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

To: paul_philp who wrote (74419)	2/15/2003 11:39:07 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Meanwhile, on the Israeli/Pal front, the Egyptians are pressing the Palestinians for more cease-fire talks haaretz.co.il To give you the gist, the Egyptians want the Palestinians to get a cease-fire together before the Iraq war, the PA says maybe and Hamas says no (but has no objection to talking since that ratifies its new status as co-equal to the PA). Hamas might be willing to cease-fire (they haven't sent a suicide-bomber in over 2 months) but is still asking way too much for it. Egypt sternly warns them all that they are likely to be in a worse position after the war. Meanwhile Sharon sends word sub rosa that he will roll back the IDF on a localized basis where there is quiet, but will pay no attention to announcements, only deeds.

To: paul_philp who wrote (74419)	2/16/2003 1:10:25 PM
From: Win Smith	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

I was actually going to post that Friedman column myself, in a contrarian sort of way. I thought the merger of "WWIII has started" apocalyptic rhetoric into Friedman's long running globalism proselytizing was extremely weak, even given the constraints of the op-ed format. Not to go into detail, but China has always been an inward looking country. Offhand, I would say that by far the greatest market opportunities for China are in China itself. The idea that China and anybody else has to line up 4-square behind W's war marketing plan or the world's going to fall to pieces needs a little more serious backing behind it than what's apparent in that column. Friedman's conclusion: One more 9/11, one bad Iraq war that ties America down alone in the Middle East and saps its strength, well, that may go over well with the cold warriors in the People's Liberation Army, but in the real world — in the world where your real threat is not American troops crossing your borders but American dollars fleeing from them — you will be out of business. Now which part of that sentence don't you understand? Um. A bad Iraq war tieing America down is pretty independent of Chinese backing or lack of it. I muchly doubt that the Chinese are going to be airlifting munitions to Saddam, one way or the other. Near as I can tell, the official Neocon line is that Iraq is just step one in their grand great game war and occupation plans, they want us tied down to the hilt. Not to mention that China was the consensus new public enemy #1 of choice for the conservative in crowd before 9/11. And again, as near as I can tell, China's greatest opportunities are internal. Out of business? WWIII? Chill, Thomas.