[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Pretty strong for a new young writer, but I agree with him. In retrospect, I have concluded that all the dance around the May poll at the UN was simply to isolate the U.S. and discredit Bush, rather than some clandestine attempt to hide French-German-Russian involvement there. They had to know that Bush was going to go in with or without them so they set the table for the aftermath. They hoped that would be the isolation of the U.S. from the rest of the world. As usual, they misunderestimated Dubya. They instead isolated themselves.

Our local anti-U.S. crowd, the media and the Democrats, are still trying to make that play work but in the process are isolating themselves, too. Things may work out for the better even yet.