Michael Rubin rightly lambasts Secretary of State Rice for her work in the Middle East in the past few months. The President is so personally close to her, and trusts her implicitly, that he is abdicating his role to direct the foreign policy of the United States to her. And Secretary Rice has proven which of her two foreign policy influences, Brent Scowcroft or George W. Bush, she will follow -- she's a Scowcroftian "realist" to the hilt.
Here are Rubin's thoughts:
Condoleezza Rice may still be a media star, but her track record places somewhere around Warren Christopher in the annals of recent State Department history:
Rice reversed course on Iran, and even offered this terror-sponsor nuclear reactors. Rather than moderate Tehran, her move signaled weakness and further emboldened the Islamic Republic. Ayatollah Khamene‘i responded to the offer by asking, four days later, “Why don’t you just admit you are weak and your razor is blunt?”
* Remember Iran’s centrifuges? They’re still spinning.
* North Korea defied international consensus to launch missiles, one of which was aimed at the waters off Hawaii. Japan sought robust UN action. The US sided with China against our ally, Japan.
* She agreed to a ceasefire resolution that rewards terror, justifies hostage-taking, and resurrects the legitimacy of Hezbollah claims to the Shabaa Farms.
* Remember the UN Brammertz Commission investigating Syrian complicity in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri? No reaffirmation of it in the UN Resolution or subsequent statements. Score one for Syria. . .
* For the sake of well, not much, we’ve wholesale abandoned liberal allies and democracy activists in Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, and elsewhere.
Hmm. What other realist prescriptions can we implement? Coddle Castro? Abandon Taiwan?
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