The White House has announced its intention to nominate John Rood as Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-Proliferation. (The Arizona Republic has a full writeup.)
Of course, you may remember Rood from his starring turn in Dafna Linzer’s “Brady Bunch NSC” article:
Much of Rood’s job includes dealing with Cold War leftovers such as the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a decades-old arms control agreement between Washington and Moscow, which Rood spent his first year in the White House dismantling. “We had all sorts of quotes from critics that the sky would fall if we left the ABM treaty, and no one even mentions this anymore because nothing happened—it went away with a whimper. Not being encumbered with all this baggage from the Cold War is a huge advantage.”
If I could give Mr. Rood one bit of advice: Give back the Tiki doll.
His bio says he worked on Iranian and North Korean nuclear issues.
Heck of a Job, Roodie.
I almost titled it “Roodie Can’t Fail.”
He now has a wiki entry\
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rood
Rood must’ve been drinking brews for breakfast the day he gave that quote to Linzer. Sure, the sky didn’t fall, but I’d love for Roodie to show me a single serious article on the state of Russian-US relations that doesn’t cite the ABM withdrawal as being a major (if not THE major) negative event in the Putin-Bush relationship.
At the risk of engaging in some ex post facto fallaciousness, I’m gonna go ahead and suggest that we send Roodie a thank you card the next time Russia stiff-arms a U.S. international diplomatic effort to get tough on the Iranian or North Korean nuclear program. If Rood gets the position he should have to put [sic] after the last word of his title.
On a sidenote: Jeffrey, I’m very glad you’re back. I don’t comment much these days but going without my daily Wonkage was arduous.
I just read that “Tiki doll” post from a few months ago and found the article you linked to disturbing to say the least.
“At the same time, the Gen-X crowd—those born between 1961 and 1981—and their boomer elders in the Bush White House share some remarkable similarities.”
Speaking as someone born in 1982, I would like to say that the GenXers they are interviewing appear doomed to be powerful during the decline of the current global order. My generation (though I do sort of straddle the two) will have to build it back up again after these idiots drive it right off the cliff.
Anyhow… I should read this blog more often 🙂
With apologies to David Halberstam—they were brilliant and they were fools. That sums it up perfectly in my mind.