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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jcky who wrote (37991)	8/15/2002 6:09:19 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I would opine the silly attempts to tie together Iraq with Islamic fundamentalism and the events of 9/11 into the war on terror was made in haste. I don't agree, chiefly because of the timing -- a four month delay -- and because of the October 2001 intelligence reports that the WSJ article reported a couple of months ago, which linked Saddam to terrorist training, and not just Iraqi terrorists either. Whatever doctrinal differences Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia have had in the past, the diplomacy of the past ten months shows clearly that they have buried their differences and entered into an anti-American alliance. Certainly Iran and SA have done so; and Iraq has nearly done so with SA and has done so with Syria. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 Bush concentrated on Afghanistan and mostly followed Powell's advice on the Mideast. He tried to get Prince Abdullah to become part of the solution instead of just part of the problem, to 'deliver' Arafat while the US 'delivered' Israel. He sent General Zinni over to negotiate a cease-fire. It didn't work worth a damn. All the radical Arab regimes just fanned the flames of the Israeli/Pal conflict higher. Then the Rumsfeld/Cheney camp of the Bush administration gained ascendancy over the Powell camp. This is the camp that looks at the Mideast and says, "damn, we get no respect around here. Time to quit working on being liked and start working on being respected again. Iraq is the logical target for this job." That's when the talk about regime change in Baghdad started. Bush may be strikingly inarticulate but I don't think he particularly suffers from foot in mouth syndrome. His reputation as a politician before 9/11 was of discipline and staying on message.