[Cicero]

Much of this is Rice's fault. She let the Arabists in the State Department advise her, and as a result she got exactly what could be expected.

Developments in Israel and in South America over the past year have really disillusioned me about Condi's competence. It seems as if she has turned into yet another State Department shill.

Very disappointing. She had a lot of real promise when she started out.

[section9]

Bollocks. George Patton could have been SOS and Hamas would have won that election. Fatah was painfully corrupt, and had been throughout the Arafat period. Everyone in Palestine knew it. I only blame Condi's people for not signalling to her that Hamas was bound to win that election.

Once elected, no Arab nation was going to freeze them out. They had a popular mandate. Rice knew this going in. Forget what Debka is saying. This trip is about Iran, not Palestine.

Be Seeing You,

Chris