I'm all for looking on the bright side, but this is ridiculous. Commenting
on the largest demonstration in favor of Hezbollah's war on Israel — a
demonstration that took place in American-liberated Baghdad —
Condoleezza Rice had this to say to NBC's Tim Russert: "That people would go
out and demonstrate and say what they feel is one sign that perhaps Iraq is
one place in the Middle East where people are exercising their right to free
speech." Come again? Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites, calling "Death
to Israel" and "Death to America," voice their support for a terrorist
organization that hides behind human shields in Lebanon as it rains rockets
down on cities in Israel, and the secretary of state praises freedom of
speech in Iraq? It's enough to make a happy face weep. But Miss Rice beams
on, diplomatically speaking, Pollyanna on the Potomac.
A more realistic approach would wipe the smile off anyone's assessment.
But our foreign policy is increasingly driven by a sanguine un-reality. Oh,
for an administration official who could respond to this intractable
situation with an unabashedly unpleasant analysis.
"Yes, Tim," my dream secretary of state would say. "What you see in
these pro-Hezbollah protests is the unfettered expression of the people of
the Republic of Iraq. I wish I could say this was limited to a vocal
minority, but we're seeing this same sentiment expressed across sectarian
lines, in the now-free press, even in back channel communications. Why,
Iraq's parliament came together unanimously — a democratic first
— to condemn Israel, never mentioning Hezbollah. And why should it?
Iraqi officials have refused to condemn the Iranian proxy as a terrorist
group."
That might leave the host speechless — but just momentarily before
he'd ask: "So what are we doing there?"
"Well, Tim,"she would respond, "the president is currently working on a
major address — the most important address of his second term, I would
imagine — to prepare the American people for entry into what we like
to think of as the post-PC world. What I mean by that is, American efforts
to extend the pacifying, enriching and ennobling benefits of democratic
liberty to the Muslim Middle East have bumped up against our own erroneous
teachings of political correctness.
"For generations now, Americans have been taught that all peoples are
the same, all cultures are the same, all religions are the same —
hard-wired to live by the same self-evident truths. Our experience in Iraq,
our experience with Islam, if you will, tells us, in fact, that we are not
all the same. We do not all want the same things out of governments, our
cultures or our religions. This is something our experience in Iraq has
finally taught us. There are vast differences between Islam and the West,
differences that are not the mission of the United States military, or in
the interest of the United States to bridge."
Continued... |