"NOW we've really got problems," is Kaplan's opener; one imagines that if things were to go from worser to most worser Slate might even find it necessary to start telling the truth in the first place instead of contradicting the anti-truth, or whatever it is they imagine they're doing over there. Kaplan continues:
The state of emergency in Pakistan signals yet another low point in President George W. Bush's foreign policy—a stark demonstration of his paltry influence and his bankrupt principles. More than that, the crackdown locks us in a crisis—a potentially dangerous dynamic—from which there appears to be no escape route.
Leave us recall that at the time of the invasion of Afghanistan, Dr. Rice was National Security Advisor. Or maybe "National Security Advisor," since for all the blather at the time about Rice and Colin Powell being the two most powerful African-Americans ever, or Rice and Karen Hughes as the Estrogen Emperors, Dick Cheney was in her chair, literally, not just as boss. Rice's tenure at State is a disaster, as it had to be. If she intended to salvage anything of her reputation, aside from her reputation as a sycophant and a tenth-rate intellect she should have resigned at the end of the first term. But then, shoes aren't free! Bush will go down in history as the man who found a foreign policy of marble and left one of partially-digested Texas tube steak, but let us note two things: disaster in Pakistan was a matter of when not if, and we set upon this road with the almost unanimous and completely unreflective support of the American people.
Sure, the name "Osama bin-Laden" only turns up these days when Mitt Romney tries to pronounce "Barrack Obama"--understandable mistake--but the sober reflection which was so badly needed and so completely absent (both supply and demand) might have been our best chance at capturing him. We gave the Taliban 24 hours to hand over both bin-Laden and their sovereignty; we've given Musharraf $10 B that we know of. What if we'd reversed that? Given the Taliban the golden handshake and Musharraf notice that we'd be in hot pursuit of al-Qaeda wherever it went? It may be that I'm the only man cynical enough to think Yellow is the favorite color of government officials everywhere, regardless of degree of religious conviction (or maybe that's just because of the particular examples of government officials and men of religious conviction I'm most familiar with); it may be that no President, even a functionally literate one, could have withstood the demand for vengeance long enough to make Dollar Diplomacy work. But it's certain that the opposite approach has stuck us in an endless occupation of Afghanistan even Slate can't turn inside out.
And where, we might add, just across the border we find one of the world's acknowledged nuclear powers, the one with the perpetually unsettled government and the perpetually simmering conflict with its nuclear-club neighbor just across the disputed border area that's been the site of military action since 1947. Gosh, who could have foreseen any problems with that? Not the gang at Slate. But then the 19,000 American troops currently in Afghanistan have no worries about the takeover of a nuclear arsenal just the other side of Waziristan (motto: Hey, At Least Our Border Isn't Disputed!), since we saw to it that India got extra fissionable materials just in case.
Yes, the Bush administration has been a disaster in Pakistan, and everywhere else for that matter, but who opposed the stick-to-the-hornets'-nest approach in the first place? We dealt with Musharraf at the same time we passed a war resolution ipse dixit, as they keep saying whenever I'm retried. The Congress of the United States, in effect, told Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Doug Feith, et.al., that they could chase whomever they chose wherever they wanted. One lone Representative--California's Barbara Lee--objected, on the grounds that the resolution was too broad. As I understand it, the death threats have now fallen to less than one per hour.
So enough, already. We know the administration screwed the pooch, but who was cheering on the sidelines as she was locked into that Michael Vick Heet-O-Matic™ Canine Corset? The time to think about this was September, 2001. Now is the time for you to piss yourself while remembering just why you're doing it again. The leading Presidential candidates of both parties are still making noises about Iran--if at different levels of insanity--and they've managed to convince about half the population. Maybe it's time we pissed ourselves forward for once.
A country run by a dictator harboring Osama Bin Laden with a proven stockpile of nuclear weapons.
ReplyDeleteWhy aren't we invading? Oh, that's right. No oil. I forgot.