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A SENSE OF ASIA

Condeleezza Rice as whirling dervish


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By Sol Sanders
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

Sol W. Sanders

December 2, 2005

Whirling Dervish [wurl-ing dur-vish] n. 1. A mystical dancer who stands between the material and cosmic worlds. On December 17, Whirling Dervishes across the world celebrate the birth of Jelaluddin Mevlana Rumi, a mystic poet, who founded their Islamic order.

The chattering classes [Inside the beltway Chapter] in Washington have long believed Gen. Powell’s greatest sin during his tenure as secretary of state was his refusal to traipse with abandon around the world as his predecessors did. Never mind the fundamental problem his gut instincts ran counter to his President’s.

Apparently, in riposte, Sec. Rice is on a constant flight plan, hardly touching ground in Washington. It leads to what we news business oldtimers used to call “parachuting in”: a New York or Washington TV VIP would suddenly drop in on us in Saigon, do a “stand-up” in front of the Caravelle Hotel, pontificating on what was really happening in Vietnam, then dart off for more elegant climes where they would swap war stories. Some even went so far as to put on fatigues [instead of the smart safari jackets] and go out looking for the enemy. Never mind it could discombobulate a whole division, take a company off line to give him security.

The net effect was at best to obscure real issues, if not, as we learned in full detail after Saigon fell in 1975, pass on material prepared by agents for the North acting as local “stringers”.

Rice’s touchdowns are not as colorful. Diplomats are not usually a terribly photogenic lot, our secretary of state being the exception. But there are signs Rice’s stopovers for “photo opportunities” and in pursuit of Gordian Knot solutions to convoluted problems is taking their toll.

Case in point: Picking up where the ill-fated Kissinger Shuttle Diplomacy left off, Rice burned the candle at both ends during a long night to break the logjam after the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Tying up the Gaza package was high priority. Israeli Prime Minister Sharon had gambled the withdrawal would pay off for Israeli security by reducing his forces’ exposure and would “prove” to “world opinion” Jerusalem seeks peace.

Trouble was Egyptian President Mubarrak had originally signed on to monitor his border with Gaza’s to halt the flow of weapons to terrorists, but reneged. Could be Cairo had no alternative, given its corruption and its failure to halt terrorism in the relatively isolated Sinai resorts. Then there was the growing noise of the Islamicists as Mubarrak under U.S. pressure opened his elections [slightly] to competition.

Rice threw her energy and – for the Israelis as much as the Americans – her prestige into the breach. She came up with the European Union lending a hand monitoring and blocking Gaza from becoming a new base for terrorism against Israel, and eventually, the world. Hello? The EU?. These are the same people who have refused to recognize terrorists operating against Israel as part of the worldwide menace. And they are the people who have funded Palestinian programs [along with the UN relief organizations], training young Palestinians in hate campaigns, preparing them as suicide bombers.

The tipoff Rice was over her depth, all her Arabists’ counseling in the Department notwithstanding, was the announcement about “reopening a door for the Palestinians to the world”. Someone forgot Egyptian-occupied Gaza and Jordan-occupied “West Bank” [“west bank” because is is on the west bank from Jordan] had never been “open to the world” for the Palestinians. Neither the Egyptians nor the Jordanians nor any one else in the Islamic world had pushed the Palestinian state until these areas came under Israeli Occupation after the 1967 war. After all it was the unanimous Arab world which had rejected the UN partition plan of 1948 intending a two-state solution.

Now we get the Secretary wading into the nastiness of the torture debate. The tracking

and backtracking of her statements on how, when and where the U.S. has turned over terrorists or terrorist suspects to our allies for intensive questioning has only made a difficult situation worse. The Secretary might better have stayed home, coordinated her answers with the Pentagon and CIA, and helped fight the demagoguery on Capitol Hill about the whole issue. She could have called up her troops to explain why it is Pakistani or Jordanian or Egyptian or Morrocan – or maybe even Saudi -- intelligence knows the difference between Baluch, Pushtoon, Punjabi, Yemeni, Shi’a, Sundanese, Berber, etc., suspects among the terrorists, why with their dossiers, more could be learned than by English lit majors at CIA.

It’s nice to have an articulate, comely, chief of our diplomatic service taking the stage around the world, But come home to Poppa, please, Mme. Secretary. Your greatest asset has always been your knowledge and rapport with the President. Digital revolution or no digital revolution, it’s exploited better at 1600 Pennsylvania. And, as this Administration knows all too well, while the Secretary is away, the mice will play down in Foggy Bottom.

Sol W. Sanders, (solsanders@comcast.net), is an Asian specialist with more than 25 years in the region, and a former correspondent for Business Week, U.S. News & World Report and United Press International. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.

December 9, 2005

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