Bush’s (Pending) Appointment of Khalilzad

Here’s a sentence I don’t write very often: Kudos to President Bush. I’m not particularly enamored with Khalilzad’s work in Iraq, and I have a number of issues with his reliably neocon worldview (see here and here), particularly his membership in the Project for the New American Century; his colonial-like attempts to fix Afghanistan’s 2004 election, which earned him the nickname “The Viceroy”; the massive conflicts of interest created by his work for Unocal; and his classic comment in 1996 that because “[t]he Taliban do not practice the anti-US style of fundamentalism practiced by Iran,” the U.S. should “be willing to offer recognition and humanitarian assistance and to promote international economic reconstruction.” Nevertheless, it will be genuinely courageous of Bush to nominate a Muslim to such a high office, particularly in light of the overtly racist reactions of people like Glenn Beck and Virgil Goode to Keith Ellison’s election to Congress. When Bush is predictably pilloried by the right for contributing to the Islamic takeover of the U.S., I sincerely hope that all sane individuals, no matter what their ideology, will come to Bush’s defense.

UPDATE: “Confused” asks — fairly — whether I would support the nomination solely because Khalilzad is Muslim. I am inclined to support Khalilzad’s nomination, if only because I don’t think Bush would nominate anyone better. (Personally, I’d vastly prefer Lincoln Chafee, whose name was floated earlier.) But my praise for Bush was intended to go not to the merits of the appointment, but to his willingness to nominate Zhalilzad in the face of right-wing xenophobia toward anything and everything Islamic. I would never support or oppose anyone solely on the basis of their religious affiliation. My thanks to “Confused” for the question.