Now what?

So at long last the breathlessly awaited Baker report has appeared. Some say it is a brutally frank repudiation of the Bush/Cheney approach to Iraq. Others say it is little more than an excuse for Bush/Cheney to start face-saving withdrawal from Iraq. With 79 separate suggestions it is like a smorgasbord from which Bush can just pick and choose what he wants to do. In other words, he can just ignore it if that is his desire (and quite likely what he will choose to do). Please notice that not one person of the ten member bipartisan committee was initially opposed to the immoral attack on Iraq. A White House committee basically charged with once again rescuing George W. Bush from yet another failure (although this one certainly makes all his previous failures appear amateurish). Don't worry Georgie, Daddy's friends will come and attempt to bail you out once again (if you are sensible enough to accept their recommendations). As there are at least two other committees considering the situation Bush will wait for the others and then announce what the new plan will be (it will probably the old plan just gussied up with some slight changes in language). Am I cynical and distrustful of the Bush/Cheney administration? Do bears do it in the woods?

I confess I never thought very highly of Jimmy Carter when he was President. Never thought too highly of him after his Presidency either. But he is now my hero. He alone seems to have found the courage to present the Palestinian case in all of its apartheid horror. At a time when the Israeli lobby virtually controls our foreign policy, thumbs its nose at the United Nations, continues to steal Palestianian land and water, ruthlessly seeks out and murders Palestinian leaders, and in the process kills innocent women and children repeatedly, Carter has now exposed the situation for what it truly is - a system of vicious apartheid. Of course everyone from Pelosi through the ultra-rightist fundamentalists waiting for the Rapture are outraged (nothing in American politics can occur without the blessing of the Israeli lobby) Carter has done a magnificent thing (raised an absolutely critical issue that has for too many years been ignored). For far too many years the world has stood by watching the slow Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, apparently either helpless or unwilling to impose any serious sanctions in spite of Israeli violations of one UN ruling after another (far more violations than any other country ever, including Iraq). The U.S. could have curbed the excessive Israeli colonialism a long time ago but for whatever reasons has never done so (powerful Israeli lobby). Carter, at 82, with nothing to particularly gain or lose, has finally exposed this dreadful situation. More power to him.

The legacy of British colonialism continues to haunt the world wherever the sun still sets. Israeli colonialism still continues with the blessing of the U.S. There will be no peace in the Middle East as long as this situation continues no matter what happens in Iraq or elsewhere.