Free Republic

The Obama administration is right to be caution about US intervention in Syria. For the US to launch a military strike without UN Security Council sanction would constitute an illegal 'act of war' against a sovereign state. (The Kosovo precedent cannot make an illegal act legal). Awkwardly, reality is rather different: There has been absolutely no evidence published to support the allegation that President Bashar al-Assad’s forces were responsible for this latest, or any other gas attack in Syria. Unwelcome as it may be to certain European and regional governments, who have been cheerleading the case for American intervention, neither...

The "peace process" is like an enormous ship traveling with great momentum to a predetermined destination. Nothing Israel can do will stop it or alter its course. While Israel continues to debate the details, the ship continues, inexorably. Eight months after the US invasion of Iraq and the announcement of the Roadmap, Yossi Beilin, the Oslo architect, and Abed Rabbo, launched their peace proposal after two and one-half years of work. It was to be known as the Geneva Accords. It was sub-titled Draft Permanent Status AgreementHaaretz reported The plan, dubbed the Geneva Accord in tribute to the funding and...

<p>WASHINGTON -- The US-led invasion of Iraq was one of the most humane military conflicts on record, although American and British forces could have avoided hundreds of civilian deaths if they had not used cluster bombs and if aircrews had relied on more-accurate bombing procedures, according to the first independent study of the war.</p>

Carter Attacks the “Road to Peace”By Lowell PonteFrontPageMagazine.com | December 12, 2003 THE STOCKHOLM SYNDROME OCCURS IN TERRORISM VICTIMS.  Freed from airliner skyjackers, people with this syndrome continue for minutes, hours or days to say friendly things about their captors.  Perhaps this is a survival tool built into our DNA. If we identify with and exude friendship for someone pointing a gun at us, this makes him a bit less likely to shoot.  After decades of Middle East terror bombings, some act as though peace can be achieved through such psychological surrender to terrorists.A different kind of “Stockholm Syndrome” can...

Why doesn't US Secretary of State Colin Powell appreciate that by receiving Yossi Beilin and the Geneva Accord gang in Washington, possibly on Friday, he is undermining both Israel's democracy and the road map the Bush administration has pushed so hard? Earlier this week, our embassy in London sent a message to Jerusalem stating that Nick Archer, head of the Middle East desk in the British Foreign Office, would be the official representative of his government at the ceremony. Archer would accompany Lord Michael Levy, Prime Minister Tony Blair's Middle East envoy. Their trip received the blessing of Blair, who...

White House spokesman: President Bush has no problem with Colin Powell meeting Geneva Accord authors (Reuters)

US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz requested a meeting with Geneva Initiative architects Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo on Friday when the two are in Washington to meet US Secretary of State Colin Powell. Wolfowitz also praised the authors of the People's Voice diplomatic plan, former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon and Palestinian academic Sari Nusseiba. Officials in Jerusalem connected with the Geneva initiative said various Washington groups, including the pro-Israeli Washington lobby AIPAC have met with advisors to US President George W. Bush to get the Powell meeting cancelled. The Ayalon – Nusseiba initiative, which has received...

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday he had a right to meet anyone with ideas on Middle East peace despite Israeli criticism it would be a mistake for him to see the authors of the non-official Geneva Accord peace initiative. "We are not stepping back in any way from our commitment to the road map (peace plan) and we hope that circumstances and conditions will permit the resumption of progress on the road map in the near future," Powell told reporters at a news conference in Tunis. "I do not know why I or anyone else in...

The Geneva Accord peace plan got a significant boost Friday, with a letter of support from U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, organizers said. Washington's backing of the Geneva Accord could be seen as a veiled rebuke to the Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who has attacked the plan as subversive. Powell's letter was addressed to the leaders of the initiative, former Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, the two told a news conference. "Dear Yossi and Yasser," the letter read, according to a Beilin aide. "The president remains committed a two...

There are some in this country who believe the liberation of Iraq is a war against the innocent people of Iraq. As if the war against the innocents in Iraq hasn’t already been going on for decades under Saddam’s sub-human reign. They believe, or perhaps, they feel that the United States, Great Britain, Australia and others of the Coalition of the Willing are the evil in this battle with good. I admit, I have no explanation for this lapse in factual conclusion other than, perhaps, it’s time they readjust their meds. American troops have been besieged by enemy surrenders, even...