Commentary Dinner
Posted by Ira Stoll
Thu, 17 May 2007 at 11:37 AM
updated 11:44 AM
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T |
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Highlights from last night's annual Commentary dinner/Norman Podhoretz lecture included, first, a standing ovation from the crowd of 300 persons for Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was in attendance while awaiting sentencing on his felony convictions. Second, the release of the June issue of Commentary, featuring Norman Podhoretz's article, "The Case for Bombing Iran." And finally, Ambassador John Bolton's speech on why regime change, notwithstanding the problems in Iraq, "has to be something that's in our toolbox as we go forward." Mr. Bolton started with historical examples of when regime change would have been desirable. He quoted Churchill as saying, "We should have strangled Bolshevism in its cradle." Mr. Bolton asked, "Is there any doubt that the right moral and political move would have been to assassinate Hitler?" He also supported regime change in Iraq in the immediate aftermath of the first Persian Gulf War, and in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.
Then, moving briskly to present-day examples, Mr. Bolton backed regime change in North Korea and Iran. As for Cuba, he said that "actuarial tables will take care" of it, referring to the aging Castro. Sudan, he said, was not a sufficient threat to American interests to justify a policy of regime change. Burma, he noted, recently was reported to be entering a contract with Russia for a research nuclear reactor, but "I don't think that's a regime that warrants regime change." Venezuela, he said last year puchased 100,000 AK-47s. "Not yet but maybe" was Mr. Bolton's position on regime change in Venezuela. Syria is the "hardest" case, Mr. Bolton said, seeming to think that what came after Assad there might be worse. All in all, an interesting evening.
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