04-05-2003, 09:16 PM
"10. Israel. With Iraq less bellicose (that assumes the risk up top pays off) then US can, and I would hope they would, use our action as leverage to strong arm them into moving forward with the Palestinians to find an acceptable solution to both parties. That pays dividends with all Arab states."
If they could somehow manage this, to use the Iraq war to pull that situation out of the 100 year crapper, this whole mess would be eminently worth it.
That one issue has almost singlehandedly torn the rift between the Arab world and the west from "a little rip" to "a gaping void of horrifying death". What do they say in the Middle East when they want to voice their discontent with US policy? Oh, yeah. Death to Israel.
To me, this is the biggie. That conflict is ample demonstration of why magnanimity and good faith matter far more than either war or peace. And if (somehow) either of those things come to Israel/Palestine out of this war, the Arabs might actually seriously consider the US' case about how wonderful life is going to be post-war.
Jester
If they could somehow manage this, to use the Iraq war to pull that situation out of the 100 year crapper, this whole mess would be eminently worth it.
That one issue has almost singlehandedly torn the rift between the Arab world and the west from "a little rip" to "a gaping void of horrifying death". What do they say in the Middle East when they want to voice their discontent with US policy? Oh, yeah. Death to Israel.
To me, this is the biggie. That conflict is ample demonstration of why magnanimity and good faith matter far more than either war or peace. And if (somehow) either of those things come to Israel/Palestine out of this war, the Arabs might actually seriously consider the US' case about how wonderful life is going to be post-war.
Jester