THE DUMBING-DOWN OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY: WHAT WILL BE LEFT IN THE WAKE OF THE CLINTON-CHRISTOPHER DEBACLES?

(Washington, D.C.): Rarely has there been a more brazen
display of contempt for the President of the United States and
his Secretary of State than has been evident over the past few
days in Damascus: Hafez Assad kept Warren Christopher waiting for
two hours on Tuesday while the Syrian despot met with his old KGB
contact, Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov. Then Assad
declined to meet with Mr. Christopher at all when the
Secretary of State returned to Syria on the following day.

While the Syrian did deign to see the United States’ top
diplomat today, the message conveyed by his earlier conduct was
unmistakable: The Clinton-Christopher team’s pandering to
a ruthless thug — evident in the twenty pilgrimages Secretary
Christopher has made to Damascus since taking over the State
Department — has only served to embolden Assad. Worse yet, if
recent experience is any guide, Assad’s behavior will likely
be met with unjustifiable concessions on the part of the U.S. and
its friends (in this case, Israel).

Appeasement in Russia

Such a Clinton-Christopher modus operandi was
certainly in evidence during their recent campaign swing through
Russia. Consider the appalling outcome of several strategically
sensitive issues in the face of thuggishness on the part of the
Clinton-backed candidate, Boris Yeltsin:

• Moral Equivalency on Chechnya: The New
  York Times correctly opined in an 18 April editorial
  that President Clinton “must not leave Russia
  without strongly declaring his opposition to the conflict
  and the killing of thousands of civilians by Russian
  troops [in Chechnya].” Far from criticizing
  Mr.Yeltsin’s genocidal war in Chechnya, however, Mr.
  Clinton legitimated Moscow’s bid to perpetuate
  the violent subjugation of the Chechen people by equating
  it to Abraham Lincoln’s effort to preserve a voluntarily
  formed union and bring an end to slavery.
• Foreclosing U.S. Missile Defense Options:
  Mr. Clinton pointed with pride to the “real
  progress” he made with President Yeltsin with regard
  to expanding the scope of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile
  Treaty so as to limit the development of American theater
  ballistic missile defense systems. He predicted that the
  issue would be resolved in time for a June meeting of the
  Standing Consultative Commission in Geneva (presumably
  before the 15 June Russian presidential election). If so,
  this agreement will likely severely limit the development
  and deployment of some of the most promising U.S. missile
  defense systems, such as the Navy Upper Tier program and
  the Army’s THAAD system.
• Ignoring the Russian Bid to Help Iran ‘Go
  Nuclear’: President Clinton reportedly decided
  not to use either the “Nuclear Safety Summit”
  or his bilateral meetings with Yeltsin to block one of
  the most dangerous threats to nuclear safety — the sale
  of four Russian reactors to Iran. This immense transfer
  of nuclear know-how and technology will immeasurably
  advance Iranian efforts to acquire thermonuclear weapons
  capability.
• Advanced a Comprehensive Test Ban:
  President Clinton elicited agreement from Boris Yeltsin
  and the G-7 participants to complete work by September on
  a CTB that prohibits even unmonitorable nuclear tests —
  a formula for non-compliance. Such an accord will be
  incompatible with U.S. requirements to maintain a safe,
  reliable and effective nuclear deterrent over time. href=”96-D39.html#N_1_”>⁽¹⁾ That damage
  will be greatly compounded if, as seems likely, the
  Clinton-Christopher team secured this agreement by
  pledging to give Moscow sensitive nuclear weapons-related
  software and modeling techniques that could exacerbate
  the nuclear threat posed to the United States by Russia
  and/or other unauthorized recipients. href=”96-D39.html#N_2_”>⁽²⁾
• Other Travesties: In addition, the
  Clinton-Christopher team apparently: made no effort to
  end Russia’s violation of the Conventional Forces
  in Europe Treaty; acquiesced to the Russians’
  refusal to provide information required by the
  recently enacted Helms-Burton Libertad legislation
  concerning Russian cooperation leading to the
  construction of two Chernobyls-in-the-making in
  Cuba; and got nowhere in terms of establishing
  the real purpose of a massive military complex now being
  built deep underground beneath Mt. Yamantau in
  the Ural Mountains — possibly financed in part with
  Western taxpayer largesse.⁽³⁾

Shakedown in Syria

Meanwhile, events in Lebanon over the past fortnight have
amply demonstrated the folly of the so-called Middle East
“peace process” in which Messrs. Clinton and
Christopher — among many others — have massively overinvested.
Syria’s direct complicity in the lethal operations of Hezbollah
terrorists, a complicity made manifest by the U.S. shuttle
diplomacy to Damascus, proves the error of relying upon
one group of Arabs unreconciled to Israel’s existence to curb
another group. The denunciations of actions taken by
Israel in self-defense that have been heard throughout the Arab
world also serve to reinforce fears that there has been no real
change in the attitudes of those considered to be the Jewish
State’s erstwhile enemies.

