BARRED: THE SEQUEL
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James Joyner | Thursday, December 11, 2003 |
How’s this for editorializing in the news section: Diplomacy: Bush Seeks Help of Allies Barred From Iraq Deals. Heh.
Accurate, though:
President Bush found himself in the awkward position on Wednesday of calling the leaders of France, Germany and Russia to ask them to forgive Iraq’s debts, just a day after the Pentagon excluded those countries and others from $18 billion in American-financed Iraqi reconstruction projects.White House officials were fuming about the timing and the tone of the Pentagon’s directive, even while conceding that they had approved the Pentagon policy of limiting contracts to 63 countries that have given the United States political or military aid in Iraq.
Many countries excluded from the list, including close allies like Canada, reacted angrily on Wednesday to the Pentagon action. They were incensed, in part, by the Pentagon’s explanation in a memorandum that the restrictions were required “for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States.”
I understand the arguments for the policy (den Beste summarizes nicely, for example) and rather like it on a visceral level. But, damn, it is stupid. And, if we were actually planning to try to get these countries to commit to our policy agenda on debt relief and then announce we were shutting them out in the reconstruction contract bids, any principled rationale for the policy goes up in smoke. It would be rather like taking money from the steel industry hours before announcing that we’re lifting the protective tariffs on steel–and we’d never do something like that.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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How many HUNDRESD OF BILLIONS does Russia owe us in debt today? How many lives does France owe us for their liberty? All these countries owe us, and owe us big. And if their noses are out of joint since we said they couldn't bid on contracts, tough. There are countries who have dead people (Japan, Korea, lots) and I believe deserve to be in the front of the line in front of these losers.
If they want to play hardball on Iraqi loans, let's go to the mat, boys. Call in the Russian debt and watch their economy go into tailspin. Let's call France's support of their various industries like airplanes what it is - protectionism - and start a trade war (no more Airbus deliveries to any U.S. airlines). There's a lot more we could do.
Scoreboard! Name a historical event where we bent
over and they didn't screw us. If you don't discipline
children, they behave like animals. Europe and Russia
are behaving like animals because Bush I and Clinton
didn't discipline them. Is it dubyas fault if they require
a little spanking?
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