The New York Times nicely illustrates why I think the current administration’s obsession with Saddam Hussein and Iraq is counter-productive. Reporter James Bennet writes,
Mr. Bush’s quandary is this: To retain a consistent and coherent stance against terrorism, he has little choice but to excoriate Mr. Arafat for failing to stop the suicide bombings. So on Saturday Mr. Bush demanded that Mr. Arafat call for a halt in the suicide bombings in Arabic and use his besieged security forces to crack down on the terrorists and their weaponry. So far, Mr. Arafat has ignored those calls.
Under the logic of the Bush doctrine, that would compel Mr. Bush to treat the Palestinian leader the way he has treated Al Qaeda and the Taliban, a point the Israelis are making daily. But in this case, as some of Mr. Bush’s advisers acknowledge, that logic has run headlong into other priorities.
To build Arab support for his impending confrontation with Iraq, Mr. Bush knows he cannot afford to alienate other Arab nations, whose anti-Israel declarations have grown in vehemence and urgency, along with their demands that Mr. Bush restrain the Sharon government.
Bush’s seeming inflexible view that there must be some sort of attack on Iraq is allowing Arab countries to hold U.S. foreign policy hostage. Don’t push too far on Israel, they saw, or forget about counting on us when it comes time to take out Saddam Hussein.
There is an odd parallel in the way Bush was recently held hostage by one of his dumber acts of deal making with Congress, when he refused to lift steep tariffs on Pakistani textiles to please corporate fat cats and voters in areas likely to be impacted by any cessation or lowering of such tariffs.
I’ve always wondered what the fascination is to hold such awesome power and then let people nickel and dime it away from you. Letting Arafat know the United States will not tolerate terrorism in that region any longer should be a much higher foreign policy goal than removing Hussein — especially when Arab countries are going to have a lukewarm reaction at any attack on Iraq regardless of what the United States does visa vis Israel.