I woke up this morning and none of the news was good
And death machines were rumbling 'cross the ground where Jesus stood
And the man on my TV told me it had always been that way
And there's nothing anyone can do or say
- Steve Earle, "Jerusalem"
The news from the Middle East sure isn't good right now. Here's a sample:
(Via Juan Cole's Informed Comment blog) Parliament speaker blames Iraqi violence on 'Jews' AP/The Jamaica Observer 07/14/06. This is about the Speaker of the House in our allied government, the Shi'a-dominated Iraqi government:
Iraq's parliament speaker [Mahmoud al-Mashhadani] Thursday accused "Jews" of financing acts of violence in Iraq in order to discredit Islamists who control the parliament and government so they can install their "agents" in power. ...
"Some people say 'we saw you beheading, kidnappings and killing. In the end we even started kidnapping women who are our honour'," al-Mashhadani said.
"These acts are not the work of Iraqis. I am sure that he who does this is a Jew and the son of a Jew."
"I can tell you about these Jewish, Israelis and Zionists who are using Iraqi money and oil to frustrate the Islamic movement in Iraq and come with the agent and cheap project."
"No one deserves to rule Iraq other than Islamists," he said.
Yes, this is Our Side. The government that has resulted from Bush's glorious crusade to liberate Iraq from Saddam's nonexistent "weapons of mass destruction".
Bomb-laden drone believed to have hit ship by Amos Harel and Yoav Stern Ha'aretz 07/15/06
"Now in the middle of the sea, facingBeirut, the Israeli warship that has attacked the infrastructure, people's homes and civilians - look at it burning," [Hizbollah leader Sheikh Hassan] Nasrallah said in remarks broadcast live shortly after an Israel Air Force strike on Hezbollah's Beirut headquarters.
Hezbollah has never before used a remote-controlled unmanned aircraft to attack Israel. But in a signal of its growing capabilities, the guerrilla group has twice managed to fly spy drones over northern Israel in recent years. The drones caused great concern in Israel because they evaded the country's air defenses.
Earlier, Nasrallah vowed to strike Israeli targets south of Haifa, after the attack left the group's headquarters in Beirut in ruins. ...
Nasrallah said the group would strike deeper inside Israel, which it charged with launching the operation in Lebanon to avenge its failure in preventing the abduction and killing of its soldiers by Hezbollah earlier in the week.
Hezbollah would also strike "beyond Haifa and what is beyond, beyond Haifa," Nasrallah said.
"You wanted an open war and we are ready for an open war," the Hezbollah leader said. "You have chosen an all-out war with a nation which... has the capability, the experience and the courage."
Syria says will support Lebanon, Hezbollah against Israel Ha'aretz 07/15/06
Syria will support Hezbollah and Lebanon against Israel's attacks on the country, the ruling Baath Party said on Friday. ...
It said Israel and the United States "are trying to wipe out Arab resistance in every land under occupation" and that President Bashar Assad was aware of the seriousness of the situation in the region. ...
On Thursday, [Iranian president Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad said an Israeli strike on Syria would be considered an attack on the whole Islamic world that would bring a "fierce response", state television reported.
"If the Zionist regime commits another stupid move and attacks Syria, this will be considered like attacking the whole Islamic world and this regime will receive a very fierce response," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in a telephone conversation with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Cowboy Diplomacy Is Not Dead Yet by Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service/Antiwar.com 07/15/06
"Refusal to compromise, refusal to negotiate, assuming that condemnation of others as terrorists amounts to a policy and these 'others' will meekly accept American/Israeli will," according to Charles Smith, who teaches Near Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona. "All these elements point to the bankruptcy of U.S. Middle East policy at this moment with no options that appear promising." ...
In the last 18 months, according to a widely noted Time magazine cover story this week entitled "The End of Cowboy Diplomacy," she and other "realists" have worked a "strategic makeover" of the administration's foreign policy. ...
But if Cheney and the hardliners have been down, they certainly have not been out. That the "cowboys" have been able to limit the freedom of Rice and the realists has been made clear in any number of ways. ...
The pattern has been clear: in each case, Rice has been able to nudge the U.S. Position toward a more conciliatory position closer to its allies in hopes of engaging the "enemy" in a diplomatic process, and in each case, Cheney and the hardliners have succeeded in limiting her ability to do so. ...
Echoing Israel's stance, on the other hand, the White House, where a prominent neoconservative, Elliot Abrams, holds the Middle East portfolio, has put more emphasis on Syria's and Iran's alleged responsibility for the situation. Washington's U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, another hardliner and Cheney favorite, has taken a similar tack.
Indeed, the crisis atmosphere generated by the fast-moving events of the past 10 days in both Northeast Asia and the Middle East offers a new opening for the "cowboys" to drive policy in their direction. (my emphasis)
Bush Splits From Other Leaders on Lebanon Crisis by James Gerstenzang and Paul Richter Los Angeles Times 07/14/06
On Thursday, the United States, following the pattern of past actions at the United Nations, came to Israel's aid by vetoing a resolution proposed by Qatar to condemn the Israeli thrust against Lebanon.
President Bush's approach on security issues in the Mideast has been to allow Israel full latitude, while urging Israeli leaders to use restraint to avoid inflicting harm to civilians.
U.S. officials said they are now supporting a joint effort of Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as a separate initiative of a U.N. team, to find a solution to the crisis. U.S. officials are barred by law from dealing directly with terrorist groups, so must rely on others. Snow, the White House press secretary, said the administration views the U.N. effort as an important means to bring more pressure to bear on Hezbollah.
Bush's calls to the Middle East leaders, and Snow's disclosure of them, suggested a public effort on the part of the White House to exert whatever influence Bush could throughout the region to keep the situation from escalating further. Bush spoke largely off-the-cuff at a news conference on Thursday at midday in Germany, urging Israel not to go so far in attacking Hezbollah that it weakened Siniora's struggling government.
"We're concerned about the fragile democracy in Lebanon," Bush said. But he also insisted, as he has a number of times in recent days, that Israel has a right to protect itself.
Israel's right to protect itself just like every other country is not in question. Israel's right to bombard civilian targets deep inside Lebanon in response to Hizbollah kidnapping Israeli soldiers is a different matter.
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