By PLS
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was in Iraq this past week. The surprising theme of his visit was the c-word. That’s compromise, which has been a very dirty word describing an almost obscene concept for the current regime in Washington.
Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds are having a hard time deciding on how to define federalism. They’re also at odds over the issue of whether to treat adult women as fully empowered citizens or as chattels, the latter justified as usual by resort to religious texts.
Rumsfeld was pushing the Bush notion of a united, democratic Iraq, the achievement of which, on paper anyway, is critical to the administration’s less and less popular project of reforming Iraq. The administration is worried that the constitution writers in Bagdad will end up by replacing the Saddam Hussein version of a unified Iraq with something closer to chaos than confederation.
So there was bullheaded Donald Rumsfeld, caught on videocam, scolding his recalcitrant clients: “It’s time for compromise. That’s what politics is all about.”
Compromise!!!?
Back home in Washington it has been business as usual for the Bush administration: No compromise, ever, about anything, with anyone.
Ever so sweetly, in her good cop version of the demand, Secretary of State Condi Rice told Jim Lehrer on PBS that it was important for the Senate to give John Bolton an “up or down vote” before recessing. Otherwise the US won't be prepared for an important UN conference this fall. Still smiling, she refused to confirm or deny the possibility that a recess appointment is in the works should the Senate fail to obey the President’s orders.
Rice conveniently ignored the fact that the US delegation to the UN would have had a new head ages ago, had the President nominated a less controvertial figure. Even well respected Republicans have expressed strong doubts about John Bolton’s qualifications for the job.
But the Administration never nominates an an easy to confirm, middle ground, compromise candidate when a polarizing nominee is available. (John G. Roberts should be considered a Trojan Horse until proven otherwise.) The President himself gets downright surly on the rare occasions when a handful of moderate Republicans joins, quite reluctantly, with a Democratic minority to force retraction.
As a result, the mood in Washington and throughout the country is sour, resentful, distrustful, less and less able to contemplate much less achieve the altruistic harmony that Rumsfeld was urging on the Iraqis.
This is an administration that prefers force to persuasion (or compromise) every time. War in Iraq. Steamrolling in Congress. Rumsfeld and the White House are pushing the majority Shiites to treat the minority Sunnis and Kurds with more consideration than the Bush administration gives Democrats and moderate Republicans.
Give me a break!