If Secretary Christopher does ultimately broker a
cease-fire between Syria and Israel temporarily suspending
Hezbollah’s terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, its
impermanence will be a further reminder of the wisdom of
America’s traditional support for a free and independent Lebanon.
As long as Syria calls the shots (literally) in Lebanon,
Hezbollah will be able to resume hostilities at will. As long as
Israel believes it can safely “contract-out” its
security interests in Lebanon to Hafez Assad, its northern
communities will know no peace.

What is more, it will be important to establish the
full price extorted by Assad for any such ephemeral commitment:
Will he, for example, have been promised — perhaps after the
U.S. election in November — that Syria will be removed from the
State Department’s lists of state sponsors of terrorism,
drug-trafficking and official disregard for human rights? Will
his participation in the wholesale counterfeiting of U.S.
currency, an act of war against the American economy, be
permanently ignored? Will Assad’s accumulation of weapons of mass
destruction and their delivery means go unopposed? Will he be
made eligible for U.S. taxpayer-underwritten financial assistance
(either direct or indirect)?

The PLO Covenant Scam

Speaking of “reading the fine print,” it is
necessary to do so with respect to today’s vote by the Palestine
National Council (PNC) in order to appreciate how baldly Messrs.
Clinton, Christopher and Peres were diddled by yet another Middle
East terrorist-ostensibly-turned-statesman, Yasser Arafat. The
following is one published version of the full text of a
statement issued after the vote by the PNC:

“The Palestine National Council has decided to change the
[PLO] Covenant by removing the clauses which contradict the peace
agreement and the Palestinian Declaration of Independence that
was published in Algeria. This matter will be handed over to the
Legal Committee which will write it up and then it will come
before the Central Committee for approval. The Central Committee
has been empowered to approve the changes by the Palestine
National Council.”

In other words, the PNC has “overwhelmingly
approved” (i.e., by a vote of 504-54) a statement that
remands to another group responsibility for changing the Covenant
in unspecified ways without any firm schedule. At some as yet
undetermined point, the recommendations will go to yet another
group which will, in turn, act upon it — again without any
defined schedule. As of today, no specific, numbered
articles of the Covenant have been identified for revocation
and changes in the direction of a text that calls for the
creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital are
explicitly contemplated. All this was accomplished,
moreover, under a banner showing the land of Palestine defined by
boundaries that included not only the West Bank and Gaza Strip
but all of Israel!

At some point the PLO may actually change the language of the
Covenant. Most likely, a decision will be made simply to
substitute new text declaring a Palestinian state without
recanting any of the old language calling for the destruction of
the State of Israel and violence against Jews. If and when that
occurs, what was not done — namely, the prompt issuance
of a forthright and official recognition of Israel’s right to
exist — will be more instructive than anything that known liars
like Yasser Arafat and Abu Abbas choose to say.

The Bottom Line

Incalculable damage is being done daily by the Clinton
Administration to vital U.S. interests — and the perceived power
and prestige necessary to protect them. As even the Washington
Post felt constrained to editorialize yesterday, “Mr.
Clinton did no favor to democracy when he appeared to endorse
Russia’s methods in Chechnya.” In fact, President Clinton
and his Secretary of State are doing no favors to American
security, to that of the United States’ friends and allies or to
the cause of genuine peace by his apparent endorsement not only
of genocide in Chechnya but thuggish behavior in places like
Moscow, Damascus and Gaza, as well. The least the
Clinton-Christopher team can be expected to do is to stop crowing
about such dubious diplomatic feats as accomplishments warranting
a new mandate from the American people in November.

1. See the Center’s Decision Brief
entitled Vive la France! French Determination to
Perform Necessary Nuclear Testing Should be Wake-Up Call to U.S.
(No. 95-D 47, 14 July 1995).

2. The Rosenberg Option is discussed in
greater detail in the Center’s Press Release
entitled The ‘Rosenberg Option’: Will the Nuclear
Summit in Moscow Produce a Meltdown for U.S. Security?
(No. 96-P 38, 18 April 1996).

3. See the Center’s recent Decision
Brief entitled Restoration Watch #9: Mt.
Yamantau — From the Folks Who Brought You the Cold War
(No. 96-D 37, 16 April 1996).