Bush: the bizarro Midas' touch

One of the key features of BushCorp™ policy making is becoming increasingly apparent, its penchant for governance by unintended consequences.

In North Korea Bush's dissolution of Clinton era accords led to Pyonyang's unsupervised development of nuclear capability.

On the Gulf Coast, Bush's hack appointees combined with the Republican penchant for the privatization of government responsibilities led to the exacerbation of the devastation by Hurricane Katrina.

And in Iraq...well 'nuff said.

So Hamas' recent takeover of Gaza should really come as no surprise to anyone watching the unfolding of BushCorp™ policy in the area.

For a good overview of this sorry situation you might try this Washington Post article, but let me break it down for you.

First the US, typically, blindly backed Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza leaving a power vacuum in the area.

Then Bush, drunk on his own pro-democracy rhetoric, if not NA beer, encouraged Palestinian elections on the assumption that US backed Fatah, despite its record of incompetence and corruption (wonder how Bush missed that?) would win handily.

Funny thing though. Hamas, whose consistently anti-Israel rhetoric and behavior, as well as its more effective humanitarian activities (relative to Fatah anyway) makes it popular with the Palestinian street, won the election and took over the government. Hey, Hamas might be fundamentalist terrorists, but at least they get things done.

And, in an unsurprising betrayal of its pro-democracy rhetoric, rather than recognizing the need to talk to Palestine's democratically elected government, Bush organized a global effort to cut off support for Palestine in hopes of toppling the regime in favor of US backed Fatah.

Another funny story. It turns out that Palestinians, on seeing their already desperate plight worsened, apparently are focusing their hatred, not on their own elected government, but on Fatah, a group now seen not only as incompetent and corrupt, but also as a US/Israeli collaborator.

Oops.

You know, if five years ago you had asked me whether the Israeli/Palestinian conflict could get any more hopeless, I'd have been hard pressed to envision a situation worse than the cycle of violence which already gripped the region.

Then again, five years ago I didn't know then what I now now about Bush's bizarro Midas' touch.

Carter Book Controversy Rages

Apparently Jimmy Carter's new book about the Palestinian-Israel (conflict, subjugation, fiasco?) is still causing quite a brouhaha in some quarters.

I confess that I haven't yet read the book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, but it seems to me that the man who hammered together the Camp David Accords might have a valuable insight or two into the region's ongoing quagmire.

Until such a time as I get to read the book, and in light of the ongoing controversy(?), I'll defer to the judgment of my betters. Wolcott:

Anyone can link to anything on the web, and anyone who thinks that Jimmy Carter shares sympathies with White Supremacist groups is a liar, a fool, or a tool.

Let me see if I understand this irony: To counter Carter's claim that the Israeli lobby stifles debate in this country, the Anti-Defamation League is going to stifle debate and slime the former president with guilty (sic) by association to prove how wrong he is. [Emphasis mine-CK]

Democracy on the march

The recent landslide victory by the radical Islamic group Hamas might cause some to question the validity of our president's claim that democracy is the magic potion that will lead to global peace. I mean Hamas seems rather an unsavory group upon which to pin one's democratic hopes.

Hamas is closely related to the Muslim Brotherhood and its stated goal is to "remove Israel from the map", and to establish an Islamic theocracy in the area that is currently Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza strip. In pursuit of this, Hamas affirms a right to engage in military struggle.
[snip]
Hamas is listed as a terrorist group by the European Union, Canada, the United States, and Israel, and its attacks targeting Israeli civilians and other human rights abuses have been condemned by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

But perhaps Hamas victory this week is a function of the peculiar history of the Palestinian people and is now way indicative of a democratic trend.

Just because the people of the Gaza strip have voted into office a religiously fundamentalist and warlike group doesn't mean that trend will happen in any other countries.

It certainly couldn't happen here.