No Credibility Left

The Washington Post has a great QA session every week. Today, foreign policy reporter Peter Slevin fielded some questions:

"Bush has exhausted whatever political capital he ever had in the world. He has made enemies of our traditional friends and made our enemies hate us more. Is he so damaged that he cannot play any serious role in putting the Middle East back together and reestablishing our country with our allies? .

Peter Slevin: The short answer, I'm afraid, is yes.

The Bush White House simply has no credibility in the Middle East, following its performance in Iraq and the president's embrace of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

A number of U.S. diplomats are much-respected in the region, but they have been marginalized in Washington after losing battle after battle to the White House and Defense Department.

Q: who's right -- those who think the Geneva Convention is still important, or those who say it's a relic?

Peter Slevin: Relationships with a number of European allies are badly frayed, and the issue of international law is an important factor in that. They remember clearly when the Bush administration, led by Undersecretary of State John Bolton "unsigned" the Rome Treaty that created the International Criminal Court...

Add to that the administration dismissive view of the Geneva Conventions in Afghanistan. (Rumsfeld: Prisoners would be treated in "a manner that is reasonably consistent" with the conventions.)

To the extent that the conventions provide respected international rules and a measure of access, transparency and humane treatment, they should not be considered relics.

Q: What kind of reaction are you hearing from your contacts in the State Department? Are they quietly waiting for Rumsfeld to exit stage left?

Peter Slevin: Hoping against hope that it might actually happen, while fearing that he'll continue to dodge a reckoning. "