Newt Gingrich's Justified Criticism of the State Department
By David Holcberg (April 25, 2003)

Newt Gingrich's harsh criticism of Colin Powell's policy of "appeasing dictators and propping up corrupt regimes" is entirely justified--and long overdue.

However, the State Department's misguided policy precedes Powell's leadership, and is caused by the bankrupt doctrines of moral relativism and appeasement.

Moral relativism is the belief that there is no absolute right and wrong, no absolute good and evil, and leads to the belief that free countries are morally equivalent to dictatorships. Thus the sad spectacle of the United States, the greatest force for good on earth, befriending and enriching Saudi Arabia and China, two of the greatest forces for evil today.

Appeasement is the strategy of dealing with enemies not by confronting them but by sacrificing to them. Thus the United States' shameful handouts of goods and money to North Korea, the Palestinian Authority, and the former Taliban.

In order to fix the State Department's self-destructive foreign policy nothing less than a change of its underlying philosophy will do. Moral relativism and appeasement must be rejected and replaced by a willingness to differentiate between good and evil, between friends and enemies--and to act accordingly. Thus the US must confront its enemies, condemn them morally, isolate them diplomatically, sanction them economically, and if necessary, destroy them militarily.

Only then will the United States gain the respect of its friends and command the fear of its enemies. Only then will the United States be safe.