Israeli Leaders Fault Bush on War

[leftchick]

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/081206.html

Amid the political and diplomatic fallout from Israel’s faltering invasion of Lebanon, some Israeli officials are privately blaming President George W. Bush for egging Prime Minister Ehud Olmert into the ill-conceived military adventure against the Hezbollah militia in south Lebanon.

Bush conveyed his strong personal support for the military offensive during a White House meeting with Olmert on May 23, according to sources familiar with the thinking of senior Israeli leaders.

Olmert, who like Bush lacks direct wartime experience, agreed that a dose of military force against Hezbollah might damage the guerrilla group’s influence in Lebanon and intimidate its allies, Iran and Syria, countries that Bush has identified as the chief obstacles to U.S. interests in the Middle East.

As part of Bush’s determination to create a “new Middle East” – one that is more amenable to U.S. policies and desires – Bush even urged Israel to attack Syria, but the Olmert government refused to go that far, according to Israeli sources.

One source said some Israeli officials thought Bush’s attack-Syria idea was “nuts” since much of the world would have seen the bombing campaign as overt aggression.

[grytpype]

1. Bush is the biggest fuckup in history.

He proves every day that he never should have been president.

[leftchick]

2. obviously anyone taking advice from him

is a major fuck-up too.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. Apparently Olmert isn't the brightest bulb in the box

and he fell for BushCo's bs hook, line and sinker.

Those PNAC pipedreams look great on paper. However, reality sucks.

[Kagemusha]

17. I've known of Olmert for a while when he was mayor of Jerusalem...

This outcome is NOT a surprise to me. Not one tiny, tiny bit. He's in charge of his party because Ariel Sharon became a vegetable. He won because the public wasn't gonna trust Labour, wanted disengagement from Gaza, and wasn't in the mood to support Benjamin Netanyahu, who's otherwise in the same mould, except he actually has more respectable military experience (albeit NOT as a general). Not that I think it'd help.

[madokie]

19. without a doubt America will be long in forgetting his reign

I will not be satisfied until he is looking through bars and wearing a jumpsuit and I'm not talking about the kind of bars that serve alcohol drinks either

[Connie_Corleone]

3. Olmert is an idiot for even listening to The Chimp.

Everything Bush touches turns to shit. You would think everyone would know that by now.

[Jacobin]

28. My thoughts exactly

Anyone who hasn't figured out yet that Bush* screws up everything he touches and is an utter and complete idiot has no business running a government

[sendero]

4. Just like the American people..

... there's a price to be paid for following an idiot. You can't blame it on the idiot once it is common knowledge that he IS an idiot. Blame yourselves.

[niceypoo]

5. The fact that Bush was backing Israel doomed them to fail

now, we know that all Bush and Condi's "Condie will be in Israel in a day or two to patch things up" talk was lies. The whole thing was Bushes idea from the get go. Bush is desperate for a nuclear war between Pakistan, India and Israel.

[Lurking Dem]

6. How about blaming him

for not following the Syrian Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty and Restoration Act?

It was passed 2 years ago and called for sanctions against Syria if they continued to fund Hezbollah. He has steadfastly refused to issue the sanctions the act called for.

He proclaimed this big victory with the Cedar Revolution and then did absolutely nothing to help Lebanon.

[Amonester]

30. Lil' AWOL was busy clearin' brush, or gone fishin'...

... or tryin' to learn how to ride his bike, or eatin' cake and then playin' the wrong chord on the guitar, while an entire mega-city was drownin' ...and that was when he didn't brag about watchin' his drive.

Make no mistake about it: lil' AWOL king adores all wars (especially those he never, neither would, actually fight in himself, nor send Jenna to). :grr:

[Dhalgren]

7. This is really interesting, in that so many here, at DU, completely

dismissed out-of-hand any idea that Bush's Neocons were involved in Israel's criminal blunder in Lebanon. I wonder if any of them will step forward now and admit that they were wrong....*crickets*

Well, let's give 'em a few minutes...

[converted_democrat]

8. K&R.. I have very little sympathy for anyone that would listen and take

"direction" or "advice" from the chimp.. Two chicken hawks with no real military experience started this mess, who's going to clean it up? Is it really any wonder that it's turned into what it is? I weep for our future.. What a mess..

[HereSince1628]

9. Personally I think this turned out just as Bush wanted. More uncertainty

Now the players in the region wonder about Israel's true strength. That will embolden some, and raises the need for Israel to make a demonstration" of power to reassert it's military dominance. I don't give the ceasefire the chance of a fart in a whirlwind that the ceasefire will hang together.

Bush/Cheney love chaos as it allows them to play their own script.

[Kagemusha]

11. As much as I am no fan of Bush, this is weak.

Olmert's made Nasrallah look like Saladin, and that's not Bush's fault.

