I Honestly Don't Understand Where We Are on Foreign Policy
I don't even pretend to be very knowledgeable about foreign policy so I seldom write about it. But the dialog around Turkey honestly has me confused. Nancy Pelosi argues that we need to call out Turkey right now in order "to restore America's moral authority around the world." So I get the moral dimension of calling out bad people for bad actions. But it was my understanding that this was what Democrats found facile in Bush's foreign policy, that Bush called out countries like North Korea and pre-invasion Iraq for being part of an axis of evil. Is it then Pelosi's position that morality in foreign policy consists of pointing out evil actions committed by our allies eighty years ago, but avoiding calling out current evil actions by our enemies?
GT:
You miss the whole point on Turkey. Most of the supplies for our army in Iraq travel through Turkish airspace. Get the Turks to close their airspace and remaining in Iraq becomes more difficult.
October 12, 2007, 10:10 pmdearieme:
Mrs Pelosi: Italian, I presume. Has she apologised for Roman aggression and conquest yet?
October 13, 2007, 6:01 amDan:
Reminds me of what Churchill said in the first year of The War:
"This policy of not irritating our enemies did not commend itself to me."
October 13, 2007, 10:47 amJim Hall:
It is a great way to potentially cripple the war in Iraq without being up front about it.
It appears that the Turks very likely committed genocide against the Armenians a while back. Now isn't the best time to twit them about it.
October 13, 2007, 2:21 pmAllen:
I don't think this in itself is a bad thing. The timing stinks. More so it just leads to more questions. Why not a non-binding agreement to rat out Mugabe for his sins that include genocide in the 1980s? Why not something about Burma? Why not something about China in Tibet? Why not something calling out Tibet for all those times they tried invading Bhutan? Why not something calling out Clinton for his wink and nudge when the 2nd Rwandan genocide happened in Congo, disguised as part of a civil war? What about calling out Belguim for their past atrocities in Congo?
I think that's the real problem I have hear. If what happened 80 years is worth doing this there are plenty of other ones to go along with it. The lack of those makes one wonder what the real motivations are for this resolution.
October 14, 2007, 5:00 pmGreg:
Let's not forget Japan, which hasn't been called to task for its WW2 atrocities. While we're insulting allies we might as well include them.
I think GT has it right. Fortunately, it seems to be failing.
October 17, 2007, 10:52 pm