Vive le France!
Le Monde Editorial: By sticking with Mr. Sharon's
policy, Washington has departed from its traditional
role of honest broker between the Israelis and the
Palestinians. Egyptian President Hosni Moubarak
recently told Le Monde that he had never seen such
hatred of the United States in the region. Jordan's
King Abdullah delayed a visit to the White House so
that it not take place the day after Mr. Bush endorsed
the Sharon plan. This is the context in which the
devastating effect of the revelations of torture in
Iraq must be understood. They cap the total
discrediting of the image of the United States- an
image which had already been singularly undermined by
management of the post-war. The occupation has given
renewed motivation to Islamists, who are increasing
their attacks in Saudi Arabia.
The whole thing has taken on a certain shape: that of a monumental and tragic fiasco.
Restore the Timeline, Show Up for Democracy in 2004:
Defeat Bush (again!)
http://truthout.org/docs_04/050704H.shtml
Mr. Bush and Chaos
Le Monde Editorial
Thursday 06 May 2004
The American Neo-Conservatives wanted a change in
the Middle East, by force if necessary. They imposed
that idea on President George W. Bush in the disarray
of the days immediately following the September 11,
2001 attacks. The disaster of these authoritarian
regimes, sometimes United States' allies, whose
brutality and incompetence fed radical Islam, came
from the status quo. In the absence of any ability to
promote eminently desirable, but necessarily slower,
internal development, an electroshock was necessary. A
salutary kick-start should be given, without fear of
temporary destabilization, an indispensable stage
before the reconstruction of a Middle Eastern order
more satisfactory to everyone. In economics, people
talk about a process of creative destruction.
This kick in the pants of the old order was the war
in Iraq. If the situation were not so tragic, it would
be seriously tempting to observe ironically that the
Neoconservatives seem to be in the process of
successfully achieving the first phase of their plan-
chaos.
Everywhere we look in this complex Middle East that
lends itself so poorly to sorcerer apprentices'
experimentation, pessimism is the order of the day:
not a single hot point, no conflict, has failed to get
worse under the impact of the policy conducted by the
Bush government.
The Israeli-Palestinian confrontation gives rise to
despair. The Bush administration has never made it a
priority. For cosmetic reasons, before starting the
war in Iraq, the administration made a pretence of
supporting a schedule for resumption of negotiations
between the two parties that was supposed to conclude
in the establishment of a Palestinian state in 2005.
That was called the "road map"; it never got off the
ground. Then, the administration lent its enthusiastic
support to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan
for a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. For domestic
Israeli political reasons, there is no longer any
Sharon plan. There is, however, day after day, the
terribly normalized, virtually banal, daily
announcement of deaths in the occupied territories- or
in Israel- and the associated photos shown in endless
loop on every Arab television.
By sticking with Mr. Sharon's policy, Washington has
departed from its traditional role of honest broker
between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Egyptian
President Hosni Moubarak recently told Le Monde that
he had never seen such hatred of the United States in
the region. Jordan's King Abdullah delayed a visit to
the White House so that it not take place the day
after Mr. Bush endorsed the Sharon plan. This is the
context in which the devastating effect of the
revelations of torture in Iraq must be understood.
They cap the total discrediting of the image of the
United States- an image which had already been
singularly undermined by management of the post-war.
The occupation has given renewed motivation to
Islamists, who are increasing their attacks in Saudi
Arabia.
The whole thing has taken on a certain shape: that
of a monumental and tragic fiasco.
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