NYT: Rice on the Defensive After Rome Summit: "my-way-or-the-highway"

[DeepModem Mom]

Rice on the Defensive After Rome Summit
By HELENE COOPER
Published: July 28, 2006

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, July 28 — For the past year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has worked assiduously to resurrect the importance of traditional diplomacy and building consensus among world leaders after America’s go-it-alone approach to Iraq.

She has managed to hold together a fragile coalition of countries seeking to curb Iran’s nuclear program by offering to end America’s three-decade-long refusal to talk to Tehran if it suspends its uranium-enrichment program. And she has a similar coalition holding together on North Korea’s nuclear efforts.

But in the space of one hour in Rome on Wednesday, the public rewards of that hard work — the view around the world that the United States may now be more willing to play nice with others — may have been undone. Once again, it seemed, the United States had reverted to its my-way-or-the-highway approach, and Ms. Rice was on the defensive.

Certainly, she won the diplomatic battle in Rome: she squeezed out of world leaders extra time for Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah, arguing for a “sustainable” cease-fire including political elements rather than an immediate cease-fire. In the vision of Ms. Rice, who came here from Rome for a meeting with Asian leaders, that would shift the balance of power in the Middle East. The Lebanese government could finally assert its authority over its country. Syria and Iran, backers of Hezbollah, would see their influence diminish....

***

Ms. Rice lost the public relations war. Reports of the Rome meeting uniformly painted her as isolated in one corner, refusing to yield to impassioned calls for an immediate cease-fire to end mounting civilian casualties in Lebanon....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/world/middleeast/29ricecnd.html?hp&ex=1154145600&en=8da846856e139969&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[tularetom]

1. They wanted "democracy" in Lebanon

even though they were told what would happen as a result. Now they are going to have to live with the consequences of their ignorance. They better back off before we are forced into WWIII with only Israel as an ally.

[The Deacon]

2. Definitions

cease-fire n (1859) 1: a military order to cease firing 2: a suspension of active hostilities

peace n <snip> 4 a: a state or period of mutual concord between governments b: a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity - Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition

I know that Bush barely passed at Yale, earning a degree in history mainly because his father & grandfather were Big Medicine, and I realize Condi Rice earned her degrees in Sovietology mainly because her father was Associate Dean at the University of Denver at the time, but one might expect that one of them might have a passing acquaintance with the difference between "ceasefire" and "peace (treaty)" - Junior's Daddy was, after all, Ambassador to China. And that at least some of the DINOs and Talking Heads polluting our television screens might have come across the differences in their reading.
Well, that's the tyranny of low expectations, I suppose. So let me spell it out for you: ceasefire (which is what all the moral people in the World are calling for in Lebanon) means everybody stops, in place, and the killing pauses. No one gives up any territorial gains, no one disarms, no one agrees to anything except to stop killing each other, at least for the present time. Some people who might have died in the fighting will end up living, at least for a little while longer. These people are frequently civilians. Among good & moral people this is considered a Good Thing.
Ceasefires often fail, sooner or later - its the nature of the beast.
Unless, of course, the breathing space gained by the ceasefire leads to a peace treaty - which is when both sides make their desires for permanent solutions known. One side gives up its territorial gains in exchange for the other side disarming, for example.

Condi? Junior? DINOs? You simpletons got it now?
1. You call for permanent solutions as part of ceasefire: people continue to die.
2. You arrange expedited weapons shipments for Israel: people continue to die & the entire Muslim world sees you (and by extension, us) as bloodthirsty thugs.
3. You demand ceasefire & suspend any more shipments of arms to Israel until ceasefire is in place: people stop dying & the possibility of negotiating a peace treaty, with our Muslim allies helping, becomes real.

By the way, this WILL be on the Exam.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Sadly, I suspect Bush, Rice and Blair are trying to rewrite the dictionary

at least the version used by the MSM. They really want several hundred Lebanese dead, to let them know they voted 'wrong' in the last election; they may also want some Israeli civilians dead, to keep them suitably scared and the demand for American arms going along briskly (I don't think Israelis would be impressed by raising a 'terrorist alert level'). So they're pretending that a ceasefire is, in Bush's words, a "fake peace" (and the thread on DU that showed "false peace" is a codeword for Christian fundamentalists, who associate it with the antichrist, was fascinating), while their version of peace (ie a victory for Israel) is the only thing that should be allowed to stop the killing.

It's not that I am particularly against an Israeli 'victory'; I just don't want it achieved by killing hundreds of innocent Lebanese civilians. That would be a 'fake victory' anyway - it just recruits thousands more to terrorist organisations, who will strike at Israel, or elsewhere, in the following years.

[regnaD kciN]

8. Huh...?

They really want several hundred Lebanese dead, to let them know they voted 'wrong' in the last election

Actually, the Lebanese voted "right" (i.e. the way the administration wanted them to) in thier last election -- installing a Washington-approved Prime Minister and restricting Hezbollah's political wing to a minority position.

Obviously, that matters little to the Bushies. They want several hundred Lebanese dead because...well, because...oh, what the hell; they're all just nigg...I mean Ay-rabs anyway. And any Ay-rabs, no matter how well they do our bidding, are thoroughly dispensible if their sacrifice will aid the PNAC's aspirations. Not unlike how the most loyal of Bush aides will be unceremoniously kicked to the curb when necessary to allow their boss to come out smelling like a rose. :grr:

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Any vote for Hizbollah seems to condemn all Lebanese in Bush's eyes

His claim that 'democracies don't attack other democracies' has fallen flat on its face.

[cliss]

7. fabulous post,

Don't expect them to pass, by the way.....

[CoffeeCat]

3. Condoleeza Rice has risen...

...through the ranks of academia and life in the public sector---to become a myopic murderer.

I have no idea how the woman lives with herself.

[Cha]

5. conjob has extra greedy power

genes that devoured the logical gene.

[rodeodance]

4. "Ms. Rice lost the public relations war"---Ho KAREN--where forth art thou?

[Joe Bacon]

10. Tinkerbelle Cooper has snorted too much FAIRY DUST

What planet is this ass on? Show me one instance where Secretary of State Minnie Mouse is a consensus builder. Not once has that shrew tried to build any consensus, not once.