Bully Politics

America is a nation that is always standing at crossroads; those are the perils of living in a democratic society. Each day we have to decide what kind of America we want, and through our voices, help to push America in that direction.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich spoke today at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. His speech was a straightforward attack on the Department of State, as led by Colin Powell. More than that, it was an attack on the notion of diplomacy in Modern America.

Diplomacy between two nations or individuals involves an assumption of equality on some level. For example an employer and an employee negotiate a salary based on fulfilling both of their needs. Even though the employer will be allowed to direct the employee after hired, the employer respects the employees right to seek the best possible job possible. Relations between nations are similar; we obviously can't argue that other nations are our equals economically or militarily, but each nation has an equal right to exist and to seek its own destiny (unless it becomes a threat to other nations).

Newt Gingrich and others in the Defense Department do not see the need to respect this equality. Instead, they envision a world in which the United States tells other nations what to do, and they either do it or suffer consequences. Call it the "Bully" principle of foreign affairs. Not only are we going to run the world to suit ourselves (as, to be frank, we largely already do), even the pretense that we respect other nations is over.

In fact, with Donald Rumsfeld's Department of Defense we may not even need a Department of State. Much of the evidence and rational for invading Syria has come from Secretary Rumsfeld, and just this week, the UK Telegraph revealed that the Department of Defense was pushing diplomatically for the removal of Kim Jong Il from North Korea.

One snag in our new policy, however. It turns out the rest of the world doesn't like being told what to do. We've already soured relations with much of Europe and the Middle East. Further belligerence towards Syria or North Korea will sour relations further. What we need here is more diplomacy, not less.

In the 1949, the United States "lost" China to Communism. Although China's fall was clearly due to internal forces, and beyond the control of any state department diplomat; the incident led to a cleansing of the State Department. We cleaned it out. And thus when Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson (and their cabinets) needed information and advice on Vietnam, there was nobody there. Will this new purge of "career" diplomats be any more successful?

This is a democracy, and if you don't want "bully" diplomacy to become the norm, now is the time to make your voices heard.