Thanks to by buddy Hank for asking me what I think about the way we behaved in respect to Libya. He set me to thinking, and here’s what I came up with.
We’re pretty much winding down our military role, and we’re on our way out now, and that’s good. As for why we went in the way we did in the first place, that’s another story. We abandoned all hope in diplomatic efforts, and chose instead to use gunboat diplomacy. Now that our role in the hostilities is diminishing, I think we need to add a strong, skillful, outgoing and adroit diplomat into the mix.
In retrospect, such a diplomat should have been the first responder in a crisis like this, rather than going in first with bullets and bombs, and then later seeing how we can deal with the people we’ve bombed, shot up and otherwise offended. That’s what we should have done. What we should do now, as we are planning to withdraw our military forces, is to replace the military effort, the gunboat diplomacy, with vigorous humanitarian and diplomatic efforts. We must not leave a vacuum behind, but we must fill that space with true and skillful peacemakers, not with more dogs of war.
But that’s been the problem all along, since before Reagan. It’s called gunboat diplomacy. And it’s worse now than it’s ever been. John Bolton?!! A diplomat?!! John Bolton is famous for his abrupt, rigid and hostile manner and his condescending, parental attitude. And a non-entity, a puppet like Condoleeza Rice??!! It’s no wonder we’ve had such little luck with diplomacy. We wouldn’t know a real diplomat if one bit us on the butt. That’s why the Conservative Rethuglicans hate the UN. It takes tact, sensitivity and empathy in order to act diplomatically and cooperatively on the world stage. Unfortunately, there is abundant, incontrovertible, undeniable and unmistakable evidence to show that the Conservative Rethuglican/Teabaggers in congress possess none of those qualities.
Ask yourself how a person who cannot even pronounce the word ‘compromise’ can possibly be expected to behave in a diplomatic way. Diplomacy requires good manners and agreeable behaviors. Genuine diplomats do not insist on their way or the highway, and certainly don’t respond with a shout of “hell no!” when they don’t get their way. If there is an Antidiplomat, as some say there is an Antichrist, John Boehner is the very living embodiment of the Antidiplomat. And he’s not alone. Consider the fool McCain, dancing and singing, “bomb bomb bomb – bombomb Eye-ran.” And he actually meant it!!
Also, there’s the whole Teabagger crowd, calling for total war on anything that gets in the way of their greed and selfishness. The whole Conservative Rethuglican/Teabagger mindset is against anything decent, conciliatory or diplomatic. Conservative Rethuglican/Teabaggers are inherently against peace and cooperation. They are naturally disposed toward conflict, contentiousness and violence. It shows in everything they do or say.
Therefore it stands to reason that Conservative Rethuglican/Teabaggers are not going to be good at getting along with others. That’s why Conservative Rethuglican/Teabaggers say that we never have good luck with negotiations and think they’re a waste of time. Anybody with their attitude and mindset is bound to be a total failure at sensitive, diplomatic matters.
Worse yet, this boorish attitude has seeped into every level of government. It is permeating our whole culture like an indelible purple dye. Consider the sudden unwillingness of some state governors to bargain collectively with workers. The governors say that it’s because, last time around, the workers forced them to negotiate and to accept a contract that they now claim is about to bankrupt their state. That’s a completely stupid thing to say.
What it really means is that the unions are much better at negotiating than some governors are. Tough! If those governors are such bad negotiators, then the states should get better negotiators instead of whining like a bunch of wimps because they couldn’t hold their own in an open and fair negotiation.
It’s not the fault of the unions that some governors are incompetent negotiators. Nobody is forced to accept anything in a sincere negotiation process. The governors accepted the deal as it was offered, and now they’re trying to worm their way out of it. No wonder there is so much interest lately in the recall process. All of which goes to show the scope and depth of the spread of the Antidiplomat mentality into our whole political and social fabric.
In short, in regard to the Libyan question, I think that our top ambassador must be on an equal footing with the top military officer or politician. Common sense must prevail over brute force in our future dealings with other countries. Gunboat diplomacy no longer works the way it used to. The world has grown too small and interdependent to allow rude international conduct. We must no longer send the military do the job that diplomacy should do. The military must never again be put in charge of determining our foreign policy, as it was during the Bush years.
I think President Obama understands this better than any president since President Clinton. But what can he do, when he is faced with the collective force of so many Conservative Rethuglican/Teabagger Antidiplomats, all screaming for perpetual war or total victory, all to be paid for, of course, by tax cuts for the rich?
Well, for starters, we can see what we can do with the recall option. It’s working in Wisconsin and, unlike Bachmann’s ‘second amendment option’, it’s far more intelligent and civilized, and it’s perfectly legal. If it works at the state level, it could also work at the federal level.
That’s what I think. Good of you to ask.