Mondale on thin ice in criticizing this administration's foreign policy

Minneapolis Star Tribune ^ | 12/21/03 | Scott W. Johnson

[rhema]

George W. Bush seems to have driven his political opponents nuts. Howard Dean's reference to the "most interesting theory" that President Bush might have had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attack on the United States suggests that Dean has gone around the bend.

But Dean is in good company with many of his fellow Democrats. Former Vice President and Democratic elder statesman Walter Mondale has joined the crowd, although he distinguished himself with spectacularly bad timing.

Mondale presided over a program devoted to discussion of the Bush administration's foreign policy at Macalester College on Dec. 12, the day before American forces captured Saddam Hussein. At the program, Mondale vehemently condemned the foreign policy of the Bush administration.

Those of us who lived as adults through the four years of the Carter administration in which Walter Mondale last served as an important public official may find Mondale's statements especially strange. We recall how President Jimmy Carter proudly announced that the United States had overcome its "inordinate fear of communism," famously planted a kiss on the cheek of Leonid Brezhnev, and then reacted with shock when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

We also recall how followers of Ayatollah Khomeni took 67 Americans hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Over the succeeding 444 days, the Carter administration tried idle threats, vain pleas and ineffectual military action to resolve the hostage crisis. Only the landslide election and subsequent inauguration of Ronald Reagan ultimately freed the hostages and ended the protracted national humiliation.

Henry Kissinger observed that the Carter administration had managed the extraordinary feat of having achieved, at one and the same time, "the worst relations with our allies, the worst relations with our adversaries, and the most serious upheavals in the developing world since the end of the Second World War."

These are the foreign policy credentials that Mondale brings to his assessment of the Bush administration. With these credentials, a reasonable person would conclude that discretion is the better part of valor and bite his tongue.

Mondale, however, seems to believe that the foreign policy of the Carter administration should serve as a benchmark against which to judge the foreign policy of other administrations.

In fact, Mondale's criticism of the Bush administration's use of military force recalls the worst misjudgments of the Carter administration. Mondale complained in his Macalester remarks that President Bush is forcing democracy on Iraq and Afghanistan "at bayonet point." He thus ignores the necessity of overthrowing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in order to deprive Al-Qaida of its home base. He apparently thinks we should have kindly asked the Taliban to step aside after 9/11. Can one imagine Mondale complaining that the United States brought democracy to Germany and Japan "at bayonet point" after World War II?

< snip >

After 9/11, most Americans instinctively understand the common sense supporting the refusal to await further attacks on American soil before undertaking defensive action. Common sense, however, is a quality in short supply among those who, like Mondale, can't see past their hatred of a president whose leadership casts them in his shadow.

Scott W. Johnson and John H. Hinderaker are Minneapolis attorneys and adjunct fellows of the Claremont Institute. They write for the Web log "Power Line" (www.powerlineblog.com).

[GeoPie]

Are you sure the Red Star printed this?

[Theresawithanh]

Good article, really captures the total idiocy that is Walter Mondale! I was a voting adult during the Carter-Mondale years, the darkest years of my life, until, of course, the Clinton(s)-Gore years!

[sgtbono2002]

Mondale is just jealous because Bubba was screwing his daughter and GWB wont.

[APFel]

Don't worry. It was surrounded by leftist editorials, cartoons (Like the Sack Lefto Lie of the Day), and a lambasting of Strom Thurmond through a "fun fact" column. I'm sure they printed it so Gelfand could sleep at night with the belief that his paper isn't partisan.

[martin_fierro]

Courtesy of the Carter / Mondale Administration:

[gov_bean_ counter]

So what does his "F" stand for?

[cmsgop]

Thank You for that Martin, It speaks Volumes, 444 days

[Theresawithanh]

I dunno, gov, maybe "fuggedaboudit"?

[oyez]

Walter Mondale should stop worrying about things out of his hands and start trying to figure how to rebuild the Democratic Party. The rank and file aren't going to be voting for them any time soon.

[longtermmemmory]

Mondale has no room to talk.

He used Carter to ask the USSR for help in his failing campaign in 1984.

[jwalsh07]

We also recall how followers of Ayatollah Khomeni took 67 Americans hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Over the succeeding 444 days, the Carter administration tried idle threats, vain pleas and ineffectual military action to resolve the hostage crisis. Only the landslide election and subsequent inauguration of Ronald Reagan ultimately freed the hostages and ended the protracted national humiliation.

Yup, the battles being fought now by our sons and daughters should have been fought by us but Carter, Mondale and others simply did not or would not recognise the threat to America and Americans worldwide.

[Paul Atreides]

Mondull: you mean he's still around? The last time I saw him, he was, what else?, putting his foot in it during the Wellstone Funerally.

[OldFriend]

I remember a befuddled Mondale on election night in Wisconsin. There he was insisting he was going to win because votes were still coming in from 'all over the country'........leaving the reporterette rather stunned.

His senility certainly helped Coleman win.

[Cicero]

People seem to forget that Jimmy Carter not only was responsible for the hostage crisis, but was responsible for encouraging the deposition of the Shah and the installation of Khomeini in the first place.

Sure, the Frogs sheltered Khomeini, but it was Carter who gave the nod to put him into office. That gave the Islamic terrorists their biggest leg up ever.

[You Dirty Rats]

Mondale has the unique distinction of having every state in the union vote against him in an election for national office at one time or another.

When the "stars" of your party are Mondull, Carter, Kennedy, Byrd, Bubba, Gore, etc. you are in a world of hurt. (Dean is even worse; he's more nuts than all of those old farts put together).

[Mr. Mojo]

After reading the headline I thought that perhaps "Mondale" was Dean's new nickname. But it turns out that the 49-state loser himself is back, spewing his usual nonsense.

[Mr. Mojo]

Jimmy Carter not only was responsible for the hostage crisis, but was responsible for encouraging the deposition of the Shah and the installation of Khomeini in the first place.

Correct. In effect, Jimmuh was responsible for the Islamic revolution, the rotten fruits of which we're at war with today. He's also responsible (through his co-appeasement efforts with Clinton) for the fact the the No. Konean No Dong has nukes on rockets. A case can be made that the peanut-brain is probably the most dangerous man in the world.

[af_vet_1981]

The United States should declare war on both Iran and Syria and destroy their regimes.

[TexasTransplant]

The United States should declare war on both Iran and Syria and destroy their regimes.

 

You have my vote.