“You cannot support terrorists of one kind and be with us in the war on terrorism against Al Qaeda.” — Condoleezza Rice, President Bush’s National Security Advisor, commenting on P.L.O. Chairman Yasser Arafat’s known sponsorship of terrorism.
Then how on earth do you explain the current policy of your administration, Dr. Rice?
We scream and yell at Israel for weeks, merely for trying to defend themselves against terrorism — from a neighboring country, no less. Just imagine if the tables were reversed. Imagine if a terrorist took over Canada, and assisted people in running suicide attacks into Buffalo and New York City. What would we think if overseas countries told us to be “mature and restrained” and refuse to fight back?
In the end, Israel let Arafat go. What else could they do, after all, since their primary ally — the U.S. — betrayed them with disgusting hypocrisy?
The real question right now is not what most of our media is focusing on, which is what will Arafat and the Palestinian people do next? That’s a no-brainer. They will support and engage in terrorism even more. Israel will be attacked like never before, though on Arafat’s timetable. Afafat knows that so long as President Bush keeps listening to Pacifist-in-Chief Colin Powell, he’ll get even more of a free pass than he did under President Clinton. The real question now is: How much damage has the total reversal of the United States in its campaign against terrorism done? What do the Saddam Husseins and bin Ladens of the world make of the American retreat? Does it frighten or dishearten them — or does it give them the determination to proceed?
After spending the winter making the world a little more difficult for terrorists — by smashing the Taliban and removing them from power, and calling other terrorist states an “axis of evil” — the Bush Administration did a complete 180-degree flip-flop and shockingly, abruptly reintroduced the policies of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in the Middle East. Even Congress cannot bear the sight of it. Liberals and conservatives alike are speaking out against the appeasement of Palestinian terrorists by our once ferocious President, now hiding behind his intellectually and morally washed out Secretary of State.
As bad as it is to do nothing in response to terrorism, it’s arguably worse (and more dangerous) to actually start to do something — and then reverse course. This is the same policy of “warrus interruptus” practiced by the first Bush Administration. One would have hoped that Bush Jr. might learn from his father’s mistakes, but apparently not.
Watch now what our enemies do next. And remember the policies of cowardice and retreat which helped bring it about.
