Ya Gotta Believe
EDITORIAL Ya Gotta Believe Barry Lynn could hardly contain himself. "This plan is sinking faster than the XFL," chortled the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and...
...The last thing Beijing wants is for Taiwan to nullify this deadly threat with U.S...
...If Bush behaves himself on Taiwan, he and Jiang Zemin can have a lovely and productive discussion in Beijing this fall...
...So there's reason to hope that this administration will not succumb to the latest round of Chinese tummy-tickling and chest-thumping...
...Tax cuts are good, and missile defense is important—but both are traditional, Reagan-era agenda items...
...William Kristol Carrot and Stick, Szechuan Style Why does the Chinese premier rush to announce that President Bush will visit Beijing next fall—even before the White House is ready to make the news public...
...Fortunately, the new administration looks to be made of tougher stuff than the Chinese have been used to...
...But none of that is nearly as important as this fact: George W. Bush understands this is his signature initiative...
...Given the confusion about how to implement existing law, and the genuine difficulty of necessary line-drawing, a certain amount of caution is in order...
...He doesn't need to rush out to give lots of major speeches right now...
...policy is effective deterrence...
...Not everything can be accomplished quickly...
...If this president is to have a distinctive legacy, it's likely to be that he brought an end to decades of government hostility to religion and inaugurated a neo-Tocquevillean era in which religion and liberty, pluralism and faith, are no longer at odds...
...If the price of going to Beijing is shortchanging Taiwan's defense needs, then it is too high...
...The charitable tax credit for non-itemizers is teed up for speedy passage on Capitol Hill...
...Beginnings are hard, especially important ones...
...Deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff I. Lewis Libby have argued persistently over the past two decades that the United States should do more to help Taiwan defend itself...
...But deep down, and not even so deep down, Barry Lynn and his colleagues are afraid...
...There's nothing wrong with a summit, so long as American policy remains firm...
...It shows no sign of backing down...
...In fact, beneath the surface disarray, the director of the initiative's White House office (and Weekly Standard contributing editor-on-leave) John Dilulio has been getting things organized...
...remove...
...The White House threw only a couple of punches and the folks in Bush's corner are already reaching for the smelling salts...
...The only area where there is uncertainty and delay is in the expansion of "charitable choice"—the principle, already embodied in several federal laws, that religious organizations should be able to compete equally for federal grants to achieve policy goals such as drug rehabilitation and job training...
...The Beijing government is now pulling out all the stops to prevent this sale, precisely because Chinese leaders want Taiwan to remain vulnerable to any attack they may choose to launch...
...Two days later, staffers united for getting their boss in the newspaper had produced some more punchy sound bites for Lynn: "We've just finished round one, and the Bush team is staggering back to their corner...
...Four of the ten largest corporate givers in America explicitly rule out donations to faith-based organizations, regardless of their demonstrated effectiveness...
...Of course, if Bush does go ahead and sell Aegis to Taiwan, all bets are off...
...It is possible to maintain decent relations with China and to stand by our friends—but only if we don't roll over every time Beijing holds out a treat...
...W e are often told how clever and sophisticated the Chinese are...
...This plan is sinking faster than the XFL," chortled the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State on March 12...
...It admirably refuses to bow before the idols of the naked public square and continues to insist that success in social policy should no longer be scorned when it is associated with faith-based efforts...
...The Taiwanese have asked, for the umpteenth year in a row, for approval of the Aegis battle management system, which will help them address the increasingly dangerous threat of Chinese airpower and other advanced Chinese weaponry—including hundreds of ballistic missiles deployed just a hundred miles away across the Taiwan Strait...
...If the president keeps the faith, and insists that his administration follow his lead, an important change in our culture and politics could follow...
...And why is China's vice premier, Qian Qichen, in town this week, self-invited and all smiles...
...Confusion over the program's details, contradictory statements from members of the administration, lack of coordination with outside allies—all of these marked the first few weeks of Bush's signature initiative...
...But what needs to begin now is public education...
...The very simple answer to all these questions is that next month the Bush administration will announce what new arms systems it will approve for sale to Taiwan...
...from inner-city African Americans to exurban evangelicals...
...Now comes the carrot: If Bush will refuse to help Taiwan with more advanced weaponry, all other problems in the U.S.-China relationship can be solved...
...A few of the president's more foolish allies have provided them some ammo...
...He also knows the key to U.S...
...They sense that something big is happening...
...from policy wonks to politicos...
...The truth is, liberal secularists like the good Reverend Lynn see the interest and passion generated by President Bush's faith-based initiative...
...The administration needs to organize itself and mobilize its allies to explain itself to everyone—from state and local social-service providers to grass-roots religious conservatives...
...Just this past week, the Washington Times's Bill Gertz reported that the Pentagon has discovered yet another recently built Chinese missile base...
...At his confirmation hearing last week, Armitage pointedly noted that China's defense budget was increasing while Taiwan's was decreasing...
...Why do senior Chinese officials suddenly declare, after months of railing against Bush's plans to build a missile defense system, that maybe the two sides can get together and talk about it after all...
...We admit to some concern about Bush's apparent agreement to hold a summit with Jiang next fall...
...Task forces are combing through the regulations of five cabinet departments—Justice, Labor, Education, Housing and Urban Development, and Health and Human Services—to find regulatory barriers they can If George W. Bush is to have a distinctive legacy, it's likely to be that he brought an end to decades of government hostility to religion...
...Armitage observed that past Republican administra-tions—and he obviously meant the Reagan administration, where he served as assistant secretary of defense— had managed to maintain decent relations with China without caving to Beijing's pressure tactics: "I don't mean we rolled over and let China tickle our tummy...
...So the administration is taking an appropriate amount of time to get it right...
...But he does need to let everyone know, inside and outside his administration, that the initiative is of fundamental significance to him...
...The implications of the faith-based initiative are large and varied...
...But there are some in the administration, probably at the State Department and possibly even in the White House, who will argue that if Bush goes ahead and approves the sale of Aegis to Taiwan next month, this will spoil the trip or even provoke the Chinese to cancel it...
...We hope Bush resists this counsel of appeasement, which comes right out of Bill Clinton's engagement playbook...
...But really theirs has been the crudest, most obvious form of diplomatic coercion...
...technology...
...And the administration needs to begin explaining to the American people its broader intention to relink liberty to morality, rights to faith...
...The Chinese evidently believe the new American president is a jackass who can be prodded in the right direction by a few whacks from behind and a prize dangled before his nose...
...They know their best bet is to strangle it in the cradle before the White House has had time to get fully organized, and before the American people understand what's at stake...
...Robert Kagan, for the Editors...
...The Chinese already have about 300 short-range missiles aimed at Taiwan, and they're building up at a rate of 50 per year...
...One man is key to this whole effort: George W. Bush...
...If there is a conflict in the Taiwan Strait," he said "then we haven't done our job...
...Better to follow Armitage's advice...
...They're right to be...
...Until this past week, the Chinese were using the stick: threatening Bush with a breakdown of relations, an arms race, and even war...
...Hysterical boasting usually masks fear...
...And then it will be Barry Lynn who really is reaching for the smelling salts...
...Efforts to begin mobilizing the private sector are under discussion...
Vol. 6 • March 2001 • No. 27
