War's Effect Felt Across Middle East-Robert Fisk

[chlamor]

So now they have struck in Qatar. Nice, friendly, liberal Doha, with its massive U.S. air base and its spiky, argumentative al-Jazeera television, its modern shops and expatriate compounds and luxury hotels. Ever since al-Qaida urged its supporters to strike around the maritime Arab kingdoms of the Gulf, the princes and emirs have been waiting to find out who's first. The suicide bomber -- and the killing of a Brit -- gave them their answer.

<snip>

The idea that "regime change" would bring newfound stability to the countries of the Gulf -- another of President Bush's excuses for the 2003 invasion -- now appears to be a myth.

That last weekend marked the second anniversary of the invasion may have been in the bomber's mind. Certainly it coincided with attacks inside Iraq, including a suicide bombing in Mosul, the killing of another U.S. soldier near Tikrit and a roadside bomb near Basra. The crisis in Lebanon provoked by the former premier Rafik Hariri's murder has drawn attention away from Iraq even as the insurgency grows in strength.

The reality is that the Iraqi invasion now reverberates across the Middle East. Hariri was the leading proponent of a Syrian military withdrawal -- which the United States supports, primarily because it holds Damascus responsible for helping Iraqi insurgents. Lebanese officials have even claimed privately that Hariri's friendship with the Iraqi interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi (himself half-Lebanese) brought about his death, a suggestion that neither the Americans nor the United Nations takes seriously.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/217097_fisk23.html

[bpilgrim]

1. neoCONs BELIEVE they can't lose since increased violence only JUSTIFYs

their AGGRESSION.

the chimp has threatened to use nukes before a shot was even fired... everything is goin according to their plan, even the unkown, unkowns...


http://images.globalfreepress.com

peace

[reprehensor]

2. bump