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It would be interesting to know if Obama is consulting with Bush 41 as well as with Scowcroft. That would not be a bad thing. One of the many outrageous mistakes GWB made was spurning (scorning?) his father's advice in world affairs.
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I can remember in '92 thinking I could. not. endure another four years of GHWB, but he seems positively competent and statesmanlike by comparison - and in truth his difficulties were mostly domestic, not foreign.
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And it's interesting that (according to Zbig on Morning Joe) Brzezinski was "a supporter but not a consultant to" Barack Obama during the campaign.

How much real leverage does any President have on Israel? Thus far they have run rings around us. They do what they want to do and we are reduced to tut tutting, making specious threats and engaging it bits of nudge-nudge wink-wink on the side. Other have caught on to this game. PE Obama will have his work cut out to take a different position, even with Scowcroft, Powell and others there is little appetite for a tought stance.

more of the same village tripe from Klein.

A few rockets launched from Gaza into Israel (none of which killed anyone) is an "outrage" that justifies the slaughter from the skies of hundreds of Palestinians. The neverending, literal siege and blockade of Gaza by Israel resulting in a humanitarian crisis --a true "outrage" -- goes unmentioned by Klein.

kathy
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Iran Contra
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Thats all I have to say about GHWB

The U.S. is responsible for 90,000+ civilian casualties in a preemptive strike against a non-aggressor Arab nation in the name of strategic self-defense. It's going to lecture Israel on the topic?

Correction: 90,000 deaths.

Spot on, pmc. Could not have summarised it better. Gaza was, is and shall be an "open" prison.

Time Magazine, 2001: "the grown ups are back in charge. Time Magazine, 2009: "the grown ups are back in charge."
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A small favor-- if the Obama administration starts invading a bunch of countries and making every other country in the world hate us, could you please ask a few tough questions? Thanks in advance.
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This is a good column, and a key insight-- when Josh Marshall highlighted Gates' relationship month or so ago, it went a long way toward changing my opinion on Obama retaining Gates. Thanks also for highlighting Time's lack of prescience in 2001. At that time, I wrote something like, "Colin Powell's advice and diplomatic experience will be of great value to the incoming administration." So, yeah. Mistake made, gotta learn from it.

I heard an interesting snippet of an interview with Bush on the radio the other day, in which he was asked why he didn't consult with his father about foreign affairs. He rather quietly said: "I don't know why." Or something similar.
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But really, any honest discussion of the Bush administration properly starts - and ends - with the Cheney. Bush was simply his clay to mold. As Wilkerson said the other day:
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"He became vice president well before George Bush picked him," Wilkerson said of Cheney. "And he began to manipulate things from that point on, knowing that he was going to be able to convince this guy to pick him, knowing that he was then going to be able to wade into the vacuums that existed around George Bush — personality vacuum, character vacuum, details vacuum, experience vacuum."

seven says: "How much real leverage does any President have on Israel?"
Probably not much. Especially since we got ourselves into a Middle East boondoggle ourselves, we are more reliant on Israeli intelligence and covert ops than ever. Satellite intel only gets you so far. They - the Israelis - got us by the short-hairs and they know it.

A small favor-- if the Obama administration starts invading a bunch of countries and making every other country in the world hate us, could you please ask a few tough questions? Thanks in advance.
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Elvis, not to worry, they will this time. Remember that it is now a Democratic administration and they have been champing at the bit to "hold him accountable!!"

What Joe Klein said yesterday
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(The current offensive has also sent Hamas a significant message from the neighboring moderate Arab countries, especially Egypt: don't expect any sympathy from us.)

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What Bloomberg said the day before
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=azteGyguAWdE&refer=africa
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Egypt, the first Arab state to make peace with Israel, is accused by protesters on the streets of the Middle East of collusion with Israel's offensive in Gaza.

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snip
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Several regional leaders took to the airwaves of Al-Jazeera to accuse Egypt of collusion in the Israeli operation that has so far killed at least 370 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,700. Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah singled Egypt out for criticism in a televised speech on Dec. 28.
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Hezbollah Call
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Nasrallah called on Egyptians to defy their government and go out in their millions to protest the Israeli strikes and force open the Rafah crossing into Gaza. Hannibal Qaddafi, one of the sons of the Libyan leader, used Al-Jazeera to censure his country's neighbor for not allowing in aid to the Palestinians. Egypt later said its airports were open for aid to Palestinians.
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Al-Jazeera ran round-the-clock interviews with analysts and activists who lashed out at Egypt as well as Israel. Today, demonstrators in Yemen broke into the Egyptian consulate in Sanaa and vandalized furniture. Other rallies, in Amman, Beirut, Damascus and Tripoli, headed toward Egyptian embassies.
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Even countries that often stay clear of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, such as Algeria, called on Egypt to open its border. Domestically, the Egyptian government faced similar pressure.
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Students burned Israeli flags at Cairo University, while members of professional unions, including doctors, lawyers and journalists, demanded the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and an end to Egypt natural gas sales to Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group, decried “official silence.”

