The Middle East Crisis and the “Axis of Evil”

In my previous post, I mentioned Ann Coulter’s talk at UC Irvine last week. I would like to elaborate on that speech, just because it also relates to one of my earlier blogs that I posted about Obama’s pledge to meet with the leaders of foreign nations that are labeled as hostile to the United States (particularly the ones that the U.S. does not have any diplomatic ties with).

First of all, I found her idea of blaming Jimmy Carter for the worsening of conditions in the Middle East to be nothing more than using him as a scapegoat for decades of failed policy by primarily Republican presidents. Now of course, it would be highly unfair to only criticize the administrations under each period because many of the Republican presidents faced a divided Congress (meaning that Democrats were actually in more control of the legislative power than Republicans). But the fact is that it was the CIA under the leadership of George H.W. Bush and during the Reagan Administration that actually recruited known Islamic extremists such as Osama Bin Laden (yes, that’s right) in order to contain the Communist threat that the Soviet Union posed to the U.S. in the Middle East.

But more importantly, I was appalled at the conditions she laid out for first meeting with evil leaders and hostile governments. She said that George W. Bush has a phone, so he can call Kim Jong Il or whoever he wants any time of the day. She said that meeting with them face-to-face may compromise our position and give leverage to other leaders of countries that may have close links within the “axis of evil”. As I have stated previously, I do see merit in this argument. However, she said that if we want to meet these leaders face-to-face, we should only do this if we have nuked them first. I think this was meant to be more of an illustration of how adamant Coulter thought we should be about NOT meet with these leaders ever, but the fact that she even suggested this seriously was a little frightening.

When a student challenged her explanation on this as being quite extreme, she even had the nerve to cite the U.S.’s bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during WWII to get them to comply with our conditions. She said something to the extent of this: “Look at the Japanese: two well-placed nukes, and they were quiet as puppies.” To even subtly suggest that one of the gravest crimes against humanity committed under the name of the American flag was actually justified is something that I believe any American should be completely ashamed of. While the Japanese certainly did comply with American demands after the bombing, to ever cite this in a contemporary defensive diplomatic argument that involves nuclear weapons is like suggesting that the Nazi concentration camps “worked”.

So shame on you, Ann Coulter. If Michelle Obama said that she hadn’t been proud to be an American before, doubtless it’s because of people like you.