So Iran is the Bogey man behind the Annapolis meetings....

[WCGreen]

“For the Arab centrists, the new Middle East is a nasty one, and the Palestinian issue resonates emotionally and deeply,” he said.

So despite low Arab expectations, too, Arabs came as a way to commit Washington, as both Saudi Arabia and Jordan have been demanding since 2001, to press for an Israeli-Palestinian peace and begin a larger regional process through it. “Bush will be gone in a year,” Mr. Miller said. “But the Arabs want to lock the U.S. into some kind of negotiating process in which the next president is also locked.”

Representative Gary L. Ackerman, Democrat of New York, put it pithily. “Everybody at Annapolis has something in common,” he said. “It’s not love of Israel or the Palestinians. It’s fear of Iran. Everyone needs a relative to protect them from Iran.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/washington/28assess.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin


IT seems that the rigid regimes of fundamental Sunni's, except for AQ, are a okay in the Arab world because they protect the status quo...

Never mind that the status quo in say Saudi Arabia has produced militants galore who are targeting Americans all across the region and in New York...

We looked the other way as Saudi nationals flew planes into the World Trade Center but because Iran threatens the Status Quo in the Middle East, well we can't have that...

If ever you needed a blatant gut check as to who the Bush Administration views is the real enemy, look at the statements of the so-called mainstream arab nations...

It's all about stability as perceived by the economic interests of radical Sunnis and Radical Conservatives here in this country...

[MADem]

1. Well, this fucking War Without End ain't working....

I would also wager that Bush is looking for a Jimmy Carter Moment, to rescue his failed adventurism and legacy.

Stability in the ME trumps EVERYTHING, bullshit words about "democracy" aside. It's always been thus. It always will be thus, until Black Gold is no longer the fuel that drives so many economies. At that point, they can kill each other for all we'll care, unless we find that Saudi sand over there to have special qualites, or they discover that dates and pistachios from the region have a cancer curing ingredient in them.

[WCGreen]

2. well put...