In a very interesting piece at the Telegraph, self-described imperialist Niall Ferguson revisits Gladstone’s six principles of foreign policy. One struck me as particularly fitting in light of Bush’s India-Pakistan tour:
- “Even when you do a good thing,” Gladstone wisely observed, “you may do it in so bad a way that you may entirely spoil the beneficial effect; and if we were to make ourselves the apostles of peace in the sense of conveying to the minds of other nations that we thought ourselves more entitled to an opinion on that subject than they are… well, very likely we should destroy the whole value of our doctrines.” Substitute the word “freedom” for “peace”, and there you have the crux of the case against President Bush.
Or imagine that the “good thing” in this case is limiting nuclear proliferation, then enjoy this mind-blowing statement from the emperor. Regarding Pakistan’s request to receive the same deal on civilian nuclear technology Bush had just given India, Bush said,
- We discussed the civilian nuclear program and I explained to him [Musharraf] that Pakistan and India are different countries with different needs and different histories.
I’m not a big fan of Gen. Musharraf, but he must be possessed of a truly Christ-like forbearance to endure a lecture on his own country’s history and needs from a man who not so long ago was unable to name the leaders of India and Pakistan.