The American Spectator

p> MODERN-DAY McCLELLAN br> Re: Jed Babbin’s Fighting for a Ticket on the Titanic : /p> p>Thwap! Take that, Zinni. Stuff a sock in it and say goodnight. br> — Cara Lyons Lege br> Frisco, Texas /p>

Jed is absolutely correct. It is amazing how many Cold Warriors have opted to switch allegiances if not parties. Sometimes I really wonder if the end of the Cold War was just as traumatic on our diplomats and military intellectuals as it was on the Eastern Block. 911 crushed the ideas and strategies that formed the foundation for so many careers. As Jed noted, General Zinni invested much time and effort into this stability strategy during the Clinton Administration. He, like others saw the Middle East as some grand chessboard. Stability must be maintained through complex diplomacy. Saddam’s biggest sin in 1990 wasn’t an illegal invasion. His biggest sin was rocking the boat — disrupting the “balance.” Removing Saddam ruined everything. Years of diplomacy perished in 2003. How rude of Bush.

p>I imagine many people like Zinni or Scowcroft even saw the Taliban as a useful pawn on the chessboard of Middle East diplomacy. If some enlightened public servant could reach out and understand the language, culture, and history of the Taliban, then perhaps they could be put to some use. This kind of stability required a special knowledge, as well as the ability to overlook rape rooms, public torture, and genocide. These men had an almost cultic attachment to this form of foreign policy Gnosticism. Their model wasn’t John Foster Dulles but Prince Metternich. Stability and not security was their ultimate goal. Such abstractions perished with the Twin Towers. Perhaps it isn’t pride that explains Zinni’s recent behavior, but guilt. br> — JP