Short Takes

by CKR

The New York Times says today that Blackwater used CS gas (tear gas, not just like tear gas) to try to break up a traffic jam in Baghdad in 2005. They've even got a photo of the helicopter releasing it. This is just one more reason not to use mercenaries. Here's the Armchair Generalist's take.

Marc Lynch discusses the two-sided nature of President Bush's trip to the Middle East. I've been concerned about this: a peace treaty as cover for pulling together an alliance for war against Iran? Both sides have been covered in the MSM, although I haven't seen both in the same article, and since the president left American soil, the peace treaty side of the coverage has greatly predominated. And are the air strikes part of a campaign to convince the Middle East that the United States is strong enough to hit Iran too?

On the more positive side, the Obama campaign's successes are making me think that maybe, just maybe, the world is looking a lot more like the one some of us wanted back in the sixties. Our children (and their children?) are taking things for granted or passing things by that caused quite some struggles, even until recently. Their mental set transcends those old differences. Makes me feel like I can breathe easier.

Comments

[James]

Same old, same old. US presidents spend the first seven years of their terms blindly supporting Israel and then have the revelation in their final year that, by golly, the settlements really ARE holding up the peace process. They then spend their lame-duck period trying to do something about them. Meanwhile, the Israelis smile and nod and skillfully deflect them, waiting for the next president to take office. One wonders what might be accomplished if a US president went to the West Bank and saw the settlements and the checkpoints in the first year of their presidency rather than the last one.

Expect a rerun of the last peace push: the Israelis will make a ridiculous proposal, the Palestinians will walk out, the bewildered Americans will spend months getting them all back to the table and submit something actually quite reasonable, and the two sides will negotiate seriously for a few weeks. Then the new president will take office and the Israelis will tear up the plan with a sigh of relief, secure in the knowledge that they won't have to worry about pressure from Washington for another seven years.

And everything will go on as before. For all that the US and Israel claim to be unhappy with the terrorism and the radicalization of the Palestinians, they never seem eager to actually do anything about it. Israel has a tiger by the tail and dares not let it go. It was rather more of a kitten when they first laid hands on it, and it grows more dangerous every day, and they've beaten and antagonized it every day of its life, but at some point they're going to have to release it. If they had done so ten years ago they would not be in this mess today and that's a fact. One wonders how much worse things will be ten years from now.