Although we had to suffer through a week of armchair FR "experts" b!tching about Powell's trip, the U.S. looks much more "reasonable" to the Arab states for having Powell plan on a peace meeting with the terrorists only to have to cancel it "at the last minute" due to yet another bombing homicide. It always seems that those who understand geopolitics the least complain the most, and end up looking silly after the fact...
Using the terms "reasonable" and "Arab states" in the same sentence is an irresolvable contradiction.
These same Arabs pull Arafat's strings. This is not local.
The Arabs know they're on deck. They don't want to step in to the batter's box.
They hope for a delay, like a fan(atic) running out on to the field. Something to distract everyone watching.
This was, IMHO, the original plan. Not that anyone in Washington or Jerusalem planned on this specific incident, but Bush and Sharon did plan to give Arafag as much rope as he needed to hang himself. Being true to his nature, Arafag unleashed another bomber. This was very predictable, and very much to our advantage.
As you say, now we look as good as possible to the rest of the Arabs. Now they can't scream so much when we cut off Arafag altogether, and Israel decides (probably after a few more bombings) to go in, seize him, and put him on a plane to Tunisia.
Powell is doing just what Bush wants him to do. By leaving open the possibility of a meeting on Sunday, he gives Arafag more rope. We all know that he will never denounce the terror, at least not in Arabic. Powell will take that as a double sign of bad faith, and leave.
All the pieces are falling into place.
I prefer to think in terms of leadership. President Bush enjoys my implicit trust, and therefore I will reserve judgement until the results of his policies manifest themselves.
Does it appear contradictory to mitigate anti terror objectives and dissemble about Arafat, well heck yes it does, but I reserve my judgement in the expectation that the goal of ending terror is the singular principle in the President's mind. I give total, nonjudgemental lattitude to the Bush administration's tactical maneuvers.
clinton demonstrated that he was a coward, a criminal, a vapid leftist hack, and an individual entirely lacking in character and judgement. As such his tactics were suspect because a damnable fool is as a damnable fool does.
Some folks in the media, and even here, cant seem to shift from suspect crookedness mode to expect excellence mode.
Who cares what the Arab states think? Who in the hell are they to decide how reasonable we are. They're a collection of tin horn dictators, corrupt monarchs, and evil despots. They are not now, nor will they ever be our allies. All this hand wringing about the arab street and the *moderate* arab regimes is nonsense. When the stuff hits the fan in Iraq we will have no support from any of these monsters.
Israel is our only ally in the middle east and one of our very very few true friends in the world.
No, we understand.
We just like to whine (grin).