FLASH
Shkruar nga Michael Rubin
Washington could have saved itself a lot of lives and money if American officials had clearly understood one fact: Those who see themselves as God do not play by the rules of mere mortals...
Forty-five years ago, Andrew Young, a civil rights icon whom President Jimmy Carter appointed as his ambassador to the United Nations, resigned. His sin? Meeting with the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization. At that time, American diplomacy had several "red lines".
Dictators and all terrorists could not meet. But times changed. Within the State Department, resourceful diplomats made a name for themselves by cutting through diplomatic red tape. In less than a decade after Young's departure, Dennis Ross defended PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
CIA Director William Burns took his career to the top by maintaining covert contacts with Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi just 15 years after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 107. When talks began secrets with Iran, Jake Sullivan redefined himself from political aide to master of diplomacy.
"If you want to create a situation that puts an end to the insurgency, you must be ready to dialogue with your enemies," Hillary Clinton said to justify her negotiations with the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the damage done to the free world by each episode of reaching out to these dictators was immense.
Although these diplomats advanced their careers with great courage. After all, wasn't it wrong to just try it? No. If the partners are sincere, diplomacy can break the deadlock created by a crisis. Just as respect for religious freedom reflects the sincerity of a dictator's reforms, is there a way to determine which dictators are insincere and incorrigible?
At once their children give us some clues. Both nurture and nature are important. Some offspring are like 'bad eggs'. Psychopathy may just be a bad gene. But sometimes it is intentional. The world's most incorrigible autocrats raise their children to feel superior.
They isolate them, indulge them with all the material goods and inculcate in them the culture that they have the right to rule. Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein, were sociopaths, sadists and deviant.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell's advice to negotiate with Saddam Hussein, first to get him to withdraw from Kuwait and then to resume his weapons inspections, was always naive.
Saddam Hussein's encouragement of his sons reflected his disinterest in the civilized behavior that Powell assumed served as the basis for diplomacy. Between 1984 and 2012, the late Senator Arlen Specter made nearly 20 US taxpayer-funded trips to Damascus, many of them with close friend Senator John Kerry.
At first Hafez Assad and then his son Bashar Assad, mocked them. Specter always had hope, even though he couldn't point to any tangible success. Perhaps if he had seriously analyzed the character of the eldest son, Basil Assad, a spoiled playboy who died in a car accident in 1994, he would have had no illusions, nor would he have fully understood that the younger son, Bashar Assad was nothing but a mass murderer.
The list is long. Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump could have saved us time, money and strategic position if they had appreciated the Kim dynasty in North Korea for what it was: a detached family in which fathers they taught their sons to believe that they are God.
Washington could have saved itself a lot of lives and money if American officials had understood one fact: Those who see themselves as God do not play by the rules of mere mortals. The same problem is being repeated today, even with formal allies.
Is the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev sincere when he says he wants peace? The fortunes of his children, Leyla Aliyev, Arzu Aliyev and Heydar Aliyev, suggest he sees his family above the law, raising questions about any diplomatic deal negotiators might reach.
Can the West trust and help the Iraqi Kurds when Masoud Barzani and his sons Masrour Barzani and Waysi Barzani display their lifestyle? Two decades of corruption suggest otherwise. Is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as pure and honest as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg tells us when his son was profiting from the oil trade with the Islamic State?
Sometimes, leaders are smart enough to set aside their spoiled offspring. Such was the case of Tommy Suharto in Indonesia and Mirzan Mahathir in Malaysia.
What about dictators who create new diplomatic ground? Remember the case of the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, who made peace with Israel; Mikhail Gorbachev, who helped end the Cold War; and South African leader PW Botha, who collaborated with Nelson Mandela to dismantle the Apartheid regime.
Each had their own children, to adapt to the day, they managed long after the death of their parents. Intelligence agencies can spend billions of dollars to get information, but sometimes there's no substitute for character. He transcends politics every day. / Adapted "Pamphlet" from "American Enterprise Institute"
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