Denial Is Not A River In Egypt….
…But it is the state Democrats are living in these days. The mantra, repeated endlessly, is that America has alienated allies everywhere; that only the Democrats can mend those broken ties. Charles Krauthammer begs to differ:
Like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, who insist that nothing of significance has changed in Iraq, the Democrats are living in what Bob Woodward would call a state of denial. Do they not notice anything?
France has a new president who is breaking not just with the anti-Americanism of the Chirac era but also with 50 years of Fifth Republic orthodoxy that defined French greatness as operating in counterpoise to America. Nicolas Sarkozy's trip last week to the United States was marked by a highly successful White House visit and a rousing speech to Congress in which he not only called America "the greatest nation in the world" (how many leaders of any country say that about another?) but also pledged solidarity with the United States on Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon, the Middle East and nuclear nonproliferation. This just a few months after he sent his foreign minister to Iraq to signal an openness to cooperation and an end to Chirac's reflexive obstructionism.
That's France. In Germany, Gerhard Schroeder is long gone, voted out of office and into a cozy retirement as Putin's concubine at Gazprom. His successor is the decidedly pro-American Angela Merkel, who concluded an unusually warm visit with Bush this week.
All this, beyond the ken of Democrats, is duly noted by new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who in an interview with Sky News on Sunday remarked on "the great change that is taking place," namely "that France and Germany and the European Union are also moving more closely with America."
Krauthammer points out that the reality of international alliances is a mutual banding together against threats. The resurgence of a belligerent Russia and an increasingly powerful China are part and parcel to the strengthening ties with allies. This is not a new thing. Part of the reason nations felt they could display some anti-Americanism was because there were few external threats. Now Russia, China and a soon-to-be nuclear armed Iran are changing the realpolitik once again. There is a reason why the nations are increasingly willing to turn to the United States:
It's classic balance-of-power theory: Weaker nations turn to the great outside power to help them balance a rising regional threat. Allies are not sentimental about their associations. It is not a matter of affection but of need — and of the great power's ability to deliver.
What's changed in the past year? Bush's dress and diction remain the same. But he did change generals — and counterinsurgency strategy — in Iraq. As a result, Iraq has gone from an apparently lost cause to a winnable one.
The Democrats may spend their days paddling up and down denial, but the reality is that trying to lose in Iraq is not a good strategy for rebuilding America's foreign relations.
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WHAT ‘Broken alliences”? (Another question the press isn’t asking) | BitsBlog — Friday, 16 November , 2007 @ 9:44 pm
By martian, Friday, 16 November , 2007 @ 1:13 pm
The Democrats are masters at completely ignoring any facts that don’t fit into their world view.