Posted on 04/11/2002 3:29:01 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Edited on 04/22/2004 12:33:11 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
JERUSALEM
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
From the tone of the media reportage, and reaction from various capitals, it looks like Operation Bamboozle is working like a charm -- or better.
Operation Bamboozle is the diplomatic Kabuki dance (not to be confused with The Macarena) Team Bush choreograhers, with devilish precision, are performing before theatre audiences the world over. To the Bush people, Shakespeare was right, 'all the world's a stage', and they're stealing the show.
With flawless synchronous footwork, Team Bush has managed a feat which, only a week ago, might have been unimaginable: Rend asunder the notion of Israel as U.S. lackey.
Operation Bamboozle, at once, gives Israel the latitude to deal Arafat's terror network a devastating blow, while 'reassuring' the 'Arab world' by appearing to 'distance' the U.S. from Israeli action. The longer Israel 'defies' U.S. calls for withdrawal, the more autonomous Israel appears to be, and the more enhanced America's status as 'honest broker' becomes.
In that sense, this is more than a dance -- it's a juggling act, too -- an infinitely tricky one, laced with myriad potential pitfalls and landmines. In the Mideast, more than any other region in the world, things are seldom as they appear. In this tinder box, the art of tactful finesse, beguiling subtlety, and theater are vital coins of the realm. Imagery, pageantry, face-saving, demeanor -- here these are finespun staples of statecraft and diplomacy. Process, in the Mideast, is almost as important as results.
And no one knows this better than Team Bush, a group of accomplished thoroughbreds seasoned in the art. Traversing this treacherous terrain demands wisdom, skill, touch and keen intuition, attributes which personify Bush and the people he's picked to advise him. It also demands patience -- an inexhaustible supply thereof. Bush is no dilettante, however. To date, his modus operandi and string of impressive achievements inspire confidence, and shatters caricatures of him as a 'light-weight'.
Nor is it all 'just for show', either: Team Bush has a broader, bigger picture strategy in mind, i.e., ridding the world of Saddam Hussein. By keeping distance from Israeli activities, the U.S. eases the task of coalition-building, especially with Muslim states already favorably disposed to support such action (Kuwait, Turkey and Pakistan spring to mind).
Saddam Hussein, in short, remains The Big Enchilada, and despite Big Media's best efforts, Bush hasn't been diverted from the principal focus of his mission: Preventing a nuclear 9-11 attack.
The press would dearly love to see this President mired in the thicket of the Mideast, then blamed if he fails to force the lamb (Israel) to lie down with the lion (terrorists). But Bush is on to this charade, this barely disguised ploy.
Moreover, while critics charge the President with sending mixed messages on terrorism, the chorus of naysayers are missing the point: "All warfare is based on deception", so said Sun Tzu, the wise Chinese General millennia ago. The critics, not being privy to high-level security briefings, minutes of meetings, phone calls, 'behind-the-scenes' contacts are essentially 'out-of'the-loop' and understandably clueless. Case in point: Kristol and Kagan's latest conniption titled, "Powell's disastrous trip". Rendering a final verdict, one would think, should wisely await final results. But not to McCainiacs at the Weekly Standard, who have made their mission in life to second-guess Bush at the drop-of-a-hat.
In this Kabuki dance, Sec. Powell isn't solo-dancing, either. He is a soldier who didn't win medals in Vietnam by disobeying orders from commanders. He is following every jot and tittle of the President's script.
This is Bush's policy, not Powell's, not Cheney's, nor Rice's, not Rumsfeld's, not Sam Donaldson's -- but Bush's: Win, lose or draw, in the end, the buck stops with Bush. End of story.
What Powell's offering Arafat isn't an Olive Branch, but a Rat-Trap, an elaborately designed ambushed.
The truckloads of evidence collected in the IDF sweep of the territories implicates Arafat, dead-to-rights, with complicity in terrorism. He no longer enjoys the cloak of 'plausible deniability'. That cover is gone. Reams of documents prove, once and for all, how he and his accomplices were neck-deep in planning and financing major war crimes against the Jewish state.
And that's the lesson of Operation Bamboozle: It teaches Arafat et al that two can play at this game.
What game? Try this: 'I can't control Hamas! I can't control Islamic Jihad!', cries Arafat. How many times have we heard these lame excuses with each new bus bombing? I've lost count.
Enter Operation Bamboozle: Well, Chairman Arafat, you say you have no control over Hamas nor Islamic Jihad, gee, it just-so-happens we have no control over Israel, either. Now kiss your sorry NAZI rump good-bye.
Once Israel's tactical retreat is "complete" and the wave suicide bombings resume, the IDF can go for the kill. Before that denouement, however, the cease-fire interim (before sham "negotiations" collapse) buys the U.S. time to build-up for war against Iraq. The threat from Saddam to U.S. (and Israeli) interests makes Arafat pale by comparison.
When the bombs start to drop over Baghdad, Israel will have Arafat by the jugular.
Anyway, thats...
My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
Thursday, April 11, 2002
Given this administrations allergic reaction to unauthorized "leaking" could this simply be another act in the Kubuki theater you reference? I fear if it is not, we may be witnessing a collosal misstep from which the overall war effort may not recover.
I sure hope so.
What game? Try this: 'I can't control Hamas! I can't control Islamic Jihad!', cries Arafat.
Enter Operation Bamboozle: Well, Chairman Arafat, you say you have no control over Hamas nor Islamic Jihad, gee, it just-so-happens we have no control over Israel, either. Now kiss your sorry NAZI rump good-bye.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....................Interesting analysis.
You ignore the fact that the Israelis have had Arafat trapped for weeks.
You seem to be mired in wishful thinking. I hope that is all.
Innocent Israelis are dying in huge numbers at the behest of that murdering terrorist bastard Arafat. There can be NO EXCUSE for the dramatic playacting that you suggest that Bush is playing, and NO EXCUSE for preventing the Israelis from doing what they must to stop the evil that is attacking them.
Remember Coventry.
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