Originally published on the CGS blog on October 9, 2007.
File Rosa Brooks’ recent LA Times op-ed, “This just in: “diplomacy works,” under “Diplomacy” and “Satire”.
Money “Quote”:
White House insiders hint that not everyone is equally delighted by Hill’s rediscovery of diplomacy. A senior aide to Vice President Dick Cheney was sharply critical: “Don’t you think there’s a reason our office has worked so hard to suppress knowledge of the art of diplomacy? In the wrong hands, diplomacy is flat-out dangerous. Imagine what would happen if all our enemies started using it!”
Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton concurred: “You let these State Department dipsticks use diplomacy, even just for a few weeks, and the next thing you know they’re promising to take North Korea off the list of terrorism sponsors in exchange for some piddling nuclear concessions. Keep that kind of thing up and there won’t be anyone left in the ‘axis of evil.’ Then who are we supposed to bomb?”
Details on how diplomacy works remain scant. When asked if diplomacy requires participants to sing “Kumbaya,” play trust games or share stories of their most embarrassing moments, Hill refused to comment, though he did note that discussing the Iraq war was “a very effective icebreaker with the North Koreans because it’s definitely embarrassing for us. Getting those painful feelings on the table helped encourage Kim Jong Il to open up about some of his own personal issues, and that’s when we really started seeing progress in the nuclear negotiations.”
The Onion has nothing on Rosa’s brand of biting satire! Unfortunately what makes Rosa’s op-ed so very funny also makes it so very tragic…
