Susan Rice and the retreat of American power
February 26, 2014 RICHARD COHEN
Susan Rice ought to stay off Meet the Press. The last time she was on, she misrepresented what led to the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya. On Sunday she was back, this time misrepresenting critics of the Obama administrations Syria policy. Last time her misrepresentation was unintentional. This time it wasnt. I prefer it, though, when she doesnt know what shes talking about.
In a frustrating colloquy with host David Gregory, Rice initially said all the right things about Syria. She called the war there horrific, which indeed it is. She said it had spilled over and infused the neighboring states, which indeed it has. And she said the United States had every interest in trying to bring this conflict to a conclusion. Yes. Yes, indeed.
But if the alternative here is to intervene with American boots on the ground, as some have argued, I think that the judgment the United States has made and the president of the United States has made is that is not in the United States interests, she continued.
Gregory, usually as alert and twitchy as a squirrel, flat-lined. He did not ask Rice who, precisely, advocated boots on the ground. He did not ask her to name just one prominent critic or to wonder why this is the alternative when there are so many others. He just pushed on, leaving this straw man to crinkle and crackle under the hot TV lights and allowing Rice, who is the presidents national security adviser, to get away with rebutting an argument that has not been made. She did, though, exhibit an administration mind-set - all or nothing - that, in practice, amounts to nothing.
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Economically the world grows closer together. Simultaneously, the world fragments and empires crumble. Believe it or not, these were the conditions that preceded World War I when nationalism burst all constraints. Four empires - the Russian, the German, the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman - collapsed and the world hurtled toward an Armageddon that ended only with Hitler putting a pistol to his head and the Enola Gay obliterating Hiroshima.
I predict nothing like that this time around, but the rise of nationalism and the retreat of American power have been seen before. A familiar figure appeared in Kiev and identified himself to the New York Times as Nikolo. Nationalism is what I believe, he proclaimed. The nation is my religion. Susan Rice should meet him. His boots are already on the ground. Washington Post
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