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Whatta Weekend

Just a few quick notes to cover a very big weekend.

1. Afghanistan Votes and yet hardly anyone notices.

What was a miracle last year is just another piece of quaint foreign news. Why? Because to most of the worlds media, “no violence = no story” which is a lesson for the coverage of Iraq. Afghanistan is a huge success for the Bush Administration and for the western world, and frankly for Afghanistan as well. For those who now say that Afghanistan was “good” and Iraq was “Bad” try to remember that they were also saying that Afghanistan was “bad” all the way from the start, through last year’s election. Two elections have occurred since the fall of the Taliban, so its time to chock this one up as a “win” for President Bush.

2. North Korea: Nuclear? Did we say “Nuclear”?
I’m not going to go jumping up and down on this one just yet, but it appears that North Korea has just tossed in the towel on their Nuclear Program. The six party talks that have been lambasted so much by the Democrats appear to have paid off. However, as long as a state of war exists between North Korea and ourselves, I say that words are one thing, deeds another. That being said, the whole concept of the six party talks seems to have paid off. I think the process may prove more important than the end result. If it all holds together, it will be a masterpiece in diplomacy. So far, it looks like another big win for President Bush and his policies.

3. Germany Votes: Schroeder doesn’t win, Merkel doesn’t lose.

What’s the big news here? For me its that the Left Party has doubled its support since 2002. Do they teach history in Germany? If you cant get kicked out of office when your country has the highest unemployment rate in 70 years, I don’t know what it will take. Does anyone besides me remember Paul Tsongas and a full roster of other Democrats banging the drum about how “great the German economy was” and how we should emulate them. You don’t hear that from the opposition any more. Will the European Union be a trivial pursuit question in 5 years? It sure looks like it to me.

Anyone remember the book “The rise and fall of the great powers”? The Author, Paul Kennedy predicted that Americas best days are behind her because of imperial overreach.

When did he write this? 1987. Well that worked out perfectly didn’t it?

I wonder how this book will fare in 10 years time.

Is that enough? Ok, let’s toss this one in.

4. Pakistan Leader Visits Israeli leaders.

The leader of a Muslim country addressed the American Jewish Congress last night in New York. If that doesn’t make your head spin, I don’t know what will. You need to understand that this sort of thing doesn’t happen every day. Presidents of Islamic countries don’t sit down for a chat with Jewish leaders.

When you hear people talk about “destabilizing the worlds political situation” as if it were automatically a bad thing, try to remember that all of this that happened this weekend is some form of “destabilization” and most of it is good. Germany will find its way, it may not be Merkel who ends up as chancellor, but Schroeder cannot look at this as a win, but thats what I like about the left, they always try to make "losing" into something of a virtue.

The score so far:

Afghanistan moves from a religious dictatorship to a western style secular government with a constitution and the enfranchisement of women with two peaceful elections.

Pakistan stops the proliferation of atomic materials and arrests its nuclear scientists.

Libya drops its atomic weapons development, and rats out their suppliers and begins moving towards open elections. Libyan investment and tourism quadruples overnight.

Lebanon is no longer occupied by Syria and has also had free elections.

Israel has given up on Gaza. The result is more Arab countries coming forward and giving Israel the diplomatic recognition it deserves.

Iraq is no longer a dictatorship, has gone through one election cycle has built a Constitutional process. Its new governing system has taken three ethnic and religious bodies and tied the together and despite all the worries and the outright attacks, no civil war has broken out in Iraq. Terrorists continue to be marginalized; Saddam goes on trail next month.

Whatta weekend. What a decade.

Posted @ September 19, 2005 12:56 AM | Current Affairs