SHARON WAS RIGHT

New York Post ^ | 6/27/02 | ERIC FETTMANN

[kattracks]

June 27, 2002 -- PRESIDENT Bush's bold Middle East speech is a vindication of the ideas of Ariel Sharon. Ironically, it came during the 20th anniversary of Israel's war in Lebanon, which temporarily made Sharon a political outcast.

It was in June 1982 that then-Defense Minister Sharon, backed by the Cabinet, sent troops into Lebanon to expel Yasser Arafat.

[mseltzer]

Our double standard is hopefully finally disappearing.

[Enduring Freedom]

Powell had been undermining the credibility of our beloved President Bush.

Once again, whenever the influence of Powell fades, the President is back on top in the hearts and minds of the world.

Note to Bush - send Powell to foreign funerals and out for Starbucks - I take mine black.

[Bommer]

Good to see one leader with courage to follow his convictions. Bushes Palestinian speech was hardly an endorsement of Sharon for even mentioning going back to the pre-67 borders. Its just too bad that there is only 1 leader serious about the War on Terrorism...and he lives in Israel.

[happygrl]

Bush also accepted another longtime Sharon point: The need for true symmetry in any negotiating process - an end to unilateral Israeli concessions and an insistence on reciprocal, enforced Palestinian actions. "The essence of achieving a negotiated peace is compromise," wrote Sharon in his (pre-Oslo) autobiography, "and compromise by its nature is a two-sided process. As long as the need for peace is asymmetric, one side will be unwilling to compromise - and this is a sure recipe for killing any negotiations."

Sharon is not only a war leader, he is also a strategist in politics.

[monkeyshine]

But at least the president, inspired by Sharon, has placed U.S. policy on the basis of a moral imperative - one totally consistent with America's war on terrorism.

It's so much more than that. For once, an American President has based U.S. Policy as a moral imperative that is totally consistent with American ideals; namely a Constitutional Democracy with separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branch, rights protected by the government, and a willingness to seek peace in real terms.

In the past, American policy has been willing to abandon American ideals for expediency. It was a failed policy morally and practically.