Farce Burying the Bush Doctrine in Annapolis.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OWE1YTBmMzM2ZTY2ZjU5ODEyNWY5ZTY0NDMyMDQ1N2Q= ^ | Andrew McCarthy

[ventanax5]

The thug Assad regime of Syria will apparently take a couple of days off from murdering Lebanese democrats and enabling the anti-American jihad in Iraq to attend this week’s Annapolis summit … or “conference,” or “meeting.” It’s difficult to say how we should describe Condoleezza Rice’s pie-in-the-sky confab. After all, the main principals — an Israeli prime minister hanging on by a thread and a Palestinian “president” whose only constituency seems to be the U.S. State Department — cannot even agree on what to call it, much less on an agenda.

I’m going with “farce.”

Buried in Annapolis will be the last shards of the Bush Doctrine, the blunt marker the president once put down to signal a do-or-die choice for jihadist nations. Are you with us, he asked, or with the terrorists?

The Assads’ answer has always been plain: They are with the terrorists. Any terrorists. Saddam Hussein, Hamas, Hezbollah and, behind it all, Iran. Shiite or Sunni, national, sub-national, or transnational — it matters not, so long as the terrorizers in question oppose the United States while working toward Israel’s demise.

For our secretary of State, that somehow makes them part of the solution. Syria was beseeched to attend the farce even as it was working to throw into chaos the selection of a new Lebanese president to replace Emile Lahoud, the Syrian plant whose term was due to expire last week. Other candidates issue statements from bunkers because Syrian operatives tend to kill them if they appear in public. It has been nearly three years since Bashar al-Assad’s henchmen murdered Rafik Hariri for protesting against Lahoud’s grip on power.

[RightWhale]

With all these pre-conference assessments if anything positive emerges it will be historic.

[SolidWood]

What is positive? Israel and the US destroying the Iranian, Syrian and Hezbullah regime would be positive. Israel keeping it’s territory and fortifieng it while the Palis are isolated. That would be positive.

[RightWhale]

No ululating during the peace conference.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

It will be a farce, so might as well bring in a German tuba band to play.

[ventanax5]

Simply stated, the farce is crushing for Bush supporters. This administration is hellbent on granting statehood to savages who worship “martyrdom,” who have bombed their way to the table, and whose non-negotiable demand — a “right of return” to Israel for millions of migrant Palestinians — would sound the death-knell for a civilized democracy that is our only true friend in the region. So desperate is the administration to show “progress” and “engagement” that it is placing its chips on an unreconstructed terrorist organization, Fatah, that fails the most basic tests of sovereignty — able neither to control its own territory nor to acknowledge the right of a neighboring sovereign to exist. And in executing the strategy, the administration is betraying the principle that state sponsors of terror like Syria must be eradicated or reformed, but never embraced — the only roadmap to real peace.

I wonder what we’d be saying if president behind this farce were named Clinton.

[DoughtyOne]

IMO McCarthy nails it. Excellent article...

[SolidWood]

The Assads’ answer has always been plain: They are with the terrorists. Any terrorists. Saddam Hussein, Hamas

McCarthy may be right in essence, but he needs to check his facts. "The Assads'"? If he includes Hafez al-Assad (the decade long dictator and father of Bashar) then he is wrong. Assad sr. ruthlessly flattened the city of Hama were Muslim Brotherhood jihadists were based. 25,000 people died in Assads battle against the jihadis. And during Desert Storm Assad allied with us against Saddam Hussein. His son Bashar of course is a different tune.

[DoughtyOne]

If what you relate is true, and I have no reason not to believe you, then I would agree with your assessment.

Assad does supply terrorists, but he/his dad may have been somewhat less a supporter of terrorists in general than was related.

I would suggest that the destruction of Hama was probably out of self-interest though. It wasn’t due to an abhorance of terrorism in general. It was more of an abhorance that any group might oppose Syrian leadership.

I can’t explain why Syria would have supported actions against Hussein, unless they were bright enough to understand they could just as easily be next on Hussein’s problematic radar.

Syria has been a nesting ground for terrorists back into the 60s that I know of.

