Krauthammer fisks Kennedy — film at eleven!
In his latest Washington Post essay (link via Andrew Sullivan), Charles Krauthammer fisks Ted Kennedy’s statement that with regard to Operation Iraqi Freedom: This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a ...
In his latest Washington Post essay (link via Andrew Sullivan), Charles Krauthammer fisks Ted Kennedy's statement that with regard to Operation Iraqi Freedom:
In his latest Washington Post essay (link via Andrew Sullivan), Charles Krauthammer fisks Ted Kennedy’s statement that with regard to Operation Iraqi Freedom:
This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud.
To which Krauthammer responds:
There are a host of criticisms one might level at Bush’s decision to go to war — that it was arrogant, miscalculated, disdainful of allies, lacking in foresight, perhaps even contrary to just-war principles. I happen not to agree with these criticisms. But they can be reasonably and honorably made. What cannot be reasonably and honorably charged, however, is that Bush went to war for political advantage…. A year ago Bush was riding high. He decided nonetheless to put at risk the great political advantage he had gained as a successful post-9/11 leader — an advantage made obvious by the Republican gains in last year’s elections — to go after Saddam Hussein. Politically, the war promised nothing but downside. There was no great popular pressure to go to war. Indeed, millions took to the streets to demonstrate against it, both at home and abroad. Bush launched the war nonetheless, in spite of the political jeopardy to which it exposed him, for the simple reason that he believed, as did Tony Blair, that it had to be done. You can say he made a misjudgment. You can say he picked the wrong enemy. You can say almost anything about this war, but to say that he fought it for political advantage is absurd.
It’s worth comparing Iraq to the Clinton administration’s deecision to intervene in Bosnia in the summer of 1995. If you read Richard Holbrooke, Samantha Power or David Halberstam, it’s pretty clear that Clinton acted in Bosnia because he wanted to avoid the political fallout from either further massacres or having to rescue French and British peacekeepers, particularly during a presidential election year. Now, there were risks to intervention as well, and it’s to Clinton’s credit that he took the appropriate action. However, at the time, I don’t recall (correct me if I’m wrong) accusations that Clinton was acting in a political manner in his use of force, even though there was an element of this to his actions. And, as I pointed out before, the Republican leadership at the time supported Clinton’s actions. They didn’t accuse him of waging the war to win the election. P.S. If you check my aforementioned post, you’ll see that Thomas Friedman made Krauthammer’s point back in March with even greater force:
Anyone who thinks President Bush is doing this for political reasons is nuts. You could do this only if you really believed in it.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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