Sharon is a terrible war leader, all he has won is dead IDF troops and the loss of respect around the world for Israel. The bombers are back and Israel still is not safe. Bush lead us to a victory in Afganistan {ask the Russians how easy that is}, put a major hurt on the terrorists, changed a government, and created a safe situation so that over two million Afgans are coming home. Now, who in the hell is the war leader?
Sharon has done George W. Bush's calling by pulling his punches, I don't think we'll see that again. Bush's performance in the middle east has been every bit as disasterous as his predecessors -- in fact it could be worse, because in order to form this disasterous policy he violated his own doctrine. Israel suffered deaths today because of George W. Bush's "new tone" leftist appeasement of Arafat. Today's blood is on many hands, and some of those hands are in the American Administration. Sharon should have told Bush and Powell to stuff it when they came calling for "peace", indeed he was mistaken to honor America's request.
Bush did fine in Afghanistan but he has shown no follow-through. Afghanistan is nice little side show in what is now a war of civilizations, and Bush still wants to treat that war as if it were a posse looking for some bad guys -- not the major clash of civilizations that it is. If Bush had stuck to his path that was laid out in his state of the union speech, I'd still be praising him today (as I was then).
But he's gone completely haywire over this issue (middle east policy) and over a plethora of domestic "new tone" non-confrontations, and the acceptance of Democrat hegemony over issues. He's backed down EVERYWHERE.
And that vaunted Iraq invasion -- the reason for it all, all the vacillation, backing down, and appeasement -- exactly WHEN is that going to take place????