After Powell
Colin Powell gave his farewell address to members of the State Department this past week, the day after Condoleeza Rice endured the haughty posturing of Democratic Senators during her confirmation hearing. Powell’s departure leaves in his wake a State Department still chuck full of Libs’ who believe that the United States’s interest is not their number one priority.
Powell’s farewell remarks are encouraging. Particularly, he lauds the efforts of the State Department in reacting to 9/11 and bringing freedom to Afghanistan and Iraq. He even called the regimes of Hussein and Taliban “despotic.” What courage!
However, Powell’s speech wanders in the internationalist mire that places our interests beneath other nations:
“We have not shrunk from the challenges. We are focusing on Iran and North Korea and trying to persuade them that there is a better way. We put the spotlight on these kinds of problems. We solved the problem in Libya of weapons of mass destruction. We hope other nations that are thinking in those terms will come to the same conclusion that the Libyans did.”
9/11 forced our Nation to change its posture toward other countries of our world. We must wage a preemptive battle against the religous terriorists who seek to destroy us. Preemption is not persuasion, unless we say: Hey North Korea, you know, if you don’t get rid of your nuclear ambitions, we’re going to wipe you off the face of the planet. But, I have a feeling that this level of persuasion is not what Powell is refering to when he spoke “persuasion” as retiring Secretary of State. Powell meant diplomacy, the hobnobing with dictators and their minions in hopes that they’ll wake up one day and say “Geez, I should dismantle my nuclear and biological weapons programs because that American from the Department of State is such a nice guy/gal.” This form of diplomacy might work for stable countries, but it doesn’t work with psychopaths (e.g., President of North Korea) and religious fanatics.
Libya learned from what our military did in Afghanistan and Iraq–regime change. Libya is fearful of our military might, and desires to remain relatively alone in the Middle East. That’s why Libya discontinued their weapons programs, not because of hobnobing between Kadhafi and Powell.
Hopefully Condi chooses to persuade the Axis of Evil–not only via skillful and strategic argument, but with an AK-47 . . . made in America.