A Level Gaze

A Level Gaze

"What effect must it have on a nation if it learns no foreign languages? Probably much the same as that which a total withdrawal from society has upon an individual."
--G.C. Lichtenberg

Friday, September 06, 2002

In Michael Kinsley's latest column, he takes Colin Powell to task for the "disloyalty" of having a different opinion than that of the president. A little further down, he claims that "Bush's role in the debate is not to have a clear view of his own." So Powell disagrees with...well, we're not sure yet, but it's definitely something, er, probably.

Further, the "squabbling tribal elders," presumably Cheney, Rumsfeld, Scowcroft, Baker, et al., get a free pass from taking stands fundamentally different from one another. By definition, then, some of them are going to be in disagreement with whatever Bush's opinion might wind up being. For some reason, that's not disloyalty, even when done in the public fora of the nation's op-ed pages. Powell, dastard that he is, has added to the injury of his "disloyalty" with the further insult of inscrutability.

Powell's view, if you read the papers literally, has spread by a mysterious process akin to osmosis. The secretary of state is "known to believe" or is pigeonholed by unnamed "associates" or (my favorite) has made his opinion known "quietly."

To recap: Powell is disloyal because he has not disagreed publicly with the president, whose opinion is unknown. GOP tribal elders, on the other hand, are dutifully performing yeoman's service to the nation through their mutually irreconcilable op-ed pieces.

Powell is Secretary of State, the country's head diplomat. It's his job to make our relations with the rest of the world run as smoothly as possible. If it means 'speaking diplomatically,' (duh!) or not pounding one's fist on the table every time one opens one's mouth, if it means respecting other countries' sensibilities, then Powell is handling the situation perfectly. He is expected to keep in contact with other governments and to relay their communications to the president and congress. He's presumed to be the government's expert on foreign countries. His opinion on issues relating to them is supposed to matter. He's supposed to have one and to give the rest of the government the benefit of it. That's his job. If it weren't, we could dispense with having a State Department at all.

Kinsley closes with:

The Bush administration will decide in the next few weeks that the cause is worth the blood, or that it isn't. In either case, shouldn't someone resign?

My riposte: if Bush decides not to invade, should Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, and the rest of the hawks resign?

posted by David at 9/06/2002 10:55:00 AM ::

HOME

Links