The Bugs Bunny Democrats
EDITORIAL The Bugs Bunny Democrats We should work diplomatically and aggressively to give them reasons why they [the Iranians] don't need to build a bomb, to give them incentives. . . . I'd like...
...Nor would it be to stop Iran's nuclear program (a goal whose importance he minimizes...
...Consider David Brooks's important New York Times column last week summarizing the views of a Bush administration official with whom Brooks had had a conversation—a conversation that, as Brooks says, "sheds light on where we've been and where we're going...
...His point...
...foreign policy priorities: "containing the violence," "finding a stable and secure solution that protects Israel," and "unwinding America's disastrous entanglement in Iraq in a manner that is not a complete humiliation and does not lead to even greater turmoil...
...Are Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Moktada al-Sadr, Bashar Assad, the Sunni holy warriors in Iraq, al Qaeda operatives and sympathizers in the United Kingdom, and Kim Jong Il on the run...
...So the Democrats are hopeless...
...For this, the president has reaped no political benefit at home—and the dangers continue to mount abroad...
...So Lamont is an appropriate spokesman for what one might call the Bugs Bunny caucus that now dominates the Democratic party...
...We have to make up for it with diplomacy backed by a hint of steel...
...As Blankley mordantly comments on the "hint of steel" that will allegedly be backing up all this diplomacy: "More likely a hint of lavender...
...During its second term, the Bush administration has come too close to embracing Holbrookean passivity...
...The Bush policymaker seems to be indulging in what Blankley calls "a dangerous fantasy" that Iran and Hezbollah can be dealt with through clever diplomacy and continued U.N...
...But it is clear that the point of this diplomacy would not be to defeat or disarm Hezbollah (a goal Holbrooke never mentions...
...As for the third—"not a complete humiliation"—now there's a foreign policy slogan for the Bugs Bunny Democrats...
...If they would approve, then the president should kill the initiative...
...We have to get out from under the blow to our authority caused by the torture and detainee issues...
...One senses from some of the president's recent statements that he knows better...
...So it's fitting that Lamont is pro-carrot...
...And what good has the recent affinity for carrots done us...
...We're not going to be spending as much blood or treasure as over the past few years...
...In fact, he is too clever to say with any precision at all what his diplomatic initiatives would consist of—and he is clever enough to try to cover his bases by emphasizing not once but twice that all of this diplomacy with Syria and Iran (and, implicitly, Hezbollah) would have to be conducted "in full consultation with Israel at every step...
...ambassador and hopeful Democratic secretary of state Richard Holbrooke—something of a Liebermanite in the past—tried to get right with the Bugs Bunny-ites in a Washington Post op-ed two days after Lamont's victory...
...Are our enemies in retreat...
...And we have to get aggressive on the Palestinian problem...
...In particular, we need "sustained high-level diplomacy" with Syria and Iran...
...The first really means not defeating Hezbollah...
...We're trying to build a successful government in Iraq...
...It was impossible to go to Europe during Bush's first term without getting a lecture about the utility of carrots, the futility of sticks, and the Bush administration's regrettable neglect of the former and unfortunate proclivity for the latter...
...More diplomacy...
...Lieberman is fighting that dominance by not conceding his seat to Lamont—but others are rushing to ingratiate themselves to the new powers that be in their party...
...Have they become more cooperative, and less bent on trouble, since Secretary of State Rice started serving up the carrots last year...
...Here's a suggestion for the president: When the State Department asks him to embrace the path of diplomacy-über-alles, he should ask himself this question: What would the Bugs Bunny Democrats think...
...The odds are there will be sanctions against Iran by the end of the year, though how strong I don't know...
...The State Department has succeeded in the past year in making the Bush administration more Euro-friendly and U.N.-attentive than ever...
...Ned Lamont, April 25, 2006 Ned Lamont's victory over Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut primary was a triumph for the European wing of the Democratic party...
...Unfortunately, back in the real world, Bush administration policy hasn't been particularly strong either...
...As Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley noted, the interview "suggests that we intend to subordinate firm military or even firm diplomatic action to winning the love of the Arab Street"—and, I would add, to seeking the approbation of European chanceries and Turtle Bay...
...William Kristol...
...How Bush deals with Ahmadinejad's terror-supporting and nuclear-weapons-pursuing Iran will be the test...
...The second means nothing...
...Developments over these extraordinary last few weeks, from Tehran to Baghdad to Lebanon to London, have reminded us of the dangers we face and the implacability of our enemies...
...Now Holbrooke is too clever to go into full Bugs Bunny mode...
...I'd like to use carrots as well as sticks to see if we can change the nature of the debate...
...That's essential to strengthen moderate regimes...
...Instead, there should be three U.S...
...Former Clinton U.N...
...resolutions...
...Here's the key statement by the Bush policymaker: We're part of a united front on Iranian nukes...
Vol. 11 • August 2006 • No. 46
