Close to running (off) the table

National Review’s Rich Lowry claims BushCo is close to running the diplomatic table with its brilliance.

President Bush has hitched a rising India to the U.S. At the same time, he has forged a close relationship with India's historic rival, Pakistan. The U.S. alliance with Japan has never been stronger, and relations with China are relatively friendly, too. The administration has been firm in its defense of Taiwan's de facto independence, while keeping the island from any unnecessary provocations. Diplomatically — putting aside the intractable North Korean nuclear problem — his is as close as it comes to running the table.

Let’s take a closer look at this brilliance.

1. With India, our beloved Preznit has signed off on a deal that clearly allows India to violate the spirit of the Non-Proliferation Treaty by segregating civilian and military uranium enrichment and keeping the military side off-limits to inspection. This can only ramp up nuclear fears of Pakistan. Speaking of which …

2. That “close relationship” with Pakistan is based on a hypocritical “don’t ask, don’t tell policy.” We don’t ask where Osama bin Laden is, and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf doesn’t tell us.

3. The U.S. alliance with Japan is not so smooth as Lowry paints, especially re the future of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil. The only reason it is as smooth as it is, is of course in part due to the fact that Japan is in essence a one-party democracy, or almost an oligarchy. Only when the LDP gets voted out of power there can we really know what the future of U.s.-Japan relations are.

4. Relations with China relatively friendly? That’s because BushCo runs free trade up the flagpole and salutes it no questions asked, when it benefits American CEOs and boards of directors. It’s even more because China’s holding the roof over our heads.

5. And, if you want to “put aside the intractable North Korean nuclear problem,” you can fudge all sorts of things. That would include BushCo’s contributions to its intractability.

Of course, Rich doesn’t think any of these things are really problems. Witness his final graf:

We should care less about Jacques Chirac taking offense at our latest alleged gaucherie and more about what Dr. Manmohan Singh — he prime minister of India — thinks of attempts in Congress to torpedo the U.S.-Indian nuclear deal.

Undercutting the spirit of nuclear nonproliferation is apparently not a problem. And, apparently, neither is the rest of the laundry list I presented, as long as St. George is in charge.