For the 7 1/2 years of the Bush administration, Zalmay Khalilzad has been the golden boy of U.S. foreign policy.
He began life in the Bush White House as a special assistant to the president for South Asia, Near East and North African Affairs--in other words, chief of the hot spots--on the National Security Council. In short order he moved into three of the most important ambassadorial jobs: Iraq, Afghanistan, and now, the United Nations.
He was the guy to whom Bush turned when he needed someone he trusted in an extremely sensitive job.
Now, he's gone from the guy on the hot seat to bubbling in hot water.
The New York Times is reporting today that he is "facing angry questions" from his colleagues at the top of the administration over unauthorized contacts with the Pakistani political leader, Asif Ali Zardari, who is a contender to succeed Pervez Musharraf as Pakistan's president.
It turns out, according to the Times, that Khalilzad had been speaking several times a week with Zardari, the widower of the assassinated opposition leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. And he had planned the meet with Zardari next week while on vacation in Dubai, the paper reported, quoting administration officials.
Richard A. Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South Asia, put an end to that plan after discovering through Zardari himself that the United States' U.N. ambassador was providing "advice and help." An angry e-mail from Boucher to Khalilzad ensued.
Such contacts would suggest an extreme violation of diplomatic protocol and U.S. policy; the administration has remained officially neutral in the contest to succeed Musharraf, and in any case diplomats are discouraged from such interference in any country's internal politics--the history of CIA involvement in instances around the world notwithstanding.
With the United States walking an extremely narrow line as it seeks to encourage a new Pakistani administration to fight the Taliban along the Afghan-Pakistan border--but not appear overly friendly with whomever takes over in Islamabad, for fear of complicating the security task--any signs of a U.S. official's meddling in Pakistani political affairs can only complicate the mission.
The Times notes an intriguing back story:
The conduct by Mr. Khalilzad, who is Afghan by birth has also raised hackles because of speculation that he might seek to succeed Hamid Karzi as president of Afghanistan.
The official State Department biography of Khalilzad makes no reference to his Afghan heritage.
The verdict has been in for nearly two years: The American population does not approve of the way President Bush has done his job. His approval rating has been below 40% for nearly two years, and has, of late, hovered around 30%.
Along comes Fareed Zakaria, writing in Newsweek, with this counterintuitive idea: The widespread criticism under which the president has labored month after month "misses an important reality."
The criticism has come from all over, he notes: "Democrats, Republicans, independents, foreigners, Martians, everyone." But it has been directed at an administration that is not the one running things now.
The foreign policies that aroused the greatest anger and opposition were mostly pursued in Bush's first term: the invasion of Iraq, the rejection of treaties, diplomacy and multilateralism. In the past few years, many of these policies have been modified, abandoned or reversed.
As a result, he notes, the administration has put in place foreign policies that "are more sensible, moderate and mainstream."
It took a long time, but the turnaround in our policy in Iraq has been significant. The United States has made broad overtures to the Sunni community, and now actively supports Sunni fighters it had once jailed. We've concentrated on stabilizing Shiite neighborhoods, helping to free them from dependence on militias.
For a long time now, polls have not been friendly to President George "30%" Bush. He professes to pay them no heed. But just in case he's bored over there in Beijing and is checking out Countdown to Crawford, we present some poll news that might give him some (very) temporary cheer:
On the energy front, an ABC News survey found what the Washington Post characterized as "broad public support for government action." That could translate into new pressure on Congress to push ahead with loosening of restrictions on offshore drilling. The survey found that 63% favor an end to the embargo on new drilling in U.S. coastal waters, the Post reported.
On the other hand, the poll found even stronger support for tougher fuel efficiency standards, an area that has not drawn the same degree of presidential attention, to put it mildly.
But the president may not want to plunge too deeply into the polls.
A survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation looked into the question of how New Orleans residents feel they have been treated by Washington nearly three years after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.
It found that 60% thought that rebuilding New Orleans was "not a priority" of the president and Congress, and that although 59% said their lives were "almost back to normal" or "largely back to normal," there were still 41% who said their lives were "still very disrupted" or "still somewhat disrupted."
