And you know I’m not Powell’s biggest fan.

'Colin Powell perfectly tailored'

This much is true.

Powell is the perfect negation of the adage that 'the clothes make the man'.

An empty suit if there ever was one.

I don't know ... What I'd like to believe is that Bush has Powell playing Good Cop because Powell wants to play Good Cop, and because it can't really hurt. If he doesn't succeed, that's OK -- they've bought time for other plans *cough* Iraq *cough* to come to fruition, the whole world has seen America being the good guys, and Powell will have the satisfaction of knowing that at least he gave it his best shot. And what the hell, maybe the horse will learn to sing ...

Mike G

It would be nice to believe that, but Powell continues to run true to form, but the rope-a-dope theory you are reffering to does not seem valid.

For one thing, the whole premise that the moderate (moderate = corrupt) arab leaders need to be coddled is false. Much has been written on this in the media.

Recall his advice to bush Sr during the Gulf War, the result of which is the current Iraq situation. If Iraq does manage to get a WMD and use it before or during the coming war, there wil be ALOT of finger pointing at the villains of the first Gulf War - Powell, and the windbag Shwartzkopf, and at Bush Senior for listening to them.

Has it occurred to anyone that Arafat may be in the early stage of geriatric dementia? Or is it unbalanced reporting to speculate on that without analyzing Sharon too?

Sharon is a wisecracker, a hard core man. But he's in his right mind, he's perfectly coherent in his internal politics. He just suffers from not understanding how to properly perform public speaking to Western media outlets.

If you listen to his speeches to Israeli's and specifically his hebrew speaking, he's quite coherent.

Arafat is a driveling demented old muppet hag. He can't complete a thought let alone a sentence.

I don't know if medically he's really at such a stage or not, but emmotionally he appears incapable of maintaining a stability of
his own persona.

Which begs the question, if he were to become somehow naturaly incapacitaded (whether by natural death or complete utter insanity), and some other major psycho took his place, would the rest of the world coddle this new person like they do arafat? Somehow I doubt it. I think they really lost their big chance for "peace".

Maybe all there is now is a waiting game for Israel. A new person might be just as bad, but they probably won't command the "respect" of the idiotarions of the world.

I raised an eyebrow at the term "Palestinian civlians" ... with what they are taught, how they conceal among them their terrorist martyrs, how they take pride in the deaths of others through their own deaths... is there any civilian population left to carry on a true peace-loving and cherishing nation?

Maine's Michael --

I glumly suspect that your interpretation is the correct one. Still, note the italics -- I'd like to believe in the rope-a-dope theory.

I just hope the Isrealis spiked the food and water sent into his Ramallah HQ with something carcinogenic. At his age, who could claim a tumor is “improbable”?

Truly, nobody's hatred of Arafat runs deeper than mine but the guy is really old and has Parkinson's disease, so perhaps we should lay off his geriatric problems and concentrate on the fact that he is one of the most evil, immoral men to ever walk the face of the planet. I am sure he was calm, collected, and just as evil when he was Colin Powell's age.

The shreiking at reporters to shut up is a bit silly however, and not really related to his health problems. What a jerk.

Re: AP story about Palestinian people starting to question the wisdom of the death cult.
The AP is about as far to the left as any of the other media, so if they report it this way, I think there must be a lot more they're not saying. An Arafar belittled and ridiculed cannot be a martyr. A dead or jailed Arafat can be. I think we're on the right track here.

Reuters is more explicit:

[Link: abcnews.go.com...]

I LOVE your blog and your attitude!
I'm just getting started on mine Greatest Jeneration -- [Link: JenLArt.blogspot.com...] -- you are an inspiration to me. Thank you!
Keep on blogging! Regards,
J.T.

But I thought the cliche was that "Israel's strategy has failed. Arafat is more popular than ever." Are you saying that the paid punditocracy is wrong?

This is good news? The religious kooks over there hate Arafat. Could it be these Palestinians want a leader who can get them a dirty nuke?

The Palestinians made a massive miscalculation.

In many ways, Israel truly is a mini-America. The same way our 'friends' abroad perceive us as 'ugly Americans', they perceive Israelis as 'rude Israelis'. There's an element of truth in all stereotypes, but it's not that Americans are merely uncultured and Israelis are merely rude. It's that Americans and Israelis are both active, creative, realist societies and not nuanced utopianists who tiptoe through the tulips of cluelessness while resting on their laurels.

In the case of Islamofascists, they too bought the stereotype and perceived that America is incapable of defending ourselves because they thought we've been numbed into docility by our own decadent bougeoisness. Same thing with Israel. How telling is the comment by a Hamas leader that Israel's weakness is that "they love life, while we love death". No, no, no Mr. Hamas. That's your weakness. He must have read Deuteronomy.

What they don't understand is

- when you're very survival is at stake, it's a hell of a wake up call
- it was a completely fundamental misreading

Now, with regard to the Palestinians misreading the Israelis it's a case of believing their own propaganda. The same way we sit and deconstruct what the Palestinians are thinking, what motivtaes them etc. they sit around and think of what motivates the Zionists and since they can't ascribe anything good to them, it must be all the human failings imaginable. It's