MISS CONGENIALITY:

Repairing the World (THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, March 16, 2003, NY Times)

Some days, you pick up the newspaper and you don't know whether to laugh or cry. Let's see, the prime minister of Serbia just got shot, and if that doesn't seem like a bad omen then you missed the class on World War I. Our strongest ally for war in Iraq is Bulgaria - a country I've always had a soft spot for, because it protected its Jews during World War II, but a country that's been on the losing side of every war in the last 100 years. Congress is renaming French fries "freedom fries." George Bush has managed to lose a global popularity contest to Saddam Hussein, and he's looking to build diplomatic support in Europe by flying to the Azores, a remote archipelago in the Atlantic, to persuade the persuaded leaders of Britain and Spain to stand firm with him. I guess the North Pole wasn't available. I've been to the Azores. It was with Secretary of State James Baker on, as I recall, one of his seven trips around the world to build support for Gulf War I. Mr. Baker used the Azores to refuel.

Having said all that, I am glad Mr. Bush is meeting with Tony Blair. In fact, I wish he would turn over leadership on the whole Iraq crisis to him. Mr. Blair has an international vision that Mr. Bush sorely needs. "President Bush should be in charge of marshaling the power for this war," says the Middle East expert Stephen P. Cohen, "and Tony Blair should be in charge of the vision for which that power should be applied."

Sometimes you have to wonder how America, which would rather be liked than be right, ever managed to win three world wars. Mr. Friedman apparently wants us to be more "popular" than Saddam and wants to leave the tough choices about when and how to apply our enormous power to someone else. Neither is a serious position but both fairly accurately reflect a Clintonesque foreign policy, which is part of how we got in this mess. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 16, 2003 6:44 AM