This is really naive, Lee.

Here's what most likely really happened. France wanted a ceasefire at any cost, and was willing to hoodwink the UN and perhaps the Seniora government in order to get it done. Israel and the US were willing dupes in the scheme.

The Lebanese government, meanwhile, never intended to do anything other than deploy troops in the South. They won't disarm Hizballah and will look the other way at violations of 1701.

This solution was a fig leaf that all parties could live with, since Syrian intervention was precluded as an option.

I blog at http://americanfootprints.com/

Posted at August 20, 2006 1:00 AM in response to Courting Failure in Lebanon

Well, I tried to find his comments on Al Jazeera's website, since fucking MEMRI doesn't provide the original Arabic nor a link to same.

Here's the home page of Qaradawi's show, badly translated by Google:

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.net%2FNR%2Fexeres%2F7455D9A7-AF8F-4FFD-BEEA-864E69F5921F.htm&langpair=ar%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8

As you can see, there is nothing from June 5th ... so perhaps it's elsewhere.

--------
I blog at http://americanfootprints.com

Posted at August 14, 2006 3:13 PM in response to Qaradawi on Homosexuality

I blog at <a xhref="http://americanfootprints.com/">American Footprints</a>

try this:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/748437.html

Posted at August 9, 2006 2:42 PM in response to A War Bleg

Can't Bumiller co-write stories with someone who knows something about policy?

I blog at <a xhref="http://americanfootprints.com/">American Footprints</a>

Posted at June 4, 2006 6:59 PM in response to The Glam Factor

Exactly right.

Posted at January 31, 2006 9:25 PM in response to Subsidies For Everyone

<span class="Apple-style-span"><em>The options for response then are that this is an impeachable offense (Gore), unlawful and the President should seek changes to FISA (McCain, some Dems), or that it is totally legal (the Administration).  That's it.  Choose.</em></span&gt<span class="Apple-style-span">
</span&gt<span class="Apple-style-span">This seems a bit too bipolar for me. Also worth noting: the Republicans control Congress, ergo no impeachment will obtain.</span&gt<span class="Apple-style-span">
</span&gt<span class="Apple-style-span">In any case, we really don't know the technical details of the program. </span&gt

Posted at January 23, 2006 12:58 PM in response to Surveillance Law, 101

also worth noting: the price of oil is more or less global nowadays.
also worth noting: when was the last time the US imposed sanctions on Saudi Arabia?

Posted at January 18, 2006 9:45 AM in response to Oil: It Lets You Drive

"right," except that the invasion and subsequent bungling of Iraq has led to major setbacks in what was heretofore a qualified success in the WoT (btw, where are Osama and Zawahiri and for that matter Zarqawi?).

Posted at January 17, 2006 8:11 PM in response to Bad Incentives

the general inability of the FBI to deal with terrorism, revamp its computer system, hire and retain competent analysts, etc.

Posted at January 16, 2006 9:45 PM in response to False Positives

I don't think you've got all your facts straight, Den Valdron. While it's true that there was an opening after 9/11, Iran's reformists had already been outmaneuvered by the hardliners and Khatami had lost a great deal of credibility with his supporters. 
Second, the US did work with Iran, through the Geneva channel, in overthrowing the Taliban. However, the ill-advised "axis of evil" speech immediately led to a shutdown of this budding relationship. It's ambiguous, however, what Iran's intentions were with respect to the US. They were casing US installations and instigating anti-US propaganda in Afghanistan at that point. So it's not fair to lay the blame solely at the feet of the US. It takes two to tango.

Posted at January 14, 2006 3:53 PM in response to Iran Links