Trusting Bush Is Not How to Deal with Iran

Although Colin Powell is beginning to challenge the White House version of recent history, he has a lot to answer for. But, he was the last major figure in the Bush Administration making at least some attempt to do his job according the best interests of the American people. I know a lot of people who won't go even that far but that's not the point I want to raise.

The point Americans need to deal with is that there is no one left in the Bush Admistration who has any credibility. We know now that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have no credibility on foreign policy. They simply have said too many things that have turned out not to be true and they have taken too many actions that have turned into a long series of blunders that simply compound themselves. It's now been firmly established that our UN representative, John Bolton, is about as hawkish and useless as they come (he was never confirmed by the Senate). In a normal presidency, on the issue of competence alone, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bolton would have been long gone.

People in both parties have encouraged Bush at the very least to dump Rumsfeld and bring in competent people who are not tied down by ideological baggage. If Congress chose to do so, they could probably force the issue simply by pursuing vigorous investigations and, if that weren't sufficient, curbing some of Bush's favorite projects, but current Republican leaders have no backbone and are desperate to reverse the falling numbers of the Republican Party for the fall elections. But even they have to wonder at the continued foolishness of the White House.

Four years ago, there was minor doubt whether Condi Rice was siding with Colin Powell; in some respects, she certainly wasn't siding with Rumsfeld and Cheney who had esssentially walked all over her and taken over her duties (for a few months from late 2003 to the spring of 2004 she almost asserted herself but Bush gravitated towards Cheney and Rumsfeld during the Fallujah and Abu Ghraib fiascos out of sheer cussedness and outright election year panic).

On recent news shows, Condi Rice can't bring herself to admit there have been no diplomatic talks worthy of the name with Iran in the last four years; and yet, perhaps conscious of possible future prosecution, she can't even bring herself to elevate minor discussions to serious diplomatic status though she still vaguely claimed diplomacy is taking place. The fact is, the United States is not engaged, we are simply doing the usual Bush routine of talking at people. So much for having a Secretary of State.

Here's an excerpt from a post by Josh Marshall from a couple of days ago with thoughts on how Democrats and the rest of the nation should deal with the Iran issue:

With respect to what's coming on Iran, what is in order is a little honesty, just as was the case with the Social Security debate a year ago. The only crisis with Iran is the crisis with the president's public approval ratings. Period. End of story. The Iranians are years, probably as long as a decade away, and possibly even longer from creating even a limited yield nuclear weapon. Ergo, the only reason to ramp up a confrontation now is to help the president's poll numbers.

This is a powerful message because it is an accurate message. We have many challenges overseas today. Chief among them, as one of the Democrats' senate candidates puts it, is "refocusing America's foreign and defense policies in a way that truly protects our national interests and seeks harmony where they are not threatened." The period of peril the country is entering into isn't tied to an Iranian bomb. It turns on how far a desperate president will go to avoid losing control of Congress.

Go to his heart. Go to his weaknesses. Though the realization of the fact is something of a lagging indicator, the man is a laughing stock, whose lies and failures are all catching up with him.

To the president the Democrats should be saying, Double or Nothing is Not a Foreign Policy.

Double or nothing is not a foreign policy. The wildcatter from Texas could never make money in oil without help from his father's friends. The way to deal with Iran begins by not trusting George W. Bush to deal with Iran. It's that simple.

Bush may have known for a time how to campaign and pull the wool over the eyes of most Americans but he doesn't know how to run a country. Or how to run a foreign policy. Every member of Congress knows that, even if they twist and squirm to avoid saying it. The game's over. Until the Bush presidency is repaired (if ever), no one should take the word of these clowns seriously.