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Originally posted by tw
Our leadership cannot see the bigger picture or even provide leadership. A leader would have returned to Washington rather than fly from rabbit hole to rabbit hole, indecisive, until suddenly while safely in Nebraska, he realized he was not being presidential. This is a decisive leader? No. This is also the leadership that drives moderates to support extremist positions. This is a leader who has cooled US relations with almost every nation while encouraging or empowering Middle East extremists.
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Realistically though, tw, from a government perspective, the safety of the President is first and foremost in a situation like this. Truth be told, even if Dubya WANTED to head back to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, the Secret Service would not have allowed that. If it were made clear that the President was heading immediately back to Washington, it could have possibly caused more chaos. At 10am yesterday morning, the country was reeling--the government was scrambling to restore some type of order. The Pentagon, which is only about 10 miles from Andrews AFB had just been attacked by a large airplane. And we are talking about the most important figure in the world, second maybe to the Pope.
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Extremists are now extremely dangerous because we have chosen to side against moderates. Instead of supporting a moderate such as Arafat, we have instead chosen to support an extremist and proven genocidal masochist - Ariel Sharon. We support a man who single handedly drove the world closest to nuclear war. By supporting extremists - Sharon - we have empowered the extremist factions of Islamic Jahed, Hesbolla and Hamas to recruit more moderates. We have destroyed any moderate support among from great Rabin's Israeli suppporter. We have played right into the hands of instability - and have done this mostly in the past year.
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From your past posts, I know of your intense dislike of Sharon. But just what has the US done in the past 8 months to coddle Sharon? If anything, the US has had to play the role of parent to Sharon.
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Is Yassar Arafat the source of such problems. Of course not. We have conveniently driven his people into the arms of extremists.
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In the past decade, Arafat has become a man torn--on one hand, the Palestinians yearn for a homeland, which is hard for him to refuse. On the other hand, Arafat has been "playing by the rules". Engaging in peaceful discussion over the Middle East.
The only way, IMO, to "solve" the Middle East situation is the one thing that cannot be done--remove the religious aspect of it.