'Road Map' Setbacks Highlight U.S. Pattern [washington post on bush's bad]

[truthisfreedom]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49085-2003Oct5.html

'Road Map' Setbacks Highlight U.S. Pattern



By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 6, 2003; Page A01

President Bush put it starkly when he met with Jordan's King Abdullah at Camp David two weeks ago.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat "is a loser," Bush told the king, according to three sources familiar with the conversation. "I'm not going to spend my political capital on losers, only winners. I'm still in a war mode, and the war is terrorism. If people don't fight terrorism, I am not going to deal with them."
Yet now, four months after Bush formally launched the U.S.-backed peace plan known as the "road map" with a pair of summits near the Red Sea, the plan is in tatters. A Palestinian prime minister intended to sideline Arafat resigned, leaving Arafat back in control. A cease-fire has been broken by suicide bombings, such as the attack Saturday in Haifa, and Israeli reprisals, such as yesterday's bombing inside Syria. And Bush's promise that a stream of U.S. officials would "ride herd" on the parties to pursue peace has been all but forgotten.



The road map's failure highlights a pattern that has characterized the administration's approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, say current and former officials and outside experts. The pattern is one of engagement and disengagement -- a burst of publicity about new initiatives or special envoys, followed by policy drift and an unwillingness to push either side, especially the Israelis, to take big steps toward improvement. Eventually, the effort goes dormant, sometimes for months, until yet another approach is crafted.
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[JNelson6563]

1. war mongers should stickt o what they

know. That fool has only helped to make things worse by his uneven dealings with the parties involved. It doesn't matter how you feel about Arafat, you don't call other leaders names. Remember how he called Kim Jong Il a "pygmie"? That was before the trouble started and probably had something to do with the escalation of tensions in our relationship with NK.

Bush has no clue as to what "diplomacy" means. I'll bet he can hardly sound out the word.

Julie

[Rose Siding]

2. Bush quotes

are the scariest part of most stories. He is a small, short sighted man with an absurd amount of power.

[gratuitous]

3. The article captures President Stupidhead quite well

"The pattern is one of engagement and disengagement -- a burst of publicity about new initiatives or special envoys, followed by policy drift and an unwillingness to push either side . . . toward improvement. Eventually, the effort goes dormant, sometimes for months, until yet another approach is crafted."

I took out the specific reference to Israel, because this same paragraph would apply equally well to just about anything else you care to name out of this corrupt administration: No Child Left Behind; Clean Air; Clean Water; snowmobiles in Yellowstone; worker rights; funding of programs; and on and on and on.