Mission Accomplished After All?

About ten days ago in this blog, I stated that the foreign policies of this administrations, were in danger of uniting the Islamic world, Sunni and Shia, in the face of a common enemy. It would seem that the recent and current events in Lebanon and Gaza, along with those of Iraq and Afghanistan, Palestine and Somalia have given the Muslim world a common cause.

In the New York Times today there is a headline that says exactly, and in detail, what I predicted would happen. The article illustrates the shift of public opinion, not just in countries that are traditionally antagonistic towards the West, but in those countries that our so-called allies in the war on terrorism such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. These two countries are scrambling to distance themselves from the American and Israeli stance on the situation in Lebanon and Gaza.

There are no easy answers to the problems in the Middle East and Africa, but making those problems bigger and more unsolvable seems to be a step in the wrong direction...one of the many that George and Co. have made since stealing office. Unless, of course, stirring up the Middle East was the real mission after all.

The neoconservatives have long advocated the aggressive pursuit of control of that troublesome region and their tactics include non-diplomacy and war to achieve that aim.

Perhaps George's apparent premature declaration of "Mission Accomplished" was not a blunder. Perhaps the mission he was referring to was not the end of conflict...but the beginning.