Last week former President Zelaya of Honduras signed an agreement with the interim government of Roberto Micheletti that cleared the way for ending the constitutional crisis in that Central American country. Key to the agreement was a provision leaving it up to the Congress to vote on Mr. Zelaya’s possible restoration to office.
Yesterday, the State Department’s official spokesman reiterated, ‘This is a Honduran problem that will have a Honduran solution.”
The Administration must continue to adhere to this position and not backtrack. It needs to move swiftly to restore normal relations, release funding for electoral observers, and unblock foreign assistance so a degree of normality can return to Honduras.
Members of the Congress of Honduras met this week and called for opinions from the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, and the Human Rights Ombudsman before convening a special session. This is a reasonable step given the gravity of the constitutional and legal issues. They will meet at an unspecified date to vote.
National elections are set for November 29. The campaign is in full swing with candidates selected in primaries before June 28. A government of national unity is being formed, although Zelaya declined to participate. A verification commission has also been created. The military now answers to the electoral tribunal not to the interim government.
Less than a week after the October 30 agreement, Zelaya is saying the deal is off because he is not back ‘in power.”. .
Last week, many questioned Zelaya’s commitment to the agreement if Congress did not quickly restore him to office.
And Zelaya clearly appears to have miscalculated his backing in the Honduran congress.
Now, Mr. Zelaya wants to tear up the agreement and walk away. He demands the U.S. not recognize the outcome of the November 29 elections unless he is restored to office immediately. He also wants the U.S. to punish his fellow Honduran with an array of irksome sanctions unless he is returned.
This should not happen. The Obama Administration cannot let Mr. Zelaya continue to unravel the political and economic fabric of this fragile nation..
In a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) tries to draw conclusions from the Vietnam War for our fight in Afghanistan. Some of his “lessons” are misguided and could put our troops in Afghanistan in greater harm’s way.
Senator Kerry asserts that “we should not commit troops to the battlefield without a clear understanding of what we expect them to accomplish, how long it will take, and how we maintain the consent of the American people.”
While it is necessary to review tactics and strategy, fighting a war requires leadership, not decision-making by polls and consensus. It puts the fate of the Afghan people and our troops into the hands of bureaucrats and pundits, holding it hostage to endless meetings and hearings that may confuse the mission, lengthen decision time, and put our troops in greater danger.
Afghanistan is no Vietnam. We are not fighting a hostile government and an organized military, but Taliban insurgents and al-Qaeda. The only real lesson from the Vietnam War is that we must fight to win, and doing that means we have to commit the resources we need, for as long as it takes.
As Commander-in-Chief, President Obama should consult regularly with his commanders and generals on the ground about what they need to win. He has repeatedly said that the war in Afghanistan is not a war of choice but a war of necessity, because “the safety of people around the world is at stake.” This is not the time to send the message that the President may backtrack on that statement. But as my colleague Lisa Curtis points out, the President may be considering a plan to scale back the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan to focus on al-Qaeda cells in western Pakistan. Senator Kerry has implied in his op ed that scaling down the military mission in Afghanistan would somehow contribute to stabilizing Pakistan. But he is wrong. Ceding territory to the Taliban in Afghanistan would embolden terrorists throughout the region, including in nuclear-armed Pakistan. We have no other option but to win the war in Afghanistan.
Philip Harris currently is a member of the Young Leaders Program at the Heritage Foundation. His views do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation. For more information on interning at Heritage, please visit: http://www.heritage.org/about/departments/ylp.cfm