Illo Watch

"Winning Back Europe's Heart," 2/20/05

The advice today's roundtable of European commentators gives President Bush is none too surprising, and neither is Craig Frazier's illustration. He does this conventional theme stylishly, though. I especially like the exaggerated length and curvature of the right figure's right arm, subtly suggesting the extra effort that the authors would like to see Bush make to connect with their governments.

"Not Much Kinder and Gentler," 2/3/05

What's your reaction to artist Craig Frazier's sturdy black road grader impressing a smooth, sharp American flag into the earth? You could read the image as sinister, emblematic of the political terraforming that the W. & Co. are doing in Iraq and the presumptuousness that war entails. Or you might see it as a positive portrayal: America as the steady, strong blazer of the clear way ahead. So it also goes with the foreign policy approach that op-edder Stephen Sestanovich calls "maximalism," making the case that it's an American tradition. Drawing on Condi Rice's writings from the early '90s, he argues that the first Bush Adminstration was no consensus-builder, and neither is she:

"Her experience, [Rice] said, taught her the importance of pursuing 'optimal goals even if they seem at the time politically infeasible.' She considered single-mindedness as the key to diplomatic success: a government that 'knows what it wants' can usually get it."

Like it or not, Sestanovich argues, maximalism has worked: for Bush I in spurring German unification, for Clinton in Bosnia... and as such (I infer) it may also work for getting today's neocons and realists under one big tent. Frazier's road grader makes a brilliant visual icon for maximalism: it moves in and changes the landscape, and never mind the motives.