On second thought, rather than reading the blogs, maybe the president would prefer to keep his focus on the Olympics. (In the photo at top, Bush takes in the U.S.-China basketball game with his wife, his father and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.)
So you thought President Bush would visit Beijing for the Summer Olympic Games and just sit in the stadium?
Wrong.
He used part of Saturday just as he does back home, whether in Washington, at Camp David or in Crawford, Texas. He went for a bike ride -- on an Olympic course, no less.
And, oh, yes, he stopped by a practice session of the women's beach volleyball team. That meant a visit to the bikini-clad athletes at an imported Beijing "beach," as USA Today noted from Beijing.
For Bush, it was a break in a trip through Asia marked by public criticism of China's human rights policies, private huddles with advisors about the crisis in the former Soviet republic of Georgia over the breakaway South Ossetia region and a meeting Sunday with President Hu Jintao of China.
The father-and-son team of former President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush dedicated the new U.S. Embassy in Beijing on Friday morning — and even that ribbon-cutting event did not entirely avoid the controversy that has marked the president's visit to the Olympics.
It was the current president's first formal event since arriving in China on Thursday evening, and he slipped in an oh-so-gently-worded reminder of the differences between the United States and his hosts over human rights, even as he suggested that they agree on the sensitive subject.
The question of human rights — and whether by attending the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games on Friday evening he was giving Beijing a pass — has dogged the president's trip to Asia since it began Tuesday.
He has defended his decision to attend the Games — in which the Chinese government has put huge political stock — as one built on his support for the American athletes. International politics and athletic competition can be kept apart, he has said.
And, as C2C noted a little while ago, he scheduled the dedication with a nod to Chinese tradition, which considers eight the luckiest number: It began at 8:08 a.m. on the eighth day of the eighth month of the year '08.
But nonetheless, on what is U.S. diplomatic turf in the heart of the Chinese capital, the president used the dedication of the embassy ...
From afar, in Bangkok, President Bush made clear his disagreement with Chinese authorities over their handling of human rights issues. He delivered a blunt criticism today of Chinese policies.
But when it comes to being a guest in China, the president is stepping gently.
Remember, now: "Eight is the luckiest number that the Chinese have in their tradition," White House Press Secretary Dana Perino advised reporters aboard Air Force One as Bush flew to Beijing from Thailand for a visit built around the opening of the Summer Olympic Games.
White House officials clearly took that tradition into account when they scheduled the dedication of the new U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
So, with the president, his father (the first President Bush and the first American to lead a U.S. liaison office in China in pre-embassy days), former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger (who arranged the first presidential visit to China, by Richard M. Nixon in 1972), and the Gatlin Brothers (to sing the National Anthem) in attendance, the embassy will be dedicated on Friday. That is, the eighth day of the eighth month, in the year '08.
And at what minute will that occur? Do we really have to tell you?
At 8:08 a.m., of course.
This would be the proper time, then, to ask: Is there in the Bush family an undiscovered tendency to live by Asian tradition? Or, is the president and staff going out of their way to pay respect to Chinese custom, after, coincidentally, drawing Beijing's rebuke for his tough human rights remarks?
With President Bush seeking to demonstrate he is not papering over differences with China as he makes his way through Asia, the Chinese decision to keep speed skating champion Joey Cheek out of the country does not make the president's mission any easier.
Cheek, a 2006 Olympic gold medalist, is a co-founder of Team Darfur, an organization of athletes seeking to draw attention to human rights violations in the war-torn African region -- where China is a major purchaser of oil., the Washington Post reported.
He said his visa to visit China was revoked on Tuesday -- effectively prohibiting him from visiting, and presumably drawing attention to China's role in Darfur, during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games beginning Friday.
Bush is on his way to China to attend the opening ceremony and some of the initial competitions.
Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One today as Bush flew to Thailand, his final stop before reaching Beijing, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said:
We were disturbed to learn that the Chinese had refused his visa. We are taking the matter very seriously. We have sent in our embassy in Beijing to démarche the Chinese. That is where we go in and we say we are concerned about this, and we want you to reconsider your actions. So we would hope that they would change their mind.
On his final scheduled trip to Asia as president, George W. Bush is delivering what may be his toughest message to China on human rights — but from afar.
