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Jewish World Review August 2, 2001 / 13 Menachem-Av, 5761
Michael Ledeen
A few years back German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, an
unusually outspoken Social Democrat, came to Washington
to implore the likes of Kissinger and Haig to "kill the SALT II
Treaty," and, when the Americans asked if he would support
them in this effort, chuckled and said, "Of course not. But you
must do it." If we had passed the treaty, we would have
received public accolades from the Europeans, but private
frustration. I rather suspect that the Kyoto Treaty is the same
story; the Europeans know as well as anyone in Washington
that the "science" on global warming is highly suspect, and I
doubt they want to burden their groaning economies with yet
more fiscal demands. But it's unfashionable to speak the truth
on this matter, even though the "greens" are in fairly bad odor
nowadays in most European countries, and have even
vanished from the party list in Italy. Radical environmentalism
isn't a great force over there, either. Surely nobody believes
that the government of France - which produces more
nuclear-generated electrical power than any other country in
the world - is really in favor of shutting down nuclear-power
plants in favor of solar panels and windmills. But they will
never say this in public.
Daschle simply doesn't know what he's talking about; he's
just another in a long list of earnest Americans from the back
woods and the Great Plains who assume that "people are
people," the world over. No American statesman could get
away with the blatant doublespeak the Europeans favor, but
no serious student of the world would assume that European
leaders really mean what they say. If Daschle were
concerned to advance the national interest instead of scoring
debating points against our president, he'd learn something
about diplomacy.
Then there's the latest in a growing stream of public
embarrassments from Abe Foxman, the head of the
Anti-Defamation League. There really isn't enough
anti-Semitism in America nowadays to justify big fundraising
drives and big staffs, and Foxman has been very
entrepreneurial about concocting "threats" for the ADL to
thwart. His latest effort to attract public attention was a
denunciation of the Israeli government for monitoring the
reportage of Middle East events, and criticizing news
agencies when the Israelis thought the newsies had got it
wrong. "Undemocratic," thunders Foxman. Not. It's properly
called "doing your job." Are the Israelis - or any other
responsible government - supposed to maintain a dignified
silence when their leaders are slandered by, say, the BBC?
On the contrary, citizens should expect their leaders to
expose press bias on every occasion, and to fight for the
truth.
I can't help suspecting that Foxman's laughable critique is
linked to the Democrats' efforts to slime Otto Reich and John
Negroponte, nominated for top diplomatic jobs. Both men
were exceedingly effective at advancing President Reagan's
Central American policy. Negroponte was American
ambassador in Honduras, and Reich ran a tiny public
outreach office in State that greatly annoyed the Left, because
he was very good at it. He was later a first-class ambassador
to Venezuela.
These terrific men are under attack precisely because they
performed extraordinarily well under exceedingly difficult
circumstances at the great turning point in the second half of
the 20th century. The defeat of Communism in Central
America was deadly to the messianic vision of the men in the
Kremlin, and to their many supporters and fellow travelers
around the world, because it demonstrated that history was
NOT on their side. The tide of events was running in favor of
the democratic revolution, and Otto Reich and John
Negroponte were among its most effective advocates.
Unfortunately, the American left has still not forgiven the
Reagan administration for destroying the Soviet Empire, and
the Senate Leftists are going all-out to make Reich and
Negroponte pay for their brave virtue. Having lost the
ideological battle, the Left has only one weapon: The politics
of personal destruction, and the lame suggestions of the likes
of Foxman and Daschle that our leaders should not try to
advance our interests, but surrender to the baseless demands
of political correctness.
The chief spear-carrier for the senatorial leftists is Christopher
Dodd of Connecticut, a man who performed so shamefully in
the 1980s that one would expect him to avoid any review of
those years. While Reich and Negroponte were fighting our
country's enemies, Dodd was out dancing with them. Dodd
hit the chic nightclubs with radicals like Bianca Jaggar, and
cavorted with Daniel Ortega, the Communist dictator of
Nicaragua.
If we had a political class worthy of the name, people like
Dodd would be publicly excoriated, and Reich and
Negroponte would get medals. But the Democrats, whose
leaders either know nothing about the workings of the real
world or vengefully persecute those who exposed their folly,
turn common sense on its head and demand the rejection of
the very people who have proven their ability to
07/31/01: Consulting a legendary counterspy about Chandra and Condit, cont'd
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