Remember a year ago, when the War on Iraq couldn't possibly go forward until a lasting peace had been established between Israel and the Palestinians? Personally, I thought that meme had been stomped flat a long time ago. But this excuse for inaction idea has been floated again, in a Wall Street Journal editorial by former National Security Advisers Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski (no free link, sorry).
David Frum gives this tired idea the trashing it deserves in his NRO column:
So: Brzezinski and Scowcroft are advocating that the U.S. embark on another probably doomed attempt to midwife a Palestinian state in order to win European, Arab, and Muslim support for an Iraq policy that Brzezinski and Scowcroft oppose. That's illogical enough. But what elevates the illogic to almost postmodern levels is that the U.S. is in fact already winning the Arab and European support that Brzezinski and Scowcroft say it cannot win. Meanwhile, the countries that continue to oppose U.S. policy in Iraq – like France and Russia – do not even bother to cite the Palestinian issue as an excuse.
I just don't get why all the old Foggy Bottom apparatchiks cling to the idea that the Peace Process is not only still a going concern, but should not be predicated upon any actual, y'know, peace. Israel apparently must simply make every concession asked of it (and if necessary, the US must compel them to concede), in exchange for nothing more than a promise from a man who has never kept a promise in his life. Liberal democracy must be punished, and barbarians who celebrate the mass murder of Americans must be rewarded, because ... well, just because. Just take their word for it; they're the experts.
Feh. Brent and Zbig are exactly where they belong: far, far away from any position of power or consequence.
(P.S.: Sorry for going over a week without blogging. More to follow soon; specifically, I will have a set of responses to the anti-war questions in the Great Cross-Blog Debate shortly.)
Posted by Kevin Shaum at February 13, 2003 11:59 AM | TrackBack