Richard Perle is in high dudgeon over the antics of Condoleeza Rice (via the Op-ed page of Sunday’s Washington Post). How dare she get President Bush to back off his plans to attack Iran! How dare she actually suggest giving diplomacy a chance. The nerve of some people!
Why Did Bush Blink on Iran? (Ask Condi)
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran knows what he wants: nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them; suppression of freedom at home and the spread of terrorism abroad; and the “shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the liberal democratic systems.”
President Bush, too, knows what he wants: an irreversible end to Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the “expansion of freedom in all the world” and victory in the war on terrorism.
The State Department and its European counterparts know what they want: negotiations.[…]
… And now, on May 31, the administration offered to join talks with Iran on its nuclear program.
How is it that Bush, who vowed that on his watch “the worst weapons will not fall into the worst hands,” has chosen to beat such an ignominious retreat?
You should read the whole thing. Perle is literally frothing at the mouth as he inveighs against Bush’s “weakness” (his word) on Iran, and by implication the success of Condoleeza Rice in getting the President to actually try diplomacy, rather than just talk about it.
(cont. below)
It’s quite amusing in a schandenfreude kind of way. He even brings up Ronald Reagan’s “economic and moral assault” on the Soviet Union by way of comparison, conveniently forgetting that it was Reagan’s acceptance of the olive branch offered by Gorbachev, and his willingness to negotiate a reduction in nuclear weapons with the “Evil Empire,” that was the true defining moment of Reagan’s presidency.
It’s not surprising the Perle is upset, nor is it surprising that the “liberal” Washington Post has given him precious space on its Op-ed page to rant and rage against Condi’s success. No, what’s truly surprising is that someone within this administration has set Perle loose, and is employing him as their attack dog against the Secretary of State.
I can only assume that Cheney and/or Rumsfeld are using Perle as their stalking horse to call into question the diplomatic strategy Ms. Rice and the State Department have managed to get the Dunce-in-Chief to adopt regarding Iran’s nuclear program. For the first time in this Presidency someone other than the Neocon warmongers’ cabal has the upper hand with respect to foreign policy, and they don’t like it one bit.
Secretary Rice, possibly with the support of some military leaders, must have the upper hand for the moment with respect to how we should deal with Iran. Otherwise why would Perle have been let off his leash to blast President Bush so vociferously? This is the type of invective they usually reserve for Democrats, like John Kerry or Wes Clark, or their biggest bogeywoman of all, Hillary.
Perle indulges in so much hand wringing about his poor expatriate Iranian buddies being deprived of their chance to replicate Adnan Chalabi’s success in Iraq, that I literally laughed out loud at his crocodile tears. I confess: it is a pleasure watching them fume and sputter in impotent rage because, for a change, Bush took away the keys to the family car from them and handed them to Condi.
Does this mean we are out of the woods regarding an attack on Iran? Hardly. Condi probably only has a limited time to make some progress with Iran (i.e., something Karl Rove can trumpet as a success during the Fall campaign) before Cheney and Rummy are given another chance to implement their dreams of regime change. At a minimum, she must succeed in getting Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment before the end of August. If that doesn’t happen, all bets are off, and no doubt Rice will be kicked ignominiously to the curb. If that happens, expect the war talk with Iran to be ratcheted up to a fever pitch again, no matter how reluctant the Generals at the Pentagon are to actually carry out another aerial blitzkrieg against an oil rich state in the Middle East.
In the meantime, though let’s pray for Ms. Rice and her European allies to succeed (I know, hard to believe I wrote those words, isn’t it?), and sit back and enjoy the discomfiture of the Neocons like Mr. Perle. It may not last, but damn if it doesn’t feel good watching them bitch and moan about Bush for a change.
