Sunday, November 01, 2009

More On A Honduran Win

The WSJ seems to be looking at matters in a similar fashion to the IMW. (They could do worse, right?) Honduras 1, Hillary 0

The big news in Honduras is that the good guys seem to have won a four-month political standoff over the exile of former President Manuel Zelaya. Current President Roberto Micheletti agreed yesterday to submit Mr. Zelaya's request for reinstatement as president to the Supreme Court and Congress, and in return the U.S. will withdraw its sanctions and recognize next month's presidential elections...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton trumpeted the result as a diplomatic triumph, but it's more accurate to say that it extricated her and the Obama Administration from the box canyon they entered by throwing in with Mr. Zelaya. Hondurans had deposed Mr. Zelaya on entirely legal grounds for threatening violence and violating the country's constitution in an attempt to run for a second term. The U.S. nonetheless meddled and demanded that Mr. Zelaya be reinstated.

But Hondurans refused to bend, and the State Department apparently decided at last that Honduras was going to go ahead with its election whether the U.S. agreed or not. The Honduran compromise provided Mrs. Clinton with an elegant diplomatic exit.

Washington and the Organization of American States have now promised to send observers and recognize the elections; there will be no amnesty for Mr. Zelaya if he is charged with a crime; and the zelayistas will renounce their plans to call for a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution. If Mrs. Clinton wants to call this a victory, it is—for Honduras.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The Honduran compromise provided Mrs. Clinton with an elegant diplomatic exit."

I would have preferred an abject apoolgy. After all, aren't abject apologies for boorish and arrogant American policies the Obama Admnistration's calling card? Oh yeah, that's right--they only apologize for America's past, predating the Glorious Obama Administration. Yeesh.

Rich Horton said...

Oh yeah, that's right--they only apologize for America's past, predating the Glorious Obama Administration. Yeesh.

You know...there does seem to be a strong gnostic element (ala Eric Voegelin) to the whole Obama thing.

Crap. I'll have to write something about that now.

Rich said...

The real winners are the Honduran people who do not have to endure despotic rule by a "pro-American" military junta. If only it had worked out this way for the people of Pinochet's Chile.

Rich Horton said...

Yeah, it turns out the 2000's are a lot different than the 1970's.

Whodathunkit?