LOLPolicy

Created: May 15th, 2008 | Written By: matttbastard

President Bush feted Israel on Thursday in honor of the 60th anniversary of its founding and predicted that its 120th birthday would find it alongside a Palestinian state and in an all-democratic neighborhood free of today’s oppression, restrictions on freedom and extremist Muslim movements.

[...]

Bush made no acknowledgment of the hardship Palestinians suffered when hundreds of thousands were displaced or otherwise left following the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, a counterpoint to Israel’s two weeks of jubilant celebrations. Though Bush has set a goal of reaching an Israeli-Palestinian deal before the end of his term in January, he did not mention the ongoing negotiations or how to resolve the thorniest disputes.

The president also offered no detail on how the broader Mideast would move from today’s realities to his vision.

“From Cairo and Riyadh to Baghdad and Beirut, people will live in free and independent societies, where a desire for peace is reinforced by ties of diplomacy, tourism and trade,” he said. “Iran and Syria will be peaceful nations, where today’s oppression is a distant memory and people are free to speak their minds and develop their talents. And al-Qaida, Hezbollah and Hamas will be defeated, as Muslims across the region recognize the emptiness of the terrorists’ vision and the injustice of their cause.”

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Bush made such a brief mention of the Palestinians because his purpose was to sketch “broad themes and not the specifics of the process.”

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From The Israel/Palestine department.

The Bush Derangement Syndrome Support Group

Created: November 28th, 2007 | Written By: Kyle E. Moore

It’s got to be tough. I don’t envy her, but I want her to know that as a fellow victim of such a tragic and viral epidemic, I’m there for her, ready to provide a shoulder to lean upon, cry upon, whatever. I didn’t think it was possible, not among someone like that, not among someone who I thought was innoculated against such a dreaded disease, but as it turns out, there is no vaccine, and anyone is capable of falling victim to Bush Derangement Syndrome.

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From The Uncategorized department.

The Fabulous Condi v Darth Cheney et al: A Fable From Hindsight

Created: November 26th, 2007 | Written By: Mick Arran

What with the Fabulous Condi ginning up a photo-op-centered “Mid-East Summit” in Annapolis intended to provide pictures-without-words (or results) to make it look like Bush is, you know, doing something about The Palestinian Problem, the NYT thought it would be a good time to excerpt not one but two sections from BushBaby Liz Bumiller’s forthcoming biography of her. Titled Condoleezza Rice: An American Life, Bumiller has apparently found herself a new hero - or, put another way, an extension of her old one.

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From The Uncategorized department.

Quote Of The Day: The Blind Leading The Naked

Created: November 21st, 2007 | Written By: matttbastard

Iran’s involvement in Lebanon is destabilizing, to be sure. An international confrontation with Tehran would be serious indeed, and Hezbollah’s political power within Lebanon is cause for concern. But the [Bush] administration has allowed the focus on Iran and Hezbollah to result in policy that is dangerously blind to other dynamics at play.

In the context of the current political stalemate, the administration cannot afford to view the possible selection of a consensus candidate acceptable to Hezbollah as a greater danger than the failure to select anyone at all. And, beyond this week’s crisis, the focus on Hezbollah and Iran has distracted from the rise of Al Qaeda-inspired Sunni radical groups in Lebanon — groups that represent a far greater strategic threat to the U.S. and its allies.

These groups don’t have the popular support in Lebanon that Hezbollah boasts. But that also means they have no “red lines” of violence they will not cross. And, while Hezbollah wants to play an expanded political role in the Lebanese state, the Sunni extremist groups would like nothing more than to see the collapse of the state into anarchy and civil war – truly a worst-case scenario both for Lebanon’s fragile democracy and for regional security.

- Andrew Exum and Stephen McInerney, Beirut Is Not Tehran

(h/t abu muqawama)

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From The Uncategorized department.