Friends, Foes and Who Knows?
The Musharraf Mess should remind Presidential candidates and voters that we are not living in Bush World any more, where other countries are either allies or enemies, good or bad guys to whom we either send tons of money or bunker-busting bombs.
Belatedly, the Administration is leaking word that they have doubts that Musharraf “can survive in office and have begun discussing what might come next.”
Lesson #1 for the next President: If your foreign-policy people take five years to discover a not-very-subtle military dictator has been blowing smoke about his dedication to democracy and playing us for saps about opposing Islamic extremists, you need a whole new State Department and CIA. Or if they have been doing their jobs and nobody around you has been listening, you are surrounded by the wrong people.
Lesson #2: When an iffy ally like Musharraf is sitting on a stockpile of nuclear weapons, you don’t want to wait until he is on the way out to start finding out where those weapons are, who controls them and reaching out to those who do.
Lesson # 3: Have all the photo ops you want with the Saudis, Iraqi Sunnis and al-Maliki’s mob, but keep a close eye on what they are doing when there are no lights and cameras.
In a world where foreign relations have morphed from checkers to three-dimensional chess, the next White House is going to need a new generation of policy makers and analysts who can see beyond the outdated clichés of the Kissingers, Brzezinskis and Podhoretzes.
Voters should be looking for clues about candidates who understand that.
Cross-posted from my blog.
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11 Responses to “Friends, Foes and Who Knows?”
Who in this list is a Mahatma Gandhi or Mandela?
Pervez Musharraf
Benazir Bhutto
Muhammad Khan Junejo
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
Malik Meraj Khalid
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
All these thugs were/are our friends with India/Afghanistan as a problem. All served at the whim of the military.
Pakistan created a “nuklear program” not for Jihad, but as a deterent(MAD) to a greater armed India(conventinal and nuclear). Reagan and Pappy cozied up to some on the list, W’s just following a tradition.
Nukes are very expensive to build and maintain, why would Pakistan give Osama/Obama a Fatboy(20 Kt) when a POTUS might retaliate with a W87/88 MIRV(300-425Kt). If Obama bought/stole one of the handfull of Pakistani nukes, President Hillary might turn into a parking lot.
Rudi, I think you meant oSama… But thanks for the chuckle
Meant Osama/Obama maybe even O’Mama(Hillary). But on a serious note, deterence is working on the Indian/Pakistan subcontinent, why should we believe the Podhertz/Kristol BS?
Because there’s no fun at all in deterence. It’s just boring. And it’s not very useful as a campaign issue.
Podhoretz is not a peer of the other two.
Those who can (easily) deny the false dichotomy and too-simple classification of other parties in the world with whom we deal must admit that we must at times accept as partners those who don’t appeal to you, have poor human-rights records, etc., when the present-time likely alternatives to them would be worse, or because partnership is expedient or even necessary.
We engaged in deterrence a lot in the Cold War (as well as actual resistance at times), and it was a very useful campaign issue. Peace through strength, remember?
DLS – The Podman isn’t in favor of deterrence, for him it’s war, war and more war. And Rudy is listening to him and Kerik.
I know “Mr. World War IV” is an advisor to Giuliani.
What puzzles me is that many believe Giuliani has the best chance to not only win the GOP nomination, but to beat Clinton as well. I wouldn’t bet on him.
Side note: Who did the push polling against Romney and in favor of McCain? Hmmm.
Rudy is taking a page from the Rove playbook. I’m waiting for the McCain love child to return about his Bangli adopted daughter.
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