Scalded Scowcroft
Jonathan Gurwitz of the San Antonio Express-News has written a scalding indictment of Brent Scowcroft’s worldview. Here’s the premise:
Scowcroft recounts a discussion he had with Rice in which she argued against five decades of U.S. policy that supported autocratic regimes in the Middle East. “But we’ve had 50 years of peace,” Scowcroft gloatingly and erroneously noted.
Here’s the most stinging indictment in my opinion:
Let’s briefly recount the harmonious deportment of the region during this period.
There were, of course, the Arab-Israeli wars during these 50 years of “peace” in 1956, 1967, 1973 and 1982 and the ongoing war against the Jewish state by terrorist groups. But to oblige the apologists of tyranny who maintain Israel is an artificial and illegitimate creation of colonial powers, we’ll discount these conflicts and, by a similar measure, the Algerian and Afghan civil wars.
We can even set aside the decades of hijackings of Western commercial aircraft, assassinations of Western diplomats and attacks on Western citizens who ventured to the Middle East. Include, for these purposes, the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, the bombings of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, the attack on the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000.
I’ll simply ask, “Does this sound like peace to you?” I didn’t think so.
Do the right thing and read the entire article. I’m certain that you’ll find it as compelling as I did because it’s a detailed refutation to Gen. Scowcroft.
Cross-posted at Let Freedom Ring