Dysfunction Rules
In Middle East Conflict
By: Joe Conason
Date: 8/7/2006
http://www.observer.com/printpage.asp?iid=13166&ic=ConasonThe government of Israel appears to suffer from the same mental and moral dysfunctions that afflict the Bush administration: an urge to wage war without any plausible objectives, any viable plan for disengagement, or any rational assessment of costs and benefits. Israel’s second invasion of Lebanon, only weeks old and with considerably more justification, is already beginning to resemble the American invasion of Iraq.
Just as American policymakers badly miscalculated what would be required to occupy and stabilize Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, so Israel appears to have underestimated what kind of resistance its forces would encounter in driving Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. The Americans failed to anticipate the ruinous effects of the war and occupation on our international reputation and national interest. The Israelis somehow failed to recall the terrible stain on their national image left by their last incursion.
There is no American strategy for the Middle East. There is only crisis management, performed incompetently, and slogans about “democracy” and “evil” and “terrorism.” From somewhere inside this intellectual vacuum, the voice of President George W. Bush assures us that things are getting better in Iraq.
There seems to be no Israeli strategy, either. There is only a military reaction to the provocations of Hezbollah and Hamas, with disappointing and sometimes disastrous results. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert claims that his campaign is winning, that the murders of civilians and U.N. observers will somehow prove to be worthwhile. The stature of the terrorists grows, and the war has succeeded in discrediting moderate Arabs and silencing the Hamas leaders in Gaza who were ready to start talking instead of killing.
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