We're All For Democracy In The Mideast ~ Except When We Aren't & Other Tales From The Far Side

Demon Princess has joked before that she should share her appellation with Condi, who certainly seems to have her work cut out for her--er, maybe not. One great virtue of working for an Administration just itching to dominate the entire Middle East (despite average Americans' "war fatigue" where Iraq is concerned) is that unilateralism by the unitary Executive means never having to say you're sorry. We don't have to pay no never mind to anybody anywhere, anytime.

And we're not. We won't negotiate with Syria, we won't negotiate with Iran, & as for the destabilizing mess we've made in Iraq, we're ignoring that, too.

We're all for democracy in the MidEast--except when we're not.

Complicating matters is the fact that Hezbollah, besides terrorizing Israel, is a democratically elected party of the Shiites. (Title bar.) Oops, you guys, we meant when that democracy is both friendly to us & as a condition precedent for capitalism (which is our real religion, despite occasional cynical stabs at pleasing George's evangelical constituents.)

And that's not all: the situation is a mess & getting messier by the day.

While GOP Neocons openly salivate & rhapsodize over “World War III” brewing in the Middle East (Newt Gingrich), the US leads Israel to believe it has our “permission” to continue to pound the shit out of Lebanon, which entails killing civilians because their target, Hezbollah, hides its headquarters among the civilian population. That would be until next Saturday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060723/ts_nm/mideast_us_offensive_dc_1

American officials aren’t commenting for the record, but they hardly need to. Demon Princess is of the firm opinion that actions speak louder than words, and let’s review actions of late, shall we?

1. We’re shipping to Israel the bombs they need to pound the shit out of Lebanon.

2. Condi is pointedly doing nothing & has maintained that the U.S. will do nothing (but stand aside & watch the fireworks), despite the fact that both Syria & Iran, state sponsors of Hezbollah, have indicated that they want to talk. Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister, “asked if Syria could see Hizbollah disarmed at one point, Mekdad said this was only possible with a peace deal that gives back Arab territory occupied by Israel in 1967.

"’We do not decide for Hizbollah, but want a process for all the people of the region to live with dignity,’ he said.

“Syria, a main backer of Hizbollah, has not been invited to an emergency meeting on the crisis in Rome next week, chaired by The United States and Italy."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060723/ts_nm/mideast_syria_dc

Hezbollah has even said it's open to negotiations.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291960779&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The Saudis have weighed in & asked the Bush Administration to negotiate a cease-fire, but no dice.

“Rice and Bush have rejected calls for an immediate cease-fire, saying it does not make sense if the terrorist threat from Hezbollah is not addressed. They have said Israel has a right to defend itself from terrorism and that Hezbollah must return two captured Israeli soldiers and stop firing missiles and rockets into Israel if they want the fighting to stop.

"Our position on an immediate cease-fire is well known and has not changed," White House national security spokesman Frederick Jones said after the meeting with Saudi officials.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060723/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_mideast


Even the Israelis themselves seem to be questioning their goals, & how best to achieve them. In an interesting article appearing in the
Jerusalem Post, the author asks, “What are our goals, anyway?”

“Two main solutions or a combination of them have been floated, mainly by self-interested international sources. Either a multi-national force will be stationed in the border region or the Lebanese army will finally take responsibility for its own borders. But there is no real guarantee that a new force will be any better than the current useless UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). What incentive will these new soldiers have to deter - by force, if necessary by force - Hizbullah from rebuilding its strongholds?

“Of course, if we could get some British or American soldiers, there might be hope, but they are spread too thin as it is in Iraq and Afghanistan and there is little chance that we could do better than the corrupt and ineffectual soldiers from Ghana, India, France and Poland currently comprising UNIFIL.”
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291974274&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


One relevant thing appears to be happening, & that’s that John Bolton, the infamous bully & voice of a really hawkish neocon formulation of domination (he who criticized American intelligence in the MidEast because it didn’t square with what he wanted to believe), is perhaps securing the appointment to the U.N. that George had to give him on the sly, after a Republican changed his mind & his vote.
http://reuters.myway.com/article/20060723/2006-07-23T171527Z_01_N23300096_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-BUSH-BOLTON-DEMOCRATS-DC.html

I say, that’s probably not very good news. I sure hope somebody in this Administration knows what they're doing.