Aug 23 2008
Thoughts on Community II(b)
This president has given an unusual amount of space during his career to the war hawks, much to the chagrin of some others in his administration. And much to the detriment of - at the very least - his popularity.
Two very different ways to look at the subversion of - and check on - the more hawkish are seen by the actions of the two Secretaries of State under Bush - Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice. Former General Powell had used his reputation to help sell a war that his policies did not back. In return, he lost much and shortly resigned, realizing that he was not able to commit to his vision nor agree with those whom had the ear of the president, noticeably Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and U. S. Vice President Dick Cheney (not to mention Paul Wolfowitz, an under-secretary in the State Department who unmitigatingly called-for initial attacks on Iraq). So, him leaving at the end of Bush’s first term was entirely justifiable as well as forseeable.
Rice, for a diplomat, seemed entirely too docile, too ready to accept whatever the fates would send her way, including, again, justification for an unprovoked war (which a true diplomat would never call for) and for the lack-of-preparation for the Sept. 11th attacks.
Rice surprised me - pleasantly. She’s got Bush’s ear, she’s his man-on-the-ground. The White House has taken her advice and started to mend necessary fences and bridges, while overthrowing others (look at the changes in direction in Iraq, Pakistan, North Korea). As a result, international relations are starting to look up, the president’s popularity is starting to rise, and the next election is starting to take a different form.
It may be a big case of too-little-too-late, but there’s no doubt that if Dr. Rice did not decide to stick it out - to be gunned down for things that she probably should never have accepted - then as the truth wore on that the hawks’ views of world reality could not hold, international relations would be drastically worse than they already are and GWB’s presidency would have a legacy even lower than what it currently is and the US would suffer dramatic relapses and deficits in the world stage.
So, lesson is… stick it out?
Maybe… Or maybe, get rid of the idiots in the first hand.
(So much for my initial statement of apolitics…)
