Friday, December 8

Baker v. Rice

Someone ought to tell James Baker and his Surrender Study Group that he was not appointed Secretary of State. Last I checked, that was still Condi.

The point has been made that the Iraq Study Group's recent findings basically pit the views of Baker and Rice against each other.

One of their primary points of disagreement is whether or not we should talk to our enemies. Apparently Mr. Baker is under the delusion that our enemies (namely Iran and Syria, the same countries sending aid and support to the insurgents killing our soldiers and other Iraqi citizens) would somehow want to help us if we just talked to them. Or, perhaps less naivly, but still idiotic, that we would be able to compell their help in Iraq by appealing to some goal of theirs. But unless Baker's for the destruction of Israel and all U.S. troops, embassies, etc. pulling out of the Middle East, he's been sleepwalking through this report.

Human nature is human nature, it hasn't changed much over the last thousand years. Since the dawn of countries, there has been war. And since the dawn of countries, strength has kept the peace. Notice how Egypt, the Saudis, and other more friendly Arab nations were supporting the U.S. and condemning Hezbollah back when they still thought the U.S. had a spine. Years of relentless Democrat whining and attacks on our president and his policies (and cries against the Iraq war when the nation wasn't completely rebuilt and casualty free within two weeks of taking Bahgdad) have eroded our perception of strength throughout the world. Now, after just one Democratic election victory, they sense our weakness.

Let's look to the recent past for an indication of how talking to our enemies will help us here. It sure worked well for Neville Chamberlin, didn't it? Yep. He held off WWII for at least a few years by those helpful talks! And how about Bill Clinton and Kim Jong Mentally Ill? Really glad Clinton had those one-on-one talks with Krazy Kim! They couldn't have managed nuclear reactors without them! And how about Kennedy and Kruschev? Yeah, talking went a long way to ending the Cold War... Oh, wait, it was Reagan sayin' -I ain't talkin' I'm building a missile defense system and if you can't keep up with our arms race we will bury you.