In remarks prepared for delivery Thursday in Bangkok, Thailand, where Bush and his wife and daughter Barbara arrived today, Bush says that the United States and China have made progress across a wide swath of the relationship, particularly in trade.
This “constructive relationship,” he says on his final stop before visiting Beijing to attend the opening days of the Summer Olympic Games beginning Friday, “has placed America in a better position to be honest and direct on other issues.” He singles out religious freedom and human rights.
And, in a key passage, he says:
The United States believes the people of China deserve the fundamental liberty that is the natural right of all human beings. So America stands in firm opposition to China’s detention of political dissidents, human rights advocates, and religious activists. We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly, and labor rights not to antagonize China’s leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential. And we press for openness and justice not to impose our beliefs, but to allow the Chinese people to express theirs.
The remarks go to the heart of issues human rights campaigners from China and elsewhere have raised with Bush — most recently at a private meeting with him at the White House last week ahead of the trip.
The question that remains, however, is this: Will the symbolism of his taking part in the Olympic festivities, including attending the opening ceremony in which Chinese President Hu Jintao and other Chinese officials have put so much stock, outweigh his words?
After all, government-controlled news media will be able to block wide Chinese access to Bush’s critical message, while touting his words of praise and displaying images of him at the Olympic stadium in Beijing.
For Bush, there was little question about attending the games once he gave his word to Hu last September that he would show up. He has made clear that backing out of the trip or delivering a blunt public message of rebuke on human rights would be deeply insulting to the Chinese and, in his view, would set back the U.S.-Chinese relationship he has sought to construct.
So, the issue that hung over the visit was how to balance the public image without appearing to undercut the political message he wanted to convey.
The speech in Bangkok provides the answer.
In the end, Bush says, “Only China can decide what course it will follow.”
“America and our partners are realistic, and we are prepared for any possibility,” he says.
But, closing on an upbeat note, he adds:
I am optimistic about China’s future. Young people who grow up with the freedom to trade goods will ultimately demand the freedom to trade ideas, especially on an unrestricted Internet. Change in China will arrive on its own terms and in keeping with its own history and traditions. Yet change will arrive. And it will be clear for all to see that those who aspire to speak their conscience and worship their God are no threat to the future of China. They are the people who will make China a great nation in the 21st century.
The White House press office took the unusual step of distributing the prepared text well ahead of delivery -- a move that Press Secretary Dana Perino told reporters was made to make it more convenient for them. With the time difference between Asia and the United States, the speech will be delivered on deadline for U.S. newspapers.
But the distribution of the text also assures wider dissemination. And that's what the White House wanted.
Want to know the perks of the presidency? Here's one: taking a slew of family members and friends to the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.
As the president began a weekend visit with his parents at their home in Kennebunkport, Maine, the White House announced the official delegation representing the United States in Beijing. For Bush, it will be a very familiar group accompanying him.
All told, it's a party of 12 -- all family and friends:
The president, his wife, one of his daughters, his father, his sister, one of his three brothers, a sister-in-law, three buddies -- among them two Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity brothers at Yale and a friend and major fundraiser of nearly three decades -- and two of the friends' wives.
Hey, it's a family famous for enjoying a good sporting event.
President Bush is gone from the White House. But he'll be back.
He has embarked on a 12-day journey that is taking him from Washington to West Virginia to Kennebunkport, Maine, and then, after an overnight respite at Camp David, on to Asia -- where he's got his hands full with sticky diplomatic situations.
In Seoul, the focus is northward -- on the continuing efforts to tame North Korea's nuclear ambitions. In Bangkok, the pressing issue is Myanmar. And while the purpose of the president's visit to smoggy Beijing is ostensibly to attend the opening of the Summer Olympic Games and cheer for U.S. athletes, questions about China's handling of human rights issues will undergird everything he does there.
James Gerstenzang and Johanna Neuman are reporters in The Times' Washington bureau. Between the two of them, they have covered the White House, diplomacy, military affairs, the environment, international economics, trade and Congress. They have both spent time in Crawford, Texas.
So you thought President Bush would visit Beijing for the Summer Olympic Games and just sit in the stadium?
