Reality On The Ground
Even the Washington Post is forced to admit that the Iraq Study Group's recommendations bear no actual resemblance to conditions on the ground in the Middle East. They even realize that discussion with Iran and Syria right now is foolish.
IRANIAN President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presided over a convention of Holocaust deniers in Tehran this week, rousing them with yet another speech predicting the extinction of Israel. In Lebanon, the pro-Western government of Fouad Siniora hung by a thread, literally besieged in the center of Beirut by the extremist Hezbollah movement — whose attempted coup has been egged on by Syria's dictator, Bashar al-Assad. In Gaza, attempts by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to reopen the peace process with Israel continued to be blocked by the most militant leaders of Hamas — who happen to be harbored in Damascus — and by a Hamas prime minister who just returned from Tehran.
Meanwhile, here in Washington, the Bush administration was bombarded by demands that it open unconditional negotiations with Mr. Assad and Mr. Ahmadinejad. Democratic senators are tripping over each other to have an audience with Syria's chief gangster. A parallel clamor continued for a "grand bargain" with Iran's mullahs. The disconnect between the debate over the Middle East in Washington and actual events in the region could hardly be greater.
Assad and Ahmadinejad believe they are winning. The parade of Senators trooping over to stage photo opportunities with dictators is not helping disabuse them of that notion. The reality is that unless and until concrete steps are taken to show Iran and Syria that there are real consequences to their destabilization of the entire region they will continue to behave in the way they have up until now. The "realists" of the Baker school are making a war more, not less, likely.
World news | Gaius Saturday, 16 December , 2006
By daveinboca, Sunday, 17 December , 2006 @ 10:50 am
The WaPo now begins to realize that John Bolton was correct, perhaps, in pushing for a real Iran resolution. Now Putins new-style Soviet alliance with Iran and indirect support of Syria stiffens the backbones of these two recalcitrants. No special envoy like the self-designed role Baker built into the ISG for himself will do anything. Syria and Iran must pay a price for their political murders and calls for genocide. The US has to pull its socks up and grow a set.