Story Highlights
Sen. John McCain spoke before pro-Israeli lobbying group
Presumptive GOP presidential nominee calls for sanctions against Iran’s leaders
McCain faults Obama for his willingness to talk with Iran’s president
McCain would continue Bush’s policies that help Iran, Obama’s campaign says…
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/02/mccain.aipac/index.html
We heard the Middle East rhetoric of Senator John McCain. Now look at the Middle East performance of the Bush team.
Prince Andrew rebukes America over Iraq
The Duke of York has launched an unprecedented attack on President George W Bush’s White House administration for failing to listen more to the advice of the British Government over the Iraq war…
The Duke’s criticism of Washington represents an extraordinary departure from normal protocol, which determines that members of the Royal Family refrain from public comment on sensitive international and political issues.
In a rare newspaper interview, with the International Herald Tribune, the Duke expresses his strong personal regret that the US failed to heed British advice over the post-war strategy for Iraq, with disastrous consequences.
On the eve of a 10-day mission to America in his role as British trade envoy, he told the newspaper that there were “occasions when people in the UK would wish that those in responsible positions in the US might listen and learn from our experiences”.
He said that because of Britain’s imperial history, it had experience of many of the foreign policy challenges now facing the US.
“If you are looking at colonialism, if you are looking at operations on an international scale, if you are looking at understanding each other’s culture, understanding how to operate in a military insurgency campaign – we have been through them all,” Prince Andrew said.
“We’ve won some, lost some, drawn some. The fact is there is quite a lot of experience over here which is valid and should be listened to.”
The aftermath of the Iraq conflict fuelled a “healthy scepticism” towards what is said in Washington, and a feeling of “why didn’t anyone listen to what was said and the advice that was given”.
British opinion had been sought, he said, before adding: “It’s not as if we had been forcing that across the Atlantic.”
The Duke, who saw active service when as a Navy officer he flew helicopters during the Falklands conflict 26 years ago, still takes a keen interest in military affairs.
It is understood his criticisms of the US refer specifically to the British advice – rejected during the conflict itself – about how to conduct the post-war strategy for rebuilding Iraqi institutions and placing the country on the road to democracy…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1577608/Prince-Andrew-rebukes-America-over-Iraq.html
More comments on the Bush team’s activities in the Middle East:
Top aide’s damning attack on Blair’s Iraq war
A damning assessment of Tony Blair’s lack of leadership in Iraq amid its descent into lawlessness has been made by one of Britain’s most senior diplomats.
Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the former ambassador to the United Nations and the first British envoy to Iraq, said the Prime Minister had taken his “eye off the ball” in the crucial first days and weeks after the liberation, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
In the starkest language concerning the failure of the Government to anticipate the insurgency, Sir Jeremy said: “In the days following the victory of 9 April [2003] no one, it seems to me, was instructed to put the security of Iraq first. To put law and order on the streets first. There was no police force. There was no constituted army except the victorious invaders.
“And there was no American general that I could … establish who was given the accountable responsibility to make sure that the first duty of any government – and we were the government – was to keep law and order on the streets. There was a vacuum from the beginning in which looters, saboteurs, the criminals, the insurgents moved very quickly…”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1543458/Top-aide’s-damning-attack-on-Blair’s-Iraq-war.html
So how much did the Bush team know about the people(the Middle East) it was about to conquer? Once again – Sir Jeremy Greenstock:
Sir Jeremy adds: “Neither the British Government in 1917 nor the Coalition in 2003 really understood what they were taking on when they assumed control of Baghdad.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1545285/Greenstock-finally-delivers-his-barb-on-Iraq.html
What Middle East performance by the Bush team gives America a nice, warm, cozy feeling? And remember, the Middle East comes under “foreign policy”. The neocons in the House of Representatives “threw a fit” when Nancy Pelosi first expressed a desire to “leave the shores of America”. How was she going to get “first hand evidence” of the knowledgeable “goings on” in the Middle East?
Barack Obama has not yet had an opportunity to work on Middle East problems. The Middle East is faced with mankind’s toughest problems. Theft of land and genocide are tough problems to solve. But, Barack Obama will not be threatening world war III in order to solve the Middle East problems.
Barack Obama, if elected, may even go back to the America we once knew – the America that “spoke softly and carried a big stick”.
Tags: barack obama, colonialism, criticism, culture, foreign policy challenges, genocide, john mccain, land theft, Middle East, Performance, post war strategy, prince andrew, Rhetoric