[Felinity]

12. Fool me once . . . K&R

Dear Prime Minister Olmert:

You must be very busy. Perhaps you failed to notice how effective military force can be (or NOT) in addressing uprisings by militia-type organizations. There's this little place down the road from you called Iraq--real interesting what's been going on there, quite unsuccessfully, for the past few years. You should try googling it; or if you're too busy, ask a military historian to check it out for you.

Also, what exactly were you thinking, taking advice from the Bush Administration. Another quick google "Bush approval ratings" and "US National Debt" should shed a little light there. I mean, really, if they marched off a cliff, would you follow? Doh! Too late.

[Jazzgirl]

13. It is so hard to believe that one idiot who is

the 'pResident' of the United States can actually push people to repeat his mistakes. Geez...didn't they see how well this tactic worked in Iraq? I suspected the US (can you say Cheney and co.) were the ones pushing this effort. You would think these guys would get a clue and tell george to go back to riding his bike and clearing brush.

JG

[Virginia Dare]

14. When you take advice from a psychotic killer....

things are not likely to end up sunshine and lollipops.

[City Lights]

15. Screw blaming him privately. They need to go public.

Shout it from the rooftops so loudly the Corporate Whore Media can't ignore it.

[DemonFighterLives]

16. Yes, admission is the first step

They were duped and they are sorry for the mess. Come down hard on dubco and PNAC and get out the wallet.
Time to repair the Middle East.
:dem:

[azurnoir]

18. Dear Mr Olmert

you've been punked, Bush style. Not to be flippant but that IMHO is what has happened. Why, exactly though? For distraction?

[Felinity]

20. Just because the US failed in Iraq

It doesn't mean that the same strategy, employed by the Israelis, won't work for them. If at first you don't succeed, kill, kill, kill again.

Learning from your mistakes doesn't mean not repeating them, it means repeating them and expecting different results. We is on a learning curve, that's all.

It's like Magic!

[eccles12]

21. Excuse me, but you giving Bush much too much credit. It was not his

idea to push Israel to carry out this unwise carnage. It was Bush's masters, the neocon cabal that currently controls every aspect of American government, that ordered Mr. Bush to do this. Just listen to Mr. Kristol and others who insist that the US needed to go after Syria and Iran. As much as Israel tried to goad them into conflict, they were much too smart to fall for the trap. Believe me, when they decided to be drawn into a conflict, it will be at a time and place of their own choosing and over an issue they believe is worth it. Ascribing stupidity and terrorism to US enemies in the ME has always been a pitfall of both the US and Israel. These people are not uncivilized idiot terrorists as some would have the world believe. The latest venture by Israel into Lebanon proves this. I recommend for your reading the front-page article in the Washington Post today. A word to the wise, if ten wise men can be found, should be sufficient.

[Beelzebud]

22. Anyone still want to call me David Duke...

Or a Neo-Nazi, or an anit-semite, for being AGAINST this latest Neo-Conservative DISASTER?

[bvar22]

23. The NeoCons hold a very big stick ...

...over Israel's head: $3Billion plus/year.

[shadowknows69]

24. The Israeli people should realize they've been used

There were more effective ways to broker a peace or even force one between Is and Hez. Now I fear the powderkeg has been set off. I'm actually amazed Syria and Iran aren't in the game yet. Bush/Cheney must be fuming.

[DoYouEverWonder]

25. Syria and Iran are smart enough

to sit back and watch us destroy ourselves. They don't have to lift a finger.

[leftchick]

26. exactly

they are watching us implode.

[Poiuyt]

27. British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, thought the idea of bombing Iran

was nuts too. Rumsfeld had him fired.

[leftchick]

29. he sure did

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2301799,00.html


How the US fired Jack Straw
William Rees-Mogg

The Foreign Secretary spoke his mind on the Middle East — and became a target in Washington


WHEN JACK STRAW was replaced by Margaret Beckett as Foreign Secretary, it seemed an almost inexplicable event. Mr Straw had been very competent — experienced, serious, moderate and always well briefed. Margaret Beckett is embarrassingly inexperienced. I made inquiries in Washington and was told that Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, had taken exception to Mr Straw’s statement that it would be “nuts” to bomb Iran. The United States, it was said, had put pressure on Tony Blair to change his Foreign Secretary. Mr Straw had been fired at the request of the Bush Administration, particularly at the Pentagon.
Shortly before he was dismissed, Mr Straw went on his charming tour with Condoleezza Rice, in which they visited his Blackburn constituency. This had been given two explanations. One was that the US Secretary of State was hoping to protect Mr Straw, as a fellow foreign minister, against the undiplomatic attack from the Pentagon. She wanted to keep Mr Rumsfeld’s tanks off her turf. She had found Mr Straw competent and effective. If that were so, Dr Rice lost that battle in the Washington turf war.

[focusfan]

31. this moron (Bush)should be held accountable

for war crimes and other things.he is so stupid