[Convert from ECUSA]

"Are you with us or with the terrorists?"

Apparently, that doesn't apply when the one with us and against the terrorists is Israel and the terrorists are the so called "palestinian authority". In that case, the message is "Israel, you'd better start coughing up concessions, pronto...or else." With the corollary to Abbas or whatever is this week's head philistine "try to keep a lid on the rocket shooting until we can get Congress to cough up another $50 million in "humanitarian" and "police" aid [i.e., your Swiss bank accounts and US weapons for the so-called "palestinian security forces."]

[Pietro]

Good it should be buried.

[SolidWood]

I would suggest that the destruction of Hama was probably out of (...) abhorance that any group might oppose Syrian leadership.

That's correct. But it sure was effective.

I can’t explain why Syria would have supported actions against Hussein

Well Syria was part of the broad Arab coalition which fought with us against Saddam. Saddam made the mistake of attacking fellow Arab countries (Saudi and Kuwait) , Saddam annexed Kuwait, attacked Saudi Arabia and then just shortly had fought Iran. The Syrians certainly had reason to be wary.

But also keep in mind that there has been an ideological/sectarian split since long between the Syrian and Iraqi Baathists. The Syrian Baath is largely Alawite Military careerist. The Iraqi Baath were Sunni "civilians" who took over the state.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the follow up. I appreciate it.

[SJackson]

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[pierrem15]

The best move for peace at this conference would be for us to lead most of the Arabs present to the trees on the old statehouse grounds and hang the lot of them.

[snippy_about_it]

Very well said! I don’t know when I’ve been so disappointed in an administration before. Well, at least one I voted for. How very sad this administration has been.

[Tolik]

Andrew C. McCarthy:

... Buried in Annapolis will be the last shards of the Bush Doctrine, the blunt marker the president once put down to signal a do-or-die choice for jihadist nations. Are you with us, he asked, or with the terrorists?

... The birth of Hamastan is Israel’s reward for unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza — the pattern of the “peace process” being that Israelis make concessions and Palestinians take concessions … while continuing to kill Israelis. Were Israel to make the next logical concession, withdrawal from the West Bank, Abbas would be out of a job. Hamas would duplicate the Gaza feat or Fatah would turn him out — as part of either a rapprochement with Hamas (the two sides are already talking) or its own harder line with Israel. That, after all, is what the Palestinian people want.

Simply stated, the farce is crushing for Bush supporters. This administration is hellbent on granting statehood to savages who worship “martyrdom,” who have bombed their way to the table, and whose non-negotiable demand — a “right of return” to Israel for millions of migrant Palestinians — would sound the death-knell for a civilized democracy that is our only true friend in the region. So desperate is the administration to show “progress” and “engagement” that it is placing its chips on an unreconstructed terrorist organization, Fatah, that fails the most basic tests of sovereignty — able neither to control its own territory nor to acknowledge the right of a neighboring sovereign to exist. And in executing the strategy, the administration is betraying the principle that state sponsors of terror like Syria must be eradicated or reformed, but never embraced — the only roadmap to real peace.

I wonder what we’d be saying if president behind this farce were named Clinton.

Nailed It!
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I hate to say it, but Bush and Rice deserved this distinction for the Annapolis farce.

After September 11, the message to our enemies was "don't mess with US"! How to prove that we mean it (this time)? Its to stay consistent. Qaddafi believed it and surrendered the WMD program.  AQ believed it and sent to Iraq all they had to fight us. Syria believed it and withdrew from Lebanon. But we are steadily losing grip on the message, and Annapolis's message is clear to our enemies - US is back to weak appeasement of mixed messages.

Regardless of what Columbia University said, the mere fact of inviting Ahmadinejad was legitimizing him and giving him a propaganda victory.

Regardless of any MSM headlines proclaiming "renewing peace hopes", the mere fact of inviting terrorists and their supporters to the table before they did anything to curtail terrorist actions is the victory for them.

[AZLiberty]

Perhaps Israel’s recent bombing of a Syrian “nuclear facility” has made Syria a little more interested in deal-making.