October 09, 2007
Policy-Making as Travesty
Go read this excellent FT reporting from Iran. Then try to chronicle in your own mind all the errors our Washington grandees are making in executing a coherent Iran policy. Frankly, given all the woefully basic foreign policy execution blunders these past years, I'm surprised more FSOs haven't resigned in protest. Certainly this seemingly endless parade of group-think and amateurism--not to mention the attendant costs to the U.S. national interest--now well rival Warren Christopher's gross inattentions to the horrors of Bosnia (the last time a large group of FSOs resigned in protest). Perhaps people's standards have lowered...
Posted by Gregory at October 9, 2007 12:21 AM
The war between the Administration and State goes back to at least the first Bush, doesn't it? So, perhaps by now, people at State are resigned to a somewhat insignificant role?
FSO's don't generally resign in droves because of stupid foreign policies -- they resign when our policies wind up with lots and lots of people dead. Since our Iran policy has been visibly brain-dead since "Axis of Evil", anyone inclined to resign over the stupidity of that policy is already long gone.
Plus people can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and the careerists will find a great deal of satisfaction watching the purging of the 'loyal Bushies' from State. Indeed, one of the problems that Bush faces is that there is no future in sycophancy toward Bush -- the future belongs to those who help to contain/prevent the potential damage that Bush can wreck on US foreign policy.
