It's About the Middle East, Stupid

[Larkspur]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1011-24.htm>http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1011-24.htm

They didn't mention Ken Bigley, of course. He - like his two American companions - was gone, dead, brutally murdered and therefore unavailable to participate in Mr Bush's long but resolute struggle or Mr Kerry's more hopeful tomorrow. Nor, for that matter, did they mention Ariel Sharon or the debris of Gaza or Saudi Arabia's fragile autocracy or Egypt's shattered tourist industry. To be honest, they didn't mention much at all.

Is that it, then? Has St Louis put a lid on foreign debate so far as this US election goes? Is the choice for America, and therefore us, just more of the same - or "smart" plans from a supposedly smart man who seems to believe that one summit will leave the world saluting him? I'm all right, Jacques?
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Kerry pronounces names and places rather more accurately than the world's most powerful flubber. He's been to Kyoto and sat in the salons of Europe. He eats gravitas with muesli for breakfast. He should know his stuff. But if he does, he's not telling.
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His fabled summit to persuade France, Germany and the rest to put in troops so America's boys can head back to Fort Bragg won't work just because Kerry isn't Bush. The bill, the danger and the manifest unpopularity of joining a queue winding into the distance without any exit signs are constants whoever sits in the Oval Office. Worse, to be really credible, his new, expanded coalition will need many Muslim troops on the ground. This (as the carnage in Egypt shows) is their war too. Al-Qaida is the peril within, as Saddam himself realised.

But how do you even begin to add that dimension to your alliance when, time and again, Israel kicks away its foundations? Forget the road map; forget any hope of a Palestinian state. Obfuscation is the name of Sharon's game, according to his gabbiest senior adviser, and Washington is trailing compliantly along behind. I won't deal with Arafat, Bush says proudly; but he won't deal with anybody else either.

Republican policy is an empty vessel drifting off Tel Aviv, and the Democratic alternative has just as little stored in its hold. (Indeed, on any historical test, the Democrats are less rather than more likely to stand up to an Israel going its own sweet way.)

Yet Kerry must know that the Arab world (and much of Europe) won't respond to his Iraq distress calls unless there's a decisive return to road-map action. He must know that even Blair and Bush are at loggerheads over Israel. He must realise that a fresh start here is the key to a fresh start in Baghdad. But he didn't mention it.
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