|| "We've been sending dispatches for a year telling them
|| that the only thing the people care about here is the Palestinian
|| question, but they've ignored it," says a U.S. official in Cairo.
|| "There's not a single Egyptian who would be willing to say O.K. on
|| Iraq unless they see a change in the way the U.S. deals with the
|| Palestinians." Says a U.S. official in Amman: "All I know is if we
|| invade Iraq, I'll be on the first evacuation plane out of here,
|| because this place is going to explode." (...)
|| military strategists told Time that
|| even modest war strategies hinge on U.S. access to Arab bases and
|| airspace. "All our options require some type of help from countries
|| in the region," says a U.S. Central Command planner. The strategic
|| logic is simple, says a civilian official in the Pentagon: "The worse
|| things get between Israel and the Palestinians, the fewer options we
|| have with Iraq." (...)
Like I said, Shrubya hasn't got a chance in hell of taking a swipe at Saddam. Neither can he do anything to force Sharon to negotiate bec he's tied himself up with his commitment to AIPAC to make up for his father's pro-Saudi sins by backing Israel 120%. AIPAC will shrivel him if he reneges on that. Shrub's got too many skeletons in his closets to risk ADL's file on him being leaked to the media (media as in Murdoch), for one. He's surrounded himself with AIPAC alumni and there's no way he can step out of line. As for Cheney, he'll come back empty-handed and Zinni will hang around until a bloodbath "happens", forcing him to return home, too.
The Shrub junta'll pull a new crisis out of the hat and we'll all probably forget about Saddam like we forgot about ObL. The body count in Israel will continue to rise and hopefully will convince a large enough section of Israeli Jews that this isn't working. They'll want to drop Likud but I have a fear that the guys who killed Rabin won't go quietly this time.
Hakki