Stephen’s Shame

Stephen Hayes is embarrassed and ashamed. No, not for that. Or that. No, not for that either. No, not really for any of the reasons that Stephen Hayes ought to be embarrassed and ashamed of himself; rather, he’s ashamed that the United States has taken the first positive steps towards dealing with the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs for the last eight years.

It has been a dispiriting few weeks. Several conservative political appointees have said that they are embarrassed to be working in the Bush administration. One called the new policies “preemptive capitulation.” Another suggested that whatever credit the Bush administration deserved for keeping Americans safe in the seven years after 9/11 would be offset by the blame the administration will have earned for emboldening America’s enemies with its reflexive weakness. And a former adviser to Condoleezza Rice said: “This is stunningly shameful.”

Indeed; it must be depressing when even the slowest professionals in the business conclude that the policy pursued for the last eight years not only “isn’t working”, but indeed is significantly increasing the chance of the negative outcome you want to avoid. I’m also inclined to wonder; does Stephen Hayes prefer US prestige, or a non-nuclear North Korea? For me this isn’t so much of a problem, since I think our ability to negotiate away the North Korean nuclear program is actually an element of national prestige, but for Stephen, not so much. At this point, I’m strongly inclined to believe that Hayes would prefer a world in which both Iran and North Korea had nuclear weapons to one in which the United States negotiated away substantial portions of those programs. It’s insane, yes, but this, after all, was not a sign of a healthy mind.