Bush’s Failed Middle East Policy

January 28, 2006

On June 24, 2002, a confident Bush said at the White House, "I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror." He ramped up his rhetoric after Arafat died in 2004 hoping that Arafat’s Fatah party would still be in control after a free election in 2006 but with a president he could control.

A couple days ago, Palestinians voted and decided that Hamas would run their government and gave it about 75 percent of their vote.  Bad news for the Administration because Hamas is a successful terrorist organization that has killed and maimed thousands in its effort to eliminate Israel. Most ominously, it has a well armed terrorist militia.

Now, terrorists the world over will rally around the Hamas victory and many Arab countries will support Palestine’s new government.

What is most surprising is that NeoCons and Bush were initially astounded by the vote and then dismissed it as just a referendum against a corrupt system. This is true to a point, but for Bush and his team to rationalize it that way is incredible. They ignore the real reasons for the vote.... decades of injustice and oppression from their own leaders left with a presidential candidate cozy with the United States in 2006. How could they expect a different result?

Hamas is certainly a terrorist organization and maybe be corrupt to its core like Fatah, but they have been effectively working behind the scenes for decades to help Palestinians.  They have spent millions of dollars on schools, for medical care and on social projects to help a population with high unemployment and institutionalized poverty. Their investment has now paid off and this should not have been a surprise.

Ignorance of Hamas’ social work in Palestine is definitely an intelligence and diplomatic failure of epic proportions and supports the argument that Bush's Middle East policy is a dismal failure. 

How is it, that many of us knew Hamas had a great chance in the 2006 election and are not surprised they won? We are surprised that Bush is surprised. How much more incompetence can the Middle East endure from the Bush Administration?

Worse yet, Bush was not only intellectually ignorant but also diplomatically lazy.  He refused to engage the Palestinians to understand their suffering, instead he thought in “black and white”. That is, “Us against them” and used this election  to benefit the U.S. and Isreal.  Bush promised democratic reforms in the Middle East and said he knew how to do it. He didn’t.

What an unmitigated policy failure. It didn’t have to be this way.

Listen up G.W. Bush, Palestine is now on the brink of civil war that will end many lives and spill blood onto neighboring countries. Are you listening?

Probably, not since past behavior predicts future behavior.