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Today from RawStory
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TRIPOLI (AFP) — Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi has called on Arab states to take a firm stand and boycott Israel because of its onslaught on the Gaza Strip, the official JANA news agency reported on Wednesday.
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Speaking to foreign ministers of the five North African Maghreb states in Tripoli late on Tuesday ahead of an Arab League meeting in Cairo on Wednesday, Kadhafi also branded a league peace plan a "plot" and a "masquerade."

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Also today from Reuters
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UNITED NATIONS, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Arab countries called an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to debate the violence in Gaza, demanding in a draft resolution an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants.
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The evening session adjourned without a vote being called and diplomats said negotiations would be held in coming days over the draft, which Western delegates described as unbalanced and focusing almost entirely on Israel's actions.
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The resolution, presented by Libya, called for "an immediate ceasefire and for its full respect by both sides." It also demanded protection for Palestinian civilians, opening border crossings into Gaza and "restoration of calm in full."
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It denounced "the excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by Israel" but its only mention of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel was a vague reference to "the deterioration of the situation in southern Israel."

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Great frikkin job Joe "the Journalist". May I present you with your clown shoes.

sgw: Don't believe everything you read. A lot of your snippets is PR. Each of these players have political reasons to be doing what they're doing. Most don't care what happens to the Palestinian people, whom they view no better than sewer rats.
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Poor people in this world are as useless as cannon fodder. 200 people in the Congo were killed on Monday. Not too many headlines about that. Hezbollah and Quaddafi couldn't care less about 400 deaths. But they will use it to their advantage, of course of course.

Like everything else in the region, complex:

Moderate Arab states generally allied to the United States blamed Palestinian disunity for the crisis and more radical states, some of whom did not attend, urged collective action to defend the Palestinians against Israel. [Link]

In retrospect, U.S. bungling of Palestinian elections which resulted in Hamas coming to power will be one of the signal failures of the Bush administration.

In the most striking comments, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, criticized the Palestinians for their inability to remain united behind President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah — an implicit condemnation of Hamas, which took over Gaza entirely in 2007 in a brief but violent civil war with Fatah. Normally, during periods of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, Arab leaders only condemn Israel. [Link]

It does no good to play Villains and Saints in the Middle East.

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nibbly
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A UN resolution is not PR. And regardless of if they were ALL PR stunts they still refute Joe Klein's declaration made in his post yesterday. My point was made pretty clearly I think.
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Oh and go ask the people at the Egyptian Embassy in Yemen how much of a PR stunt that was.

sgw: That poor people in other Arab countries feel for the poor people of Palestine is understandable. Doesn't reflect POLICY or the chessboard of the Middle East. What did the Yemen government say? (I really don't know the answer to that, but notice how quiet all the region's governments are about the offensive. Only Syria and Iran are squawking.)

We may have grownups back in the room soon, it remains to be seen if they can get the unruly children in line. The mid-east is a big puzzle, it is difficult to determine the facts. It may be time to get the children to stop worrying about who shot whom with a pea. They need to start showing their manners. Otherwise, we are doomed to hear their excuses repeatly.

Maybe we should stop sending the children guns.

nibbly
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Maybe you didn't read this the first time so I will repost. Notice the S on Arab countrie(s). You can think post you want to post about your opinion on who thinks what but when you are done please explain why the Arab countries that have a block seat at the UN Security council table pushed for this resolution. That they did so is a fact, not an interpretation.
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UNITED NATIONS, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Arab countries called an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to debate the violence in Gaza, demanding in a draft resolution an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants.

We may have grownups back in the room soon, it remains to be seen if they can get the unruly children in line.
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Uh, they're not kids, and we're not "The Adults" of the world. Even if Obama & Team turn out to be incredibly competent, that's not going to automatically make them more mature and wiser than everyone else.
This sort of condescending "we Americans know better than everyone else" attitude doesn't help us at all.

200 people in the Congo were killed on Monday.
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F--k me! It's Mass Murder Mondays every week at the Congo Lounge!
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(Entirely lacking in taste, I know, but what do you say to that sort of thing?)

sgw: sadly the Arabs know how to play this game, too. Call for a Security Council meeting; denounce Israel and do nothing practical about giving help to the Gazans. The Israel FM says Gaza has plenty of food (BBC World). Is that a bald faced lie? No one called her on it? Spokesman for Abbas, who is also heading for NYK just condemned Israel. Denunciations but precious little practical help seems to the SOP. This too shall pass.

sgw: Your headline doesn't signify which Arab countries called for the emergency session. It wasn't Egypt or Jordan, I assure you. It was Syria and Iran. They have their reasons.

Your headline doesn't signify which Arab countries called for the emergency session. It wasn't Egypt or Jordan, I assure you.

<b<Wrong.

Egypt's U.N. Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz, on behalf of Arab Group of nations at the U.N., asked for the emergency council meeting on instructions from Arab League foreign ministers who met in Cairo earlier Wednesday. [Link]

Like I said, complex.

nibbly
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Listen I encourage you to read up before you post. The Arab countries collectively have one seat at the UN Security Council and Iran and Syria aren't even a part of that delegation. Right now they are lead by Libya and they brought it to the table. Here read this so you don't "assure me" of anything else that you are just puling out of your ass.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4BU4H020090101