In today’s Times we learn that Bush still eschews the hands on approach to Mid-East peace that Bill Clinton took in his final days in office. Besides the reflexive position that anything Clinton did was bad, there’s another consideration motivating Bush. He’d be risking visible failure, and he doesn’t like to do that. Unlike Clinton and Jimmy Carter he’s too afraid to fail to lay it all out on the line. Normally, we might be inclined to condemn a president who refused to take a chance for peace, but in Bush’s case we must admit that his fear has led him to the better choice. Consider this, from the Independent, via Firedoglake:
Making matters worse was Mr Bush’s lack of knowledge and sense of history. Flynt Everett [sic], once the top adviser to Ms Rice on Middle East matters, but now a strong critic of the President, last week related how at a 2002 meeting in the White House situation room, he heard Mr Bush say that as soon as the Palestinians had a democratically elected government, their leadership would be “less hung-up” on issues like borders and the status of Jerusalem.
Mr Everett [sic] was astounded. It was, he told the Washington Post last week, “one of the most profoundly ignorant statements anyone has ever uttered on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” [Emphasis mine]
This is the man that some people felt deserved to be president, saying things that are so profoundly stupid they leave you open mouthed with astonishment. So, thank you Mr. Bush for staying out of the talks. They will fail miserably, but at least, without your presence, we may avoid another war.
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