Error 404: Weapons of Mass Destruction not found

Mid-May and life is nice on Grand Avenue. My stuff is still a mess, but I'm all moved into my new apartment now. It's been a fun time, cooking burgers in the front yard, friends crashing here, chillin on the front porch. What more could you want? The Internet access is finally working, fortunately.

Now things are getting strange. A multi-suicide bombing/gun attack on western targets in Riyadh, followed up by massive multiple suicide bombings (partly against Jewish targets) in Casablanca, of all places. This along with another bombing in Hebron, killing a settler couple, and massive bombings against the Russians in Chechnya. These things tend to happen when there is a push for diplomacy, and in this case Colin Powell is visiting the Middle East right now.

Apparently they just can't seem to find real weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The Americans sent to find the stuff have given up and gone home. What? The great casus belli, the threat of Saddam's WMD has vanished? So what made this war so righteous?

The Israeli-Palestinian quest for peace may get dragged forward by the "Road Map" but it looks sketchy, as Israel refuses to accept many basic points of the program, including an end to all "natural growth" in existing settlement blocs. The lead Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, has resigned, supposedly resenting these limitations. Palestinians are angry with Israel for refusing to compromise and tangling with US internal politics, in their view:

Even though the Americans have sent Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region, Israel has dodged real engagement with him and is dealing instead with US official Elliot Abrams in secret meetings before Powell?s arrival, and conferring with White House officials after Colin Powell leaves. All the while, Israel is influencing US policies in the region by lobbying the US Congress to pressure the Bush administration by signing petitions that will discourage it from moving forward with the roadmap.

That website, Bitter Lemons, features two Israeli and two Palestinian writers each week. Its quite excellent.

A report in Haaretz describes how settlers dominate the West Bank now:

The worse things have become for the Palestinian residents of the territories, the better things have become for the settlers. Though settlers are targets for unceasing Palestinian attacks, and settlers have left some places, the overall framework of Jewish settlement in the West Bank continues to develop apace.
The civilian and security infrastructures for the settlements have been greatly strengthened. There is nearly complete Israeli control on the roads in Judea and Samaria. The electricity and water systems, as well as various other services used by the settlers have become nearly completely independent of the Palestinian infrastructure. All the planning bodies in the territory are under settler control.

And you can't get a complete image of what's going on without the latest Chomsky interview, of course. But is there any substance to this Iran stuff?

For years Israel has been pressing the United States to take on Iran. Iran is too big for Israel to attack, so they want the big boys to do it.
And it?s quite likely that the war may already be under way. A year ago, over 10 percent of the Israeli air force was reported to be permanently based in eastern Turkey, that is, in these huge U.S. military bases in eastern Turkey. And they are reported to be flying reconnaissance over the Iranian border. In addition, there are credible reports, that there are efforts, that the U.S. and Turkey and Israel are attempting to stir up Azeri nationalist forces in northern Iran to move towards a kind of a linkage of parts of Iran with Azerbaijan. There is a kind of an axis of U.S.-Turkish-Israeli power in the region opposed to Iran that may ultimately, perhaps, lead to the split-up of Iran and maybe military attack. Although there will be a military attack only if it?s taken for granted that Iran would be basically defenseless.

Intriguing, or merely lies? Has the world gone mad? By the end of this summer, if we're still alive, I'll declare victory!

Posted by HongPong at May 19, 2003 01:43 AM
Listed under Iraq .