Honduras Wins!

It looks like it's face saving time for Hillary Clinton and the State Department.

The AP reports an agreement has been reached between Honduras' interim government and ousted President, Mel Zelaya. AP reports the significance:

The agreement, if it holds, could represent a much-needed foreign policy victory for the United States, which dispatched a senior team of diplomats to coax both sides back to the table.

Let's see, Afghanistan dithering, Iranians and Norks nuking up, Israel-Palestinian impasse, Russian aggression, and Allied backstabbing on missile defense in Eastern Europe, all of these are signal failures of Administration foreign policy. So, forcing an agreement on a tiny, defenseless Honduras democracy is a "much-needed foreign policy victory for the United States?" Talk about lowering the bar.

Not to mention that this is no Administration victory. Honduras has consistently maintained that Mel Zelaya was legally impeached and an interim government appropriately installed pending already scheduled elections this November. This agreement, which Madam Secretary Clinton calls "historic," impliedly affirms the Honduran position, providing that upon the installation of the new government, all sanctions will be lifted and relations normalized with the U.S. The only "concessions" Honduras had to make on Mr. Zelaya was to agree to reinstate him if such is approved by the Honduran Congress. Since Mr. Zelaya's own party repeatedly and vehemently has denounced him, there is little likelihood that he will be reinstated. The result: point, set, and match to Honduran democracy.

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The State Department started this whole fracas because of a legal opinion of top State Department lawyer Harold Koh, purportedly concluding that the actions of the Honduran military in ousting Mr. Zelaya was illegal under Honduran law. To date, the State Department has refused to release this super-persuasive legal brief.

With the manifest capitulation of State under this agreement, it is clear that Mr. Koh's legal opinion was flawed, and as a result, State "stepped in it" at the beginning of the Honduran "crisis." Thereafter, instead of wiping off their shoes as the facts became clear, they rolled around in it for a few months before finally deciding to take a bath.

Those plucky people of Honduras. You gotta love 'em.

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