A Dead Horse

courtesy TIME

by blogSpotter
Last week's TIME magazine had a cover story titled "The End of Cowboy Diplomacy". The authors, Mike Allen and Romesh Ratnesar, describe Bush's earlier neocon doctrine as "muscular, idealistic and unilateral". The doctrine basically is one that the United States carries a big stick, and will use it to pre-empt wars and acts of terrorism. Allen and Ratnesar go on to say how recent events in Lebanon, North Korea and Iran have severely tested the doctrine. Bush and his Cowboy ways have also given this blog lots to talk about. I have at least four prior blogs: How Will Bush be Remembered, Has Bush Gone Soft, Looking for an Exit Strategy and Orange Alert. In those blogs, I've gone on about Iraq and our lack of a plan for occupation. But I haven't really looked at it from a global view. Recent world events have made that a necessity; Allen and Ratnesar analyze this perfect storm in their TIME article.

After 9/11, the United States threatened to unleash the hounds on any country that created problems for us. North Korea and Iran noticed in recent months that we don't have that many hounds to release; those that we have are occupied in Iraq. On this week's Meet the Press, Newt Gingrich said that North Korea and Iran are playing the US like a ping pong ball. Imagine these two 'mice that roar' -- having fun at our expense. I'm reminded of the two squirrels in my dad's back yard -- each one in an oak tree, spaced 20 yards apart. One would race down the tree trunk, chirping at our squirrel-hating dog, Speckles. Speckles would race to kill the squirrel which easily scampered up the tree, out of harm's way. Then squirrel #2 would taunt Speckles from 20 yards away. Speckles would charge after it, with equally lame results. At best, Speckles got some exercise, and the squirrels got some entertainment.

Now there are statesmen that have more gravitas than Clint Eastwood quotes -- Collin Powell and Madelyn Albright come to mind. Such people would have proposed diplomatic solutions at the outset. Yes, we have a big stick. But we want to use it sparingly. We want other countries with similar risks and issues to share in the cost of the stick. We don't want to come up stickless because we've taken on too much. Allen and Ratnesar close their article by pointing out that our Iraq strategy has taken us away from other areas crying out for attention -- African development, international networks in Latin America or former Soviet Satellite nations.

My own optimistic interpretation is that it's not too late for diplomacy, even in Iraq. No mess is so big that someone with determination and the right attitude can't clean it up. But, that will not be this administration. Major concessions or revisions to the Bush policy would seem like repudiations to Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush himself. One other advantage of diplomacy -- it gives you more options at every turn, even when making a strategic U-turn.

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