Redstate

By mike volpe Posted in Foreign Affairs — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Two of my favorite shows, 24 and The Sopranos, have recently dealt with the subject of sociopaths. Sociopaths are individuals that have no conscience. The are devoid of the limits of right and wrong that the rest of us deal with because our conscience limits our actions. As 24 hypothesized negotiating with a sociopath can only lead to no good. No doubt many of the bleeding heart liberals will point out that both of these are shows and thus the ending was predetermined. True, but what of the hypothesis, is negotiating with a sociopath something wise.

We have two sociopaths in Bashar Assad and frankly every member of the Iranian regime. Up until a few months ago, the U.S. made a point of not having any dialogue with any of these parties (of course with Iran this was the same since 1980). Sociopaths are master manipulators. Since they aren’t bound by conscience every situation is MANIPULATED to their advantage. Assad is looking to maintain and expand the power he has in his country while the Iranians are looking to expand their power in the Middle East and beyond. Every situation will be manipulated to further these goals.

Now let’s look again at this picture.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,264334,00.html (fourth picture)

Is their any doubt that the sociopath Assad manipulated Pelosi to make himself look not like the thug that he is, but a statesman. Look at him sitting side by side in a chat with the third most powerful person in the lone superpower. Assad must have been salivating at the opportunity to show the world that he is a statesman. He must have felt his goal was accomplished because in the aftermath of this meeting he came down extra hard in opposition leaders within his country. http://newsbusters.org/node/12921

Is anyone really surprised that upon portraying himself as more of a statesman, that Assad became more of a thug within his own country. After all he is a sociopath and that is what sociopaths do.

After this, the Bush administration, which should know better, did the exact same thing.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007233583 What’s changed since that meeting? Nothing much, but the world did see that Syria is vital to bringing peace to Iraq, and once again the sociopaths MANIPULATED the situation to their own advantage. Why? Because that is what sociopaths do, that is why. Still, there are those that believe that negotiating with these sociopaths can lead to good. For instance here is an interesting part of the article, “However, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, some U.S. allies, and growing numbers of lawmakers on Capitol Hill, have called for a revised policy towards Bush to reconsider its position in hopes that Iran and Syria can be persuaded to positively influence events in Iraq.” Who are these lawmakers and are they really so dense that they don’t recognize the nature of the enemy we face?

President Bush got a good lesson in dealing with sociopaths when “he looked into his (Putin’s) soul” He must not have looked to far because he didn’t recognize the sociopath staring back at him. What did Bush get from all of his chats? Putin was busy backstabbing him on Iraq, subverting Democracy in his own country, and now threatening a new nuclear war. Is anyone surprised that this former KGB agent a sociopath that can’t be trusted? None of us are now.

Then there are the Iranians. Our Iraqi ambassador met with his counterpart. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18899216/
What was the Iranian response to their meeting? They immediately formally charged three Americans held with espionage. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/29/AR200705...

Again, is anyone really surprised? Again, sociopaths MANIPULATED a situation to their advantage, why, because that is what sociopaths do. Yesterday, Ryan Crocker was interviewed on Fox News Sunday. He was asked the substance of the meeting with the Iranians and Crocker. Crocker said that his counterpart agreed that the Iranians also wanted a stable, peaceful Iraq. Crocker pointed out that IED’s, other weapons, training, Iranian agents, and financing for insurgents were not the best way to bring about a stable Iraq to his counterpart. Then, Wallace asked the most important question, “had Crocker seen any changes in Iran’s behavior since the meeting” Three guesses on that answer. Once again, sociopaths do what sociopaths do, they MANIPULATE.

I would approach things differently. If I had my way, every single ambassador from every single country in the world would be recalled from Iran, Syria, and every other sociopathic regime. No company who did business with any of these nations would be allowed to do business with the U.S. and its allies. Their leaders would not be given visas to speak at such places as the United Nations. They would not be given places on the Human Rights commission. Yes, I know it will never happen and even if it did other sociopathic regimes like Russia would be there to prop them up. True, but one thing I do know is negotiating with them has left a historical legacy of failure.