Getting Their Stories Straight
Although some conservatives have been fretting that Lebanese rocket fire and Israeli warplanes are making President Bush look helpless, administration officials revealed to TIME today that they have plans to harness the chaos as a "leadership moment" for Bush that could wind up helping his flagging goal of transforming the Middle East.
These officials said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will leave Sunday night for a week of diplomacy in the region and will go with the modest goal of forming an "umbrella of Arab allies" in opposition to the militant group Hizballah that incited the conflagration by kidnapping two Israeli soldiers.
"She's not going to come home with a ceasefire, but stronger ties to the Arab world," an administration official said. "It's going to allow us to say that America isn't going to put up with this and we have Arab friends that are against you terrorists. What we want is our Arab allies standing against Hizballah and against Iran, since there is no one who doesn't think Iran is behind this."
Time 7/21/06
"See the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over."
President Bush 7/17/06
These officials said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will leave Sunday night for a week of diplomacy in the region and will go with the modest goal of forming an "umbrella of Arab allies" in opposition to the militant group Hizballah that incited the conflagration by kidnapping two Israeli soldiers.
"She's not going to come home with a ceasefire, but stronger ties to the Arab world," an administration official said. "It's going to allow us to say that America isn't going to put up with this and we have Arab friends that are against you terrorists. What we want is our Arab allies standing against Hizballah and against Iran, since there is no one who doesn't think Iran is behind this."
Time 7/21/06
"See the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over."
President Bush 7/17/06
posted by The Cunning Realist at Saturday, July 22, 2006
6 Comments:
How many future terrorists created by the Iraq war and the bombing of Lebabon? I have no problem when the United States judiciously uses military force to achieve objectives. But a four year occupation of Iraq and support for Israel's bombing campaign in Lebanon doesn't seem very judicious to me.
I like the song: In the year 2525.
Listen to it and imagine how we are moving lol
A born diplomat always shows respect for the other side, while remaining firmly committed to the good of his or her own country. This is something even the greatest enemy will understand.
Four-letter words just don't cut it in diplomacy and they don't belong in the vocabulary of our president. Maybe the FCC could send a fine to the White House?
CR-
Good points, as always. Skepticism is usual a good idea, especially when military force is on the menu.
That said, do you truly doubt Syria's & Iran's support of Hizbollah? Playing Devil's Advocate alone, or in concert with a founded sense of doubt?
One can believe -- as I'm sure you do -- that Israel's actions are disproportionate, while still acknowledging (a) the threat of Hizbollah and (b) Syria's & Iran's support.
One of the best posts I read in a long time. Thank you!
Honestly, I doubt that Bush or Condi really care much about the distinction. When Condi says "there is no one" who doesn't agree with her, she is probably referring only to Americans, and doesn't care much what the rest of the world thinks.
My war-supporter friends and relatives simply cannot be un-convinced of their notion that any and all Arabs and Muslims are all in cahoots together, regardless of sectarian differences, or even secular governments -- hence they readily believed, and still believe to this day, that Saddam was an ally of Osama. Sure, Saddam put a price on Osama's head, and Osama said Saddam needed to be killed as a godless Communist, but my pro-war friends and relatives believe that they (and the rest of the world's billion Muslims) are totally ready to put aside all their differences at a moment's notice if they have a strategic opportunity to attack The Great Satan, America. Hence I simply could not convince them that, even if Saddam had WMD, giving WMD to terrorists would have been signing his own death warrant. They believe the fighting in Iraq is only between evil terrorists, of various religious stripes who are all working together in cahoots, versus good God-fearing Capitalist pro-American Iraqis who are grateful for the American invasion and simply didn't have any rose petals available to throw.
(There is some internal self-consistency to this theory, so it's hard to dislodge.)
Probably Bush has been briefed on the distinction between Iran, Syria, and Hezbolla, but details like that just don't have much place in his grand plan to bring peace to the Mideast by simply killing all the bad guys (a hundred today, a hundred tomorrow, and by 2009 "all" the bad guys will be dead and everyone will live happily ever after). And Bush's cabinet, and my conservative friends and relatives, admire his plan and think his plan can somehow overcome these divisions -- because Bush is "decisive, unlike Clinton" and because "God is on our side".
Post a Comment
<< Home