Worse than Carter

Why do we make Jimmy Carter our standard of naivete and folly in foreign policy? Was Carter ever as foolish and vain as our current secretary of state? The New York Times reports:

RAMALLAH, West Bank—Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, refused Tuesday to publicly commit to restarting suspended talks with Israel, frustrating Bush administration officials who contended that he was giving Hamas, the militant Islamist organization, a tactical victory by allowing it to hijack Arab-Israeli peace negotiations….

Standing together after two hours of meetings, Mr. Abbas and Ms. Rice appeared to speak at cross-purposes. They met at the Palestinian Authority compound here two days after Mr. Abbas suspended Palestinian-Israeli talks in response to an Israeli military assault aimed at silencing Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza.

Even in the midst of serious fighting between Israel and Hamas which governs part of the Palestinian territories, Rice is talking with the Palestinian leader trying to restart preliminary Israel-Palestine “peace” talks which would lead to talks which would lead to talks. This is what she spends most of her time doing as secretary of state, pursuing this destructive chimera. And look at her picture with Abbas. Even in a half-lit photo, her love of herself that never leaves her is evident. That’s why she never has to think about what she’s doing. The current guiding principle of U.S. foreign policy is a female vanity that knows no bounds.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 05, 2008 06:09 AM | Send