Posted on 07/30/2002 8:30:37 AM PDT by Prodigal Son
One ongoing story line about the Bush administration is that Colin Powell finds himself in a bind. Conservatives think the retired general is too moderate. The experienced man of the world knows the Mideast requires practicality. And the secretary of state must try to help Europe understand America's preference for action against Saddam Hussein. With Mr. Powell on a long Asia trip this week, The New York Times published an editorial on Sunday titled "D-Day for Colin Powell."
The good news for Mr. Powell is that he has company, historically speaking. James A. Baker III faced similar quandaries.
Conservatives considered Mr. Baker too centrist for their tastes when he served President Ronald Reagan as chief of staff and treasury secretary. The tag stuck with him as he moved into President George H.W. Bush's Cabinet as secretary of state. Once there, the former Houston lawyer earned the label by working all sides of the Mideast equation. He also jetted around Europe in brokering a response to Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The oddity in linking Mr. Powell to Mr. Baker is that Colin Powell came out of Dick Cheney's Pentagon under the first Bush administration. Gen. Powell served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff while Mr. Cheney was defense secretary. And, like Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today, Mr. Cheney's Pentagon was not an outpost for centrists.
The State Department more or less filled that niche in Bush I. Mr. Baker was plenty conservative. But he surrounded himself with pragmatists in his inner circle.
Secretary Baker also thought practically. He focused on particular goals and set out to achieve them. For the most part, the approach worked.
Mr. Baker, for example, capitalized on Iraq's 1991 defeat to draw Israelis and Palestinians to a Madrid peace conference. The secretary had to bang heads around the region. But it paid off. The Mideast would look far worse today without the Madrid meeting, which generated temporary stability.
Critics scoffed at Mr. Baker's deal making, as if he were simply a paid fixer. But the skill of doing deals in the international arena should not be sold short.
In fact, a secretary of state must know how to broker interests, including within his administration. Journalist Richard Reeves describes in President Nixon: Alone in the White House the fierce skirmish between Nixon Secretary of State William Rogers and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger. Mr. Rogers had to constantly maneuver around Mr. Kissinger, who acted secretly on issues like resolving the Vietnam War.
The past should thus instruct and exhort Mr. Powell. The hawks at the Pentagon or White House may complain. But his work demands principled pragmatism, loads of patience and an ability to reach broadly across the world.
Jim Baker, of course, started with an advantage. He was a longtime friend of President Bush's. Although they may have had private disagreements, Mr. Baker had his fellow Houstonian's confidence. He could use that standing while traveling the globe.
Mr. Powell lacks the same kind of relationship with President George W. Bush. Their connection does not go back decades. And the two leaders come from different generations.
Still, Mr. Powell has his own trump card. He is one of America's most popular figures. He can use that standing in arguing his positions internally and externally.
The external part is especially crucial. The U.S. needs someone who can hold together an uncertain coalition in the war against terror. A gulf remains between European and American goals, as well as between Arab and American aims. The gaps are greater than those in the coalition that answered Iraq in 1990.
Responding to the Mideast quagmire is the obvious first step to resolving the differences. Most European and Arab leaders believe that crisis needs attention before turning to Saddam Hussein.
This is where Colin Powell enters the equation. The administration will benefit from a patient moderator who can seize openings. And he has a legacy in James Baker's example. Making deals is not a bad term. It can serve the goal of peace. And it can find a secretary of state a place in history.
Kicking every islamist arab out of Judea and Samaria would be a start.
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