<put the word out to your pre-Iraq-dementia allies that you are again open to reasonable discourse>
Wishful thinking.
Generally, a person or a nation is only willing to change a basic rule, when it stops working. And, if they are proud and powerful, it takes a lot to convince them that it isn't working. Until then, they just keep trying more and more of the same.
Those in power in the U.S. are very proud, very powerful, and firmly committed to a policy of unilateralism. Bush is hearing voices, God whispering in his ear, telling him which governments to overthrow. For him, the only point of talking to anyone, is to issue orders. They will keep doing this, even when it doesn't work, even when it makes achieving their goals more difficult, even when the whole world tells them it isn't working. They will keep doing it, until the point of total disaster. A small failure, a little setback, that won't change any minds in Washington. They aren't, yet, even to the point of recognizing what a deep hole they are digging themselves into. They think they are winning, now. They think Iraq and Afghanistan were victories.
It's gonna get a lot uglier. |
