Bush ‘doing a Nixon’?

On October 8 I already asked the question in this blog whether Japan’s Shinzo Abe would ‘do a Nixon’, drastically improving relations with China.

Now some in the U.S. are really contemplating doing a Nixon. In 1972 Nixon made a bold move, a trip to Beijing and a meeting with Chairman Mao. From an American perspective he played the Chinese card against the Soviets. And opened the way for the restoration of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China.

Some in the U.S. are now contemplating to play the Iranian card against the Salafists (that’s Saudi Arabia and Al Qaeda, although neither of them likes to be put in the same category).

Iraq is a mess and the Iranian Mullahs may very well have an couple of ideas to sort things out. Time for the U.S. to make up with Iran? Perhaps. Nixon of course was a gangster and a war criminal, but at least one with a little bit of vision. Bush is a gangster and a war criminal without the slightest bit of world vision. It is very unlikely he will take a bold step and visit Teheran.

Nixon did many things wrong but a least got himself in the history books with one clever move. Bush on the other hand is incapable of doing anything worth remembering in a positive way.