!! burp”
John Murtha
I have perchance glanced the abyss.
And it smells like ass.
Swift boating, indeed.
Not to be confused with glass-bottom boating.
It’s very sad isn’t it? I just hope and pray that it’s not someone Biden loves looking out the window of an airplane the next time it smashes into a building. But you know that still probably wouldn’t wake him up, he would still blame Bush, the U.S. or anyone else besides himself or God forbid the actual terrorists. It’s just not real to them, it’s beyond my comprehension that they can wake up in the morning and play politics with our lives and not blink an eye. And I believe that it won’t get any better until integrity and honesty is brought back to the media, that’s if it was ever there. Unfortunately, most American people believe what they see on T.V. and what they read in the paper.
I don’t think you’re being nearly cynical enough – the Democrats *want* the Iranians to go nuclear – to constrain the US in the Middle East and to send us scurrying into the sheltering bosom of the UN. Democrats realize that as Euro-obstructionism plays itself out, U.S. “talks” with Iran breathe new life into efforts to buy Iran the time it needs. Ted Koppel has already given his blessing, and Democrats are already resigned to a practiced sigh of having inherited a nuclear Middle East from Bush.
I totally DIG the idea of a WORLD government run by unelected bureaucrats from, say, the Arab League, or Cameroon.
Seriously. Sometimes I catch myself putting too much sugar in my coffee. I need help. I NEED LAWS TO KEEP ME FROM ABUSING MYSELF!
I totally DIG the idea of a WORLD government run by unelected bureaucrats from, say, the Arab League, or Cameroon.
I don’t know what your problem is, Jeff. Those people are not white, which means that they are impervious to corruption, superhumanly compassionate, and wise beyond anything your cracker brain can even comprehend, let alone appreciate.
Some day you’ll learn not to question your betters. I hope it’s sooner rather than later.
BECAUSE OF THE RACISM!
I just wish someone could make a convincing case that I’m wrong. I wish they’d even try.
Will the electorate ever catch on to the trend by the Democrats to obtain power only to give it away? A Democrat Congress loves to defer legislation to the Court, and the only reason they seem to want power from the Executive is to give it to the UN.
Odd how the loudest howlers about Bush destroying the Constitution never seem to notice the UN doesn’t have one to destroy.
I’d happily join another revolution before turning over sovereignty to the UN.
Only let’s do it with paint balls this time.
If you want to mutilate your genitals, we’re obliged to accept that particular cultural nuance. Just so you know…
It happens all the time…guys come crawling in with a stump and a handful of bloody nuts whining “Why didn’t you stop me?”. What can I tell ya? Grow some tits.
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IGNORE THE NUTJOB WITH THE NUKES IN IRAN!
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REDRUM!
Sincerely,
Joe Biden and the Democratic Party’s foreign policy deep thinkers.
Ah, because assuming they could get the MSM to run the half hour speech that would only leave the MSM 23.5 hours in the day to spin and obfuscate what they said? Assuming that they even can communicate it without revealing sources and methods that, as actual Americans, they can’t reveal because of oaths and obligations they take seriously?
Never argue with people who buy ink by the barrel.
What’s most amazing is that the new-found tolerance that the left has found for nuclear proliferation utterly fails to countenance the ramifications of such a development.
What is overlooked by liberals is that a nuclear Iran would increasingly become a target for destabilization. Ted thinks that Iran can be deterred from cooperating with terrorists if the US preemptively announces that the US will hold Iran accountable for any nuclear bomb that is detonated on US soil. Forget for a moment that the US has interests that would be gravely threatened by the detonation of a nuclear bomb in any number of places. Just answer this: if Al Qaeda & Friends can’t get a nuclear bomb by *cooperating* with Iran, what is their Plan B going to be?