An Esculent Mix

I’d like to draw your attention to an opinion piece by James P. Rubin in the Wall Street Journal this morning. It’s entitled, “Obama’s Foreign Policy Successes”. It details some of what the president has done on the international front since assuming office and paints the result as a vast improvement over the (so-called) debacle the Bush administration had left us with. The article is articulate and works logically within its own frame, and surely represents the thinking of the present administration and of those supporting it.

Clearly, the opinions expressed in Rubin’s article do not reflect the opinions expressed by the majority of contributors to this blog, the majority of opinions expressed by WSJ contributors, or even the majority American opinion (as reflected by the polls) as it relies heavily on Bush and Israel bashing to achieve its point. Several, if not all, of Rubin’s underlying assumptions are highly arguable. Still, this article cannot be classified as ‘spoof’. (I kept looking for the punch line.) It is an honest attempt to give due credit to an administration the author appears to hold in high regard.

Neither can this article be considered an ‘apologia’ as, in the author’s view, there is nothing to apologize for. The worst that can be said for it is that its author likes what Obama has done and is defending it from a basis of that preconceived notion.

I, on the other hand, could not disagree more. I am troubled by the fact that different people witnessing essentially the same series of events can come to such radically different conclusions. I worry about it in the same way I worry about a bust of Stalin suddenly appearing in a WWII soldier’s cemetery in Virginia; a mosque now having gained approval for construction in close proximity to Ground Zero; or the name of Mao Zedong uttered in the same breath as ‘inspiration’ by high administration officials.

While I see nothing wrong with a bust of Josef Stalin in Russia, or a mosque built somewhere in the Middle East (or even somewhere in our own country where a high concentration of Muslim demands it); or a picture of Mao overlooking a square in China, I do find it incredulous that Americans could actually be moved to celebrate such things right here in America.

America’s traditional melting pot has ruptured. Its contents have putrefied and are spilling their poisons into the bloodstream. We no longer seem to be able to stem their lethal surge.

I once tried to make cheese fondue from scratch. Fondue consists of a smooth blend of three different cheeses, wine and (potato) starch. It’s a delicate process involving a narrow range of temperatures (for each ingredient) and precise timing. My own attempt ended in disaster. Washington too appears to lack the expertise to produce an esculent mix.