Political maps

In an earlier post I referred to a Bush strategy of redrawing the political map in the Middle East.  I was slightly misquoting a Bill Moyers interview of Joseph Wilson, he of Plame fame, who understood the strategy, but opposed it because he didn't think it would work.  Wilson had said "re-growing" the political map.

MOYERS: So you're saying that it is important to enforce United Nations resolutions.

WILSON: Absolutely.

MOYERS: You think war is inevitable?

WILSON: I think war is inevitable. Essentially, the speech that the President gave at the American Enterprise Institute was so much on the overthrow of the regime and the liberation of the Iraqi people that I suspect that Saddam understands that this is not about disarmament.

[...]

MOYERS: And you agree with that, don't you?

WILSON: Well, no, I don't think that that's the only way. That's where I disagree. I mean, I think that there are several other steps that can be taken before you have to go to total war for the purposes of achieving disarmament.

MOYERS: Coercive…

WILSON: But I think disarmament is only one of the objectives. And the President has touched repeatedly and more openly on the other objectives in recent speeches including this idea of liberating Iraq and liberating its people from a brutal dictator. And I agree that Saddam Hussein is a brutal dictator.

And I agree along with everybody else that the Iraqi people could — would well be far better off without Saddam Hussein. The problem really is a war which has us invading, conquering and then subsequently occupying Iraq may not achieve that liberation that we're talking about.

MOYERS: So this is not just about weapons of mass destruction.

WILSON: Oh, no, I think it's far more about re-growing the political map of the Middle East.

When I spoke of changing the political map, I meant it in terms of shifting the political alliances, just as the political map here in the states may be considered redrawn when a block of blue states shift to the red state column in an election year.  But Lee Smith writing in the Weekly Standard on the subject of the political map in the Middle East means it in terms of actually changing the boundaries.

For decades now "Arabs" in the Middle East have feared Washington's ostensible designs to divide and weaken them. (Despite the obvious fact that America is working hard to see that Iraq, for instance, does not break into three parts.) But a region-wide reshuffling may be in the cards anyway. What might that look like?

Perhaps Washington is most anxious about its NATO ally Turkey and how it would deal with a separate Kurdish state. But the time may be coming when the Kurds will weigh their choices and might prefer fighting for an independent Kurdistan to defending themselves against their Iraqi compatriots.

Whichever way it goes, the times they are a-changing and the Middle East is going to have a different look five years down the road.   Hell, it's different now, and it needs to be. 

If there is one thing that has become clear as a result of this latest Arab-Israeli battle, the terrorists are not willing to leave Israel in peace.  It doesn't matter what concessions the Israelis make.  Vacating Gaza and southern Lebanon won them no good will.  Those moves served only to allow Hamas and Hezbollah to move their rocket launchers that much closer to Israeli cities.

For fifty years or so, cease fires between Israel and the terrorists have been pauses in the fighting that allowed Hezbollah, Hamas, and like organizations to regroup, re-arm, and renew the fight at times of their choosing.  Extracting concessions from Israel are just tactics of war.  The right people recognize this now.

This time there will be no cease fire from which a reinvigorated Hezbollah will rise to attack again.  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed that when she talked about a new Middle East on her visit to the region where she is right now.

"It is time for a new Middle East," she said. "It is time to say to those that don't want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail. They will not."

How did we get here?  How did we arrive at the point where Israel would declare that an act of war had occurred when Hezbollah kidnapped her soldiers?  How did it happen that Israel could flatly refuse to bow to international pressure and declare that it was going to eliminate Hezbollah?  How is it that Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia -- for the first time in history -- all criticized Hezbollah for irresponsibly attacking Israel, instead of condemning Israel for defending herself?

Why do we believe, when Secretary Rice says it's time for a new Middle East, that there will be a new Middle East?

All of this happened because of the invasion of Iraq and the determination of the Bush Administration to see it through.  Contrary to lefty liberal wishful thinking, the invasion hasn't weakened the U.S. in any way.  Sure, resources have been stretched, but the battle for Iraq in the War on Terror has been a convincing demonstration of American power.  People, particularly in the Middle East, notice.

Comments

[Diane Clark]

It is amazing to me that you folks call on Joe Wilson for anything. The lack of honesty and character of this man is breath-taking. Have you folks no researchers. In just a minute or two I found out Wilsons second wife Jacquline a French diplomat and last known as a lobbyist for the country of Gabon. The French colony of Gabon is an oil producer, Charles de Gaulle created in 1965 Elf Aquitaine state controlled of course. The oil company also served as an important intelligence service covertly collecting information on the African nations. Wilson is tied up in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal. Wilson ran his company International Ventures out of an investment company called Rock Creek Corp. Rock Creek a family owned business of Alamoudi a naturalized citizen was sentenced to 276 months in jail, he plead guilty to three federal offenses all terrorism related. The french undercover agent testified he planted the forged documents about Niger in Italy. France also swayed Turkey entry into NATO saying they would vote no if they allowed US to use Turkey for the Iraq war. So in essenses France screwed us. Do some research give the facts and let us decide, isn't that what you are suppose to do?

[Tom Bowler]

When you say "you folks" in your opening sentence, what folks are you talking about?

In making this particular argument I pick on Joe Wilson for that quote because he's a vocal critic of the Bush strategy in the War on Terror. The point, though perhaps not as clear as it should be, is that the arguments from the left about the hopelessness of it are not only wrong but dishonest.