Not Worth The Paper It's Printed On: The Perils of Clinton-style Diplomacy........

The Iconoclast ^ | October 25, 2002 | Unkown

[clintonbaiter]

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The Iconoclast (www.iconoclast.ca)

Not Worth The Paper It's Printed On: The Perils of Clinton-style Diplomacy........



October 25 2002: It's inevitable like death and taxes. Should some murderous tyrant or other appear on the world scene and flaunt his dirty deeds in front of the international community, then the "negotiate an agreement" crowd crawls out from under the woodwork to denounce any talk of using military force to reign in the aggressor.

You know all the sloppy slogans by now: "Give peace a chance," "Negotiations, not war," "Diplomacy not threats," "Peace in our time," "I never had sex with that woman!" Well, maybe not the latter. But speaking of America's orally-fixated ex-president, the Clinton presidency admirably demonstrates all the wishful thinking, procrastination and irresponsibility involved in depending on the diplomats to "negotiate" the pages and pages of high-fallutin' hot air called "international agreements" these days, as well as the dire consequences of such foreign-policy sophistry.

The reflexive "negotiate a treaty" sensibility is just another facet of today's liberal-left mindset, moulded by the heady experience of last-minute settlements in labor negotiations, legal horse trading in plea bargains for guilty criminals, and negotiated political "compromises" (translated sellouts) in today's legislatures.

The problem is that what works in a democratic domestic context may not work quite so well in the pursuit of international peace. Reigning in amoral rogue states requires anything but the endless bargaining, compromise and sellout of principles that is perceived to work so well in negotiating with labor unions to buy "labor peace," in hammering out plea bargains to clear the courts of expensive trials, and in forging political "compromises" to pander to special interest groups.

Negotiating... and negotiating... and negotiating ad absurdum, to come up with reams of paper filled with lofty language and obfuscating legal terms, may be appropriate for settling a truckers' strike. Allowing amoral lawyers for the latest billionaire business felon caught with his hand in the cookie jar to cop a plea may allow the courts to run more efficiently (and prosecutors run for higher office). And political compromise may help the trains run on time, as well as insure re-election. But it simply will not suffice when the safety of entire populations is at stake, when the basic principles that underlie our way of life are under attack, or when the forces of evil threaten to rum amok.

Which brings us back to the craven Clinton administration where talk, talk, talk, and meaningless written words (and more words) in the form of accords, frameworks and treaties, was the solution to every international crisis (unless the president was under threat of impeachment, in which case a quick missile attack on a pharmaceutical factory in the Sudan might be justified to deflect public attention away from presidential misdeeds).

So under the inept foreign-policy reign of Bill Clinton, we had the much-ballyhooed negotiated agreements for "peace" in the Middle East, Northern Ireland and the Korean peninsula. And of course, as we know now, all these negotiated settlements totally unravelled, along with a lot of Nobel Peace Prize-winning diplomatic bafflegab........................

[clintonbaiter]

Another testament to Clinton's incompetence and perfidy.

[cardinal4]

Bill Clintons culpability in 9/11 is running around 95%, becuase of foolishness like this.

[housethatruthbuilt]

hey, what do you get when you cross a sex maniac and a sleazy lawyer?

[Real Cynic No More]

The Democrats' emotionally-driven, feel-good approach to problem-solving has been proven, time and again, to be a bankrupt policy. It's results that count, and you can't get that with a liberal approach.

[cardinal4]

Chelsea!!

[housethatruthbuilt]

good work - love that joke

[cardinal4]

Wahts the difference between Bill Clinton dead on the road and a skunk dead on the road?

[housethatruthbuilt]

i'd feel bad for the skunk?

[cardinal4]

Close, the skunk would have skid marks in front of it!

[housethatruthbuilt]

i like it

[lasereye]

It's the kind of foreign policy you can expect from an administration and party consisting more or less entirely of lawyers and policy wonks. These people have spent their whole lives doing nothing but negotiating or analyzing paper agreements. It's their main expertise, unless you consider lying an expertise.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

Remember the liberal media hounds "praise" for Clinton's mastery of public policy: "they would have all night sessions kicking around ideas and Clinton would be eating a pizza and then lay-out the most brilliant analysis and policy proposal..." or "he was discussing the war in Bosnia on the phone with Congressman Callahan while being serviced by the intern" -- brilliant!

This was the great triangulator -- steal GOP idea and call them his own. Promise a middle class tax cut and raise everybody's taxes. "We kept all the promises we intended to keep." So what if Social Security goes bankrupt in 2015 or 2026 -- I'll be long gone by then!

This article talks about Demo's allegiance to treaties -- what about laws? Why didn't the gun laws protect us from the sniper? Why didn't the security laws protect us from Enron and Worldcom? Why didn't North Korea live up to its promises to the great peacemaker, Jimmy Carter and his friend Bubba?

Bubba's (and Jimmy's) respective legacies just continue to grow and grow.