For Bush, It’s September 10 Again

Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006 11:18 am by Neal

Notice how the Bush administration’s carrot-dangling to the madman in Iran and even to Nasrallah of Hezbollah smells a lot like the pre-9/11 mentality? Mark Steyn has noticed also.

If you go back to September 2001, it’s amazing how much the administration made happen in just a short space of time: For example, within days it had secured agreement with the Russians on using military bases in former Soviet Central Asia for intervention in Afghanistan. That, too, must have been quite a phone call. Moscow surely knew that any successful Afghan expedition would only cast their own failures there in an even worse light — especially if the Americans did it out of the Russians’ old bases. And yet it happened.

Five years on, the United States seems to be back in the quagmire of perpetual interminable U.N.-brokered EU-led multilateral dithering, on Iran and much else. The administration that turned Musharraf in nothing flat now offers carrots to Ahmadinejad. After the Taliban fell, the region’s autocrats and dictators wondered: Who’s next? Now they figure it’s a pretty safe bet that nobody is.

What’s the difference between September 2001 and now? It’s not that anyone “liked” America or that, as the Democrats like to suggest, the country had the world’s “sympathy.” Pakistani generals and the Kremlin don’t cave to your demands because they “sympathize.” They go along because you’ve succeeded in impressing upon them that they’ve no choice. Musharraf and Co. weren’t scared by America’s power but by the fact that America, in the rubble of 9/11, had belatedly found the will to use that power. It is notionally at least as powerful today, but in terms of will we’re back to Sept. 10: Nobody thinks America is prepared to use its power. And so Nasrallah and Ahmadinejad and wannabe “strong horses” like Baby Assad cock their snooks with impunity.

You don’t want to miss this one.

Oh, and if the President wants his party to remain in control after the November elections, he would be well served to do two things: Get tough with Iran and broker a bill with the Republican-controlled House and Senate to lock-down our borders. What’s he waiting for?

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