"Dramatic Change of Direction" Coming for Iraq - Sharon Behn
The escalating violence raking Baghdad and other Iraqi cities is pushing that nation's leaders, neighboring Arab countries, and U.S. advisers to consider a dramatic change of direction in the conduct of the war. Leaks from a U.S. task force headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III are contributing to the widespread sense that the Bush administration is preparing for a "course correction" in the coming months.
The options cited most frequently in Washington include the partition of Iraq into three ethnic- or faith-based regions and a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops.
(Washington Times)
"Peace Process" Debacle - Editorial
The Bush administration's policy toward Israel and the Palestinians increasingly seems like a reprise of the Oslo "peace process" pushed by the Clinton administration, which ended in disaster...
Secretary of State Rice now seems bent on propping up a new generation of failed Palestinian leadership - specifically Mahmoud Abbas.
It is a disservice to the Palestinians to continue to pretend that failed, bankrupt leaders like Abbas are part of the solution to their plight. In reality, they are part of the problem.
(Washington Times)
1 comment:
An article is an article, but editorials like that illustrate why it is the Washington Times and not the Washington Post. Certainly, some sort of course correction is necessary in Iraq because the current course is not working. Never did. Still not. That Bush himself still speaks of staying the course is simply one of the many daily reminders that he is not Clinton, or any other of a plethora of intelligent men with foresight. He is George W. "mission acomplished", "heckuva job Brownie" Bush. As for the editorial, this is why we are having the problems in the middle east that we are. Conservatives in this country just don't get the radical muslim anger, and don't understand that we don't get to pick and choose the governments in other lands (of course when we do get to pick them, like in Iraq, it does not seem to come out much better, does it?)and conservatives don't seem open minded enough to understand that, either. Bankrupt, failed, joinly run, led by thugs, what-have-you; it's their government. When the UN and European Union had what to say about the moral integrity of our nation and our invasion of Iraq, we had our opinion of them. Did we think "Oh. They are right. Let us disband out failed and morally bankrupt government and let the French or Germans put in place a better, more perceptive regime?" No, we did not. We don't pick other governments and when we do, anyway, from propping up the Shah of Iran, helping Saddam Hussein with the war against Iran, helping the Taliban with their war against Russia, and finally building one from scratch in Iraq today, it really never works out well for us in the long run anyway. We are the greatest nation ever in the history of the world. Truly great ones, people or nations, usually tread quietly and humbly and let their good acts and apparent strengths, do the talking for them. The arrogance we displayed in the world the last few years is now paying us back with charges of false bravado as we look like second raters in Iraq, did not finish the job yet in Afghanistan, but are now sabre rattling in Iran and North Korea. We squandered the world leadership we had in the eighties and nineties and the good will and sympathy we had in 2001. Can anyone look at Iraq, Iran, North Korea, the Palestinians and their new terrorist government, and say that the current administration, and their conservative cronies in the Houses have even a clue? Are you really sitting out there, pouring over the latest copy of the Washington Times, and saying you and the world are better off then you were six years ago?
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