I've been wondering in the past few days what scenario might unfold that would allow Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld to "save face" if their initial "full steam ahead" effort did not succeed. Let's face it, when even normally polite and reticent Canada speaks up against what you are saying you have every intention of doing, then you've got to wonder whether you've sold the idea well.
And yes, a back room diplomatic effort to manipulate significant concessions would certainly help. I would be looking to leaks from within SA, however, not from here. This is too much conflicting information over here and not a single authoritative voice. By the way, I didn't see the network news last night, but went back and listened to the audio of PBS Newshours' Daily Updates to see how it was presented, and they at least did not "pooh-pooh" the UN Report about Al-Qaeda being in good financial health. They did not do a follow-up story, but it was not minimized. More to come, I assume. So in looking about this morning, on my first cup of coffee mind you, I see the following: Campaign to cut all-Qaida funds stalls, UN panel says @ http://www.msnbc.com/news/800758.asp?0dm=C22QN citing the story in the Washington Post yesterday. Columnist David Ignatius makes the point that if the US Administration is serious about bringing democracy to the Middle East, it must recognize and sell it as a long campaign, not a quick military war but more like the Cold War. And quoting the French defense analyst Heisborg, the way to do this is to make human rights the main topic at every international meeting, every time, every place. Unfortunately, for other reasons, the Bush-Cheney administration has a spotty record on promoting human rights already, less than two years into its Supreme Court-decided term, of compromising human rights when it is expedient, to protect Exxon Mobile, for example, in Indonesia. Ignatius: Wilsonian Course for War @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14076-2002Aug29.html Keith wrote: According to some of our newspapers this morning, there is now so much pressure from America's "allies" all round the world that Bush may be willing, after all, to seek United Nations backing for a war, or at least, a new UN resolution for weapons inspections in Iraq. On the face, this is an amazing volte face -- and, really, is little short of suggesting that Cheney and Rumsfeld have been idiots in their recent bellicose speeches when, after all, they were fully aware that international opinion and fierce criticism within Congress were almost unanimously against US policy already. The interesting thing is that David Rennie, the Daily Telegraph's man in Washington, is saying that officials in Washington and at the president's ranch in Crawford are engaged in "fierce discussions" over this. Have rumours of this been leaked on purpose?
