Clintonista syndrome

My reaction when I read something by a former Clinton administration foreign policy or security adviser is usually the same — was the author this clueless when he or she was in power, or has President Bush somehow inspired the Clinonista’s fatuousness? This piece by former Assistant of State Susan Rice provides a case-in-point. She spends the first half of the article arguing that the Bush administration’s focus on democracy as the “sole and defining element” of its approach to counterterrorism is ill-advised, and warning that “democracy alone will not secure our future or eliminate terrorism.” Then, in the second half, she complains that the Bush administration is not aggressive enough in implementing its pro-democracy policy outside Iraq. It never seems to have occurred to Rice that Bush is not pushing democratic reform outside of Iraq to the exclusion of all other considerations because democracy is not the sole element of his counterterorism policy.