December 10, 2007
Rusty's Huckabee Nightmare
Would that I had some words to comfort our blogmaster in his hour of distress. Alas, it is not to be. From NRO:
On Iran, Huckabee is at his most troubling. He accuses the administration of “proceeding down only one track with Iran: armed confrontation.” This is false, and the kind of rhetoric you’d expect from DailyKos bloggers, not a Republican presidential candidate. Huckabee thinks it has been a lack of diplomatic engagement that has soured our relations with Iran: “We haven’t had diplomatic relations with Iran in almost 30 years, my whole adult life and a lot of good it’s done. Putting this in human terms, all of us know that when we stop talking to a parent or a sibling or a friend, it’s impossible to accomplish anything, impossible to resolve differences and move the relationship forward. The same is true for countries.”H/T: Allah.This is the kernel of Huckabee’s foreign policy. He wants to anthropomorphize international relations and bring a Christian commitment to the Golden Rule to our affairs with other nations. As he told the Des Moines Register the other day, “You treat others the way you’d like to be treated. That’s to me the fundamental issue that has to be re-established in our dealings with other countries.”
This is deeply naïve. Countries aren’t people, and the world is more dangerous than a Sunday church social. Threats, deception, and — as a last resort — violence must play a role in international relations. Differences cannot always be worked out through sweet persuasion. A U.S. president who doesn’t realize this will repeat the experience of President Jimmy Carter at his most ineffectual.
Not only can I not provide any comfort to Rusty, I think I'm may be less sanguine about Huckabee than he is. In his post below, Rusty notes:
Rationally I know that a Huckabee presidency wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Certainly no worse than the compassionate conservatism of the George W. Bush presidency.The first part, I'll agree with. The list of total disasters we could put in the White House is pretty long. The fact, however, that Huckabee is not at the very bottom of that list gives me only limited comfort.Well, maybe worse since [Huckabee] thinks that waterboarding terrorists makes baby Jesus cry.
As to the second part of Rusty's comment, I'm not 100% sure I agree. I think there's a distinct possibility that Huckabee could be worse than Bush. I've not been a big fan of George W. Bush's foreign policy overall, but it seems to me that W's New Testament compassionate conservatism is tempered by a certain Old Testament view of the Middle East. The New Testament tells W to love your enemies, bless those who curse you, etc. The Old Testament tells W it's OK (perhaps even mandatory) to lay the smack down against the enemies of the Chosen People. I'm deeply concerned that Huckabee's worldview has a whole lot of the former and not nearly enough of the latter--which, in my mind, is a recipe for foreign policy disaster a la the aforementioned Jhimmi Carter.
UPDATE by RS: Let me rush to my own defense on the Bush/Huckabee comparison and add the next sentence:
Well, maybe worse since [Huckabee] thinks that waterboarding terrorists makes baby Jesus cry.Just wanted to clarify that.
UPDATE by RD:: Good catch. The third sentence changes the overall sentiment, and I missed that when I read it before. My mistake & apologies.
