No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

 

NYT and Washington Post Agree: Bush Can't Handle the Middle East

The bush administration clearly failed to plan for an Iraq that had no effective government, and is unwilling to commit the troops needed to get control of that anarchy. But they DID plan to use the defeat of Iraq to get the Israelis and the Palestinians to talk to each other and bring about a cessation of the low level war that has gone on there for the last 31 months. That is why the presented the Roadmap to peace.

Of course, neither side there trusts the other to live up to any agreement and the extremists don't want peace unless it means the total destruction of the other side. So we have had five suicide bombings in 48 hours and the Israeli military has the West Bank and Gaza Strip both so totally locked down militarily that even if the PLO wants to stop the suicide bombers, they are unable to act. They are literally locked into a deadly embrace that only some extremely effective diplomacy by an outsider (The US is the only candidate.) can break.

Fortunately, the Bush administration is famed for the effective diplomacy that the Bush administration has demonstrated in the last two years. Oh, wait. That is in some alternate universe, isn't it? Bush hasn't even ~tried~. He has promised, but done nothing to act on those promises. Can they even attempt to do two things at the same time?

Here are the two editorials: New York Times and Washington Post
posted by Richard at 5:34 AM