Good Cop/Bad Cop
While President Bush has been offering a somewhat bedraggled olive branch to the congressional Democrats on such issues as immigration, it's pretty clear he has no intention of allowing the congress to tie Iraq War funding to a timeline for withdrawal. The last I heard, the Democrats have caved on this issue and will be offering a bill with no timeline mentioned. Still, however, the president has back-pedaled a little when it comes to Iraq, allowing for direct meetings with Iran on the stabilization of Iraq. Whether those meetings will involve any kind of meaningful dialogue is another matter entirely, but the fact that there will be diplomatic talks at all with the second part of the "axis of evil" is somewhat surprising, given the official stance for the past several years.
Perhaps the slight shift can be attributed to the fact that the president doesn't have the same team of hardliners around him. In fact, the only hardliner remaining is Vice President Dick Cheney, who recently returned from a Middle East tour. It doesn't appear that Mr. Cheney has softened his rhetoric at all, which might mean that the White House is engaging in a little good cop/bad cop routine going into the election season, as suggest in an AP report published in today's Sacramento Bee.
Most of the war hawks who stood with President Bush on Iraq are gone or departing, leaving Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney increasingly without much company in trumpeting steely resolve.
And it is Cheney who stands out as the administration's foreign-policy heavy, as Bush combines his war rhetoric with overtures to Democrats who control Congress.
Bush's top ally in Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, just paid a farewell U.S. visit. The supportive leaders of Spain and Italy are long gone. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigned under pressure. World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz - one of the war's original architects - just announced his resignation under an ethics cloud.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who helped frame administration policy on treatment of terror-suspect prisoners and warrantless wiretapping, may soon be out the door. Senate Democrats are seeking a no-confidence vote as early as this week.
In Congress, Democrats who supported the 2002 resolution authorizing military force in Iraq have furiously backpedaled away from those votes.
Only Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice remain from Bush's first-term war council. And Rice is pursuing diplomatic initiatives, focusing more attention on broader Middle East peace issues than on the Iraq war.
That does appear to leave just Dick Cheney to keep the rhetoric heated when it comes to Iraq. The problem is that our 'allies' in the Middle East are making it clear that it's time to shut down the Iraq War, stop the saber rattling at Iran, and do some honest brokering in the Israeli Palestinian problems. Many of the leaders in that region, including Egypt and Jordan gave just that message to Dick Cheney. What remains to be seen is whether he will listen and urge the President to consider a real shift in foreign policy.
My guess is that nothing will change, only the tactics used for domestic consumption. And that's a damned shame.
Perhaps the slight shift can be attributed to the fact that the president doesn't have the same team of hardliners around him. In fact, the only hardliner remaining is Vice President Dick Cheney, who recently returned from a Middle East tour. It doesn't appear that Mr. Cheney has softened his rhetoric at all, which might mean that the White House is engaging in a little good cop/bad cop routine going into the election season, as suggest in an AP report published in today's Sacramento Bee.
Most of the war hawks who stood with President Bush on Iraq are gone or departing, leaving Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney increasingly without much company in trumpeting steely resolve.
And it is Cheney who stands out as the administration's foreign-policy heavy, as Bush combines his war rhetoric with overtures to Democrats who control Congress.
Bush's top ally in Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, just paid a farewell U.S. visit. The supportive leaders of Spain and Italy are long gone. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigned under pressure. World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz - one of the war's original architects - just announced his resignation under an ethics cloud.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who helped frame administration policy on treatment of terror-suspect prisoners and warrantless wiretapping, may soon be out the door. Senate Democrats are seeking a no-confidence vote as early as this week.
In Congress, Democrats who supported the 2002 resolution authorizing military force in Iraq have furiously backpedaled away from those votes.
Only Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice remain from Bush's first-term war council. And Rice is pursuing diplomatic initiatives, focusing more attention on broader Middle East peace issues than on the Iraq war.
That does appear to leave just Dick Cheney to keep the rhetoric heated when it comes to Iraq. The problem is that our 'allies' in the Middle East are making it clear that it's time to shut down the Iraq War, stop the saber rattling at Iran, and do some honest brokering in the Israeli Palestinian problems. Many of the leaders in that region, including Egypt and Jordan gave just that message to Dick Cheney. What remains to be seen is whether he will listen and urge the President to consider a real shift in foreign policy.
My guess is that nothing will change, only the tactics used for domestic consumption. And that's a damned shame.
Labels: Foreign Policy, Iraq War, Middle East
posted by Diane at 5:49 PM
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