By William R Alford

Unflattering caricatures of President Bush adorn many cubicles at the State Department, syndicated columnist Joel Mowbray told the audience at AIA's Conservative University conference last summer, and the scorn does not end there.

When the President named Iran, Iraq and North Korea as the Axis of Evil, our top diplomats, Mowbray recalled, were quick to assure anyone who would listen that Bush "didn't mean Axis, didn't mean Evil." A month afterward, State Department Policy Director Richard Haass recommended that Israeli officials 'engage' Iran [much to their likely confusion, Mowbray added].

President Bush recently stated that he was hopeful for a Democracy Domino Effect in the Middle East if free societies could get a toehold there. Almost immediately, State officials leaked a classified report entitled "Iraq, the Middle East and Change: No Dominoes" [drafted by its Intelligence and Research bureau]. As was probably hoped, ventured Mowbray, the media 'ate this up,' using it to bludgeon the administration for duplicitously ignoring 'sound' advice.

Reflective of State's desire for 'stability' is, Mowbray explained, it's general disdain for opposition groups. When recently asked if State had a message for the protesters seeking freedom in Iran spokesman Richard Boucher pointedly replied, "no." Fifteen thousand people on the streets in Tehran anger the mullahs. Supporting the protesters would annoy the ruling Islamic clerics further.

Mowbray, who covers the State Department for National Review, argued that a differing worldview is the source of this contempt. This infuriates the American Foreign Service, Mowbray told the crowd at Georgetown University, because change [for better or worse] is an anathema to it.

In practice, observed Mowbray, this meant that State embraced Saddam Hussein more fervently after the Iran/Iraq war than it did while conflict raged. Although the Reagan Administration supported Iraq to act as a foil to Iran, State had a different reason.

After the war ended in stalemate, Iraq's Revolutionary guards forcibly relocated untold thousands [mainly Kurds] in the late 1980s, also killing 100,000. Hussein also used chemical weapons on a scale unseen since World War I. State's interpretation of this: Saddam demonstrated sufficient resolve to be a 'stabilizing force' in the region and should therefore be accorded recognition.

Mowbray discerned a similar acceptance of the Afghan Taliban's 1996 power seizure. Fully aware of the now notorious atrocities that Taliban thugs committed in areas under their control, State officials were more impressed that years of civil war were effectively ended. 'A strong dictatorship is not going anywhere, so we might as well deal with it,' is a characteristic mindset in State's Foggy Bottom headquarters.

In like fashion, the process of negotiations is an end in itself for State, Mowbray noted. This explains the department's reaction to North Korea's nuclear weapons program. North Korea, Mowbray recounted, signed an agreement during the first Clinton administration to halt nuclear weapons development in exchange for economic aid and assistance in building power plants.

American suspicions of cheating were confirmed when Kim Jong-Il finally admitted as much late last year. How did State want to respond, asked Mowbray? “Negotiate another agreement!” To the audience’s chuckles, Mowbray went on, “the previous one was such a SMASHING success, let’s sign another deal!”

A new negotiated agreement is not only cleaner and easier than enforcing an existing one. The moral relativism dominant at State is a major factor as well, Mowbray contended. When smooth relations with the likes of Iran and North Korea are the objective, how can one sit across from officials from those countries at the bargaining table and think, "these people are evil?".

In 1998, Congress approved $50 million in aid for the Iraqi National Congress, a broad coalition composed of Shi'a, Sunnis, Kurds and other groups harassed by Saddam Hussein. State responded with a series of audits. The findings were not yet sufficient to block the aid. Recorded minutes of a joint meeting indicate State official Gail Medford asked the Inspector General's office to 'assist' them in their objective of "shutting down" INC. State recently stationed Medford in Iraq, Mowbray informed the audience, to oversee its transition to democracy.

In matters of national security, State also differs with the administration over allowing hostile parties into the US. Attorney General Ashcroft considers foreigners' entry to be a privilege, not a right. Those who openly advocate America's destruction ["which should be reason enough," offered Mowbray] and have even a low-level of suspicion of terrorist activity should be denied entry, according to top Justice and Defense Department officials.

State is concerned that such individuals' home countries may be offended. Consequently, people should not be denied entry simply because they have been filmed chanting "death to America." That would be 'ideological exclusion.' For Foreign Service officers, only 'actual proof' of terrorist activities should be sufficient grounds to disallow a visit. State sees support for terrorism to be merely 'offensive,' observes Mowbray, not dangerous.

William R Alford is a Government & International Politics/Electronic Journalism student at George Mason University in Fairfax VA