Scoring Points and Still Failing
This observation on the State Department is dead-on.
At the State Department, success isn’t measured by ends, but means. Because the ends are never positive. The point is to fail with grace, humility, and in the convivial company of other failures around the globe. The memoirs of lifetime negotiators are full of false soul searching passages about their best efforts not being good enough to sway their stubborn intimates.
The context here is that because Condozleeza Rice got our squabbling allies to work together for a few months, we should consider our work with Iran a success. Never mind the nukes the maniacs who rule the country are still trying to build.
One of the failures of the Bush administration was not in clearing the most stubborn realpolitik holdouts out of Foggy Bottom. The real power of the government lies not in the elected officials in the Executive Branch but in the hordes of bureaucrats who steer the way government policy is implemented.
Other Posts of Interest:
- Ugh. You Call That an Interview?
- Condoleeza Rice Sounds Like A Carter-Era Throwback
- Powell and Obama, Not as Different as All That
Category: Alliances and Allies, Fighting the Islamists, Our Foreign Policy
