Delay in Awareness, Stubbornness and Slow Mindset Towards Realization

Stuck in the mud to the waist… This is an analyst’s comment I saw on Sky news channel evaluating the situation of the US involvement in Iraq. He resembled this situation with a song by Bruce Springsteen! Calls are getting louder in Britain, especially after four soldiers got killed and three very seriously injured when their boat hit by an improvised explosive in Shat Al Arab. This happened on the same day Brits are remembering their beloved once died in war. Debating Iraq became serious in Britain before that, though, however more politicians, human rights organizations and law maker are demanding Prime Minister Blair to settle everything once and for all.

On the other side of the Atlantic, after the defeat of the US Republican party in the mid-term elections last week, President Bush (according to his White House spokesman) decided to “be open to all options”! I don’t blame him especially that a look into the near future does not look that bright as before: Angry voices inside the US are coming from different directions; more losses among the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan where chances to hide the accurate number of casualties are becoming narrower and narrower; more hostility towards the “liberator” from Iraqis, even those who were happy that the US helped in toppling the rat of Tikrit; the Talaban is gaining some victories on ground, which makes past years effort, money, and sacrifices looks like gone in vain. For these and many other reasons critical (or shall I say fatal decisions) decisions must be made, started with removing one of the main pillars holding the Bush Administration together: by letting Donald Rumsfeld fall. It is like a sign of reconciliation with his Democratic opponents! However, it is not over for Rumsfeld because there are some believe that Rumsfeld should pay the price. Why should the blame completely be put on the president?

The smell of “still” burning Iraq has reached the White House, and for that reason, the president is reviewing impossible possibilities, such as sending indirect signals (through Tony Blair) to have talks with Syria and Iran in order to save his situation in Iraq.

The last I remember, Bush branded the government in Tehran as one of the three axes of evil, and replaced Iraq with Syria afterwards

Anyway, the president of the United States is seeking help from his enemy to clean up the mess he and his troops created in Iraq. However, taking how Bush’s personality into the consideration, especially his stubbornness, no two person would doubt that he would not say it publicly “need help to be pulled out of the Iraqi mud!”. Bush must remain tough because any softening will cause more damage to his administration than Iraq already did.

There are of course who oppose that approach strongly: the Iraqi Model is one. Their objection is not because of Iran’s (behind the curtain) involvement in Iraq, but more about how the US and the UK view of to Iran! In addition to the “working together with enemy to stabilize Iraq” proposal, there is of course the possibility of a full withdraw from the country. Some Democrats are demanding gradual and systematic withdraw within 4 to 6 months. I doubt it, especially that this will mean the fall of the US administration as a whole! There are more who demand the President of the United States to apologize. Keith Olbermann did that a couple of months ago, but he reiterated that during the mid-term elections when Jim Kerry made his comments about the US troops



Both proposals were written by a group of Democrats and Republicans, led by former secretary of state, James Baker. The result of the study would be submitted by the end of the year! But in the meantime those living in the White House will continue thinking and saying to each other something similar to a song by Clash:

….you gotta let me know

Should I stay or should I go?

Should I stay, or should I go!!

With these amazingly speedy events, players in the “big middle east” game are moving: There is the quick player who want to understand what’s really going on and ensure that any strategy the at-the-moment-in-a-very-big-problem US government would take will not have an effect on its interests in the region. This is perfectly illustrated in the quick their actions towards their region’s events Is there a significance from such a move? Do they deserve credit? In fact, the Arabs do not deserve any compliment or credit, because the UK and US blockade on the Palestinians will be in either case lifted very soon when the two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas comes out from behind closed doors with the name of the new “independent” Prime Minister, who eventually will take the next steps in forming the “national unity government”.

While all this is happening, supporters of each party are still getting at each other’s throats, and more are getting killed, buildings have been burned, and foreign journalists have been kidnapped from day to day!

What made the Arabs react now and not earlier? Why do they always late in taking actions or decisions that fate of millions depends on? Do they like to play it safe or what????? This is the second time in less than a year that a common reaction can be seen by the Arabs. If we look to last summer war in Lebanon, Arab governments did not move a bit towards dealing with a situation where a country was 24/7 under the bombardment, until Qana. The same thing happened with the Palestinians, nothing happened until Beit Hanoun. Both incidents involved the killing of children while they were sleeping. Both tragedies took place by Israelis, both have Qatar as the central player, and in both cases money was the main element for reconciliation!

In the meantime, back to Iraq, the killing, mutation of bodies, the discovery of unknown dead bodies, and the kidnapping is continuing under the sight and sound of a crippled Iraqi government!

A death machine just crashes everything and anything that might light a candle to see the path towards a better Iraq.