Lone Wolf?
Roundtable: Will the U.S. Be Able to Sway Reluctant Nations on Iraq?
Analysis
ABCNews
Feb. 16 -- Where is the United States headed in its confrontation with Iraq? And is the nation prepared to act alone if the allies continue to go separate ways?
Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria said on ABCNEWS' This Week 's roundtable that the diplomatic two-step now occurring among the allied nations is a "kabuki theatre."
"It's about the United States, and every country is now trying to decide not where we stand on Iraq -- that's a minor tactical issue -- but where do we stand with respect to what we do about the United States?" said Zakaria. "The French decision, unwisely in my view, has been that we are going to try to check American power. But ultimately what they're doing is they're weakening the United Nations Security Council, they're weakening NATO, they're weakening international institutions all to protect Saddam Hussein."
ABCNEWS' Michel Martin said she does not see much room for a change of opinions among the disputing nations when it comes to Iraq.
"I'm struck by the fact that this has taken on the quality of a theological dispute in that what you know, or the facts, are already evaluated in light of what you already believe," she said. "And that suggests that the president is going to have to forego multilateral cooperation here because it doesn't appear that opinion is moveable beyond this point."
Time on Iraq's Side
Zakaria agreed it does not seem time will make a difference in the discussion.
"I don't know that waiting around for another month or a month and a half is better," said Zakaria. "It's not that you're going to increase international legitimacy at that point."
ABCNEWS' George Will said that, according to the French, inspections cannot fail.
"If they find something, they say, 'We found something, they're working,'" Will said. "If they don't find something they say, 'Wonderful, we've confirmed there's nothing to find.' So it's a closed logical circle for the French. I do believe that time is not on the administration's side but I don't think they're setting their clock by world opinion."
'Braggadocio...Unilateralism'
Zakaria said that as someone who favors military action in Iraq, he is uneasy about the administration's diplomacy, "partly because of two years of braggadocio, rhetoric, unilateralism."
Said Zakaria, "Powell has been trying [to smooth the diplomatic waves] but most of the time he has been spending his time cleaning up after Don Rumsfeld. ... Every time Rumsfeld opens his mouth, I think, 'There goes another ally.'"
Will said Rumsfeld's utterances have done little to change the situation as we find it today.
"I doubt very much that there would have been 10 fewer people in the streets yesterday if Don Rumsfeld had minded his manners more," said Will. "That's not what this was about."
Will added that Secretary Powell's education has been a costly one and the positions of Rumsfeld and Cheney "have been largely vindicated." As for building an international coalition for action against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Zakaria argued that it "was a fantasy to believe ? as Rumsfeld and Cheney did four months ago, that you could do this without the world. You need Turkey, you need Jordan, you need Kuwait, you need Qatar."
Answered Will, "There has never been the slightest chance that we were going to do it by ourselves. We were going to have those countries."
Anti-Terror 'Mistakes?'
As for terror alerts, Martin argued that the administration has work to do in preparing the nation for heightened security status.
"Managing people's emotions is a significant part of leadership and judging by the reaction you have to realize that they made a significant amount of mistakes" with the recent roll-out of the orange alert, she said.
Zakaria said he is not so interested in hearing about what people should do in case of emergency.
"What I am really much more interested in hearing from Tom Ridge about is what he is doing," said Zakaria. "And all evidence suggests is that we actually have not that done that good a job on preparing and homeland security."
Will answered Zakaria by asking, "How do you improve on zero casualties since 9-11?"
"Surely the great staring fact is that 18 months later there has been no other successful attack and it is the nature of this business of the FBI and the Coast Guard and all the rest ... that their successes cannot be publicized," said Will.
Zakaria finished by noting the administration has not properly funded homeland security initiatives.
Referring to the coast guard, as well as local first responder authorities, Zakaria said, "These agencies have requested funding. [The Brookings Institution] came out last month with a study that said you need an additional [$7 to $9 billion] ... to properly defend the homeland. These are statistics on which the experts agree and yet between Congress and the administration funding is not there." |
