There are many misconceptions in the news. First the news people think the Bush administration is as naive as they are. Thus they think that at the summit a week ago our nation was unaware of what the terrorists were going to do in response. Anyone who had studied the middle east for more than 15 seconds could have and did predict that the terrorist groups would respond with terror.
It should also be obvious that if the Bush administration is serious about peace in the Middle East the terrorist groups must be destroyed. I would say our strategy when the terrorism started was to condemn both the Terrorists for the terrorist activities and condemn the Israelis for fighting back. That lets us remain the almost neutral broker. It is also clear that as Israel proceeds to destroy Hamas and other terrorist groups, the United States will just stand their going... tsk tsk tsk... this is so terrible.. golly geeee.
But if Israel does destroy them all, as it says it will, then a good and lasting peace can be established. That had to be in the plan to fix the middle east from day one of the Bush administration.
That is my take on the Bush Administration goal. If the terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq and now the Palestinian terrorists are severely damaged, the rest of the Muslim world will start to really get the message. If we get the Palestine situation under control, and do an external overthrow of Iran, then the Saudi princes are going to get very nervous, but not nearly as nervous as the Syrians. They both are quite likely to do what ever we say.
Both the Muslim world and the Democrats are trying to see that this effort fails. But I really don't think it will. It will take a large pile of dead bad guys before we can make peace in the middle east. That looks to me like what is taking place.
But only a media person could be dumb enough to not understand that all that has happened was foreseen and planned for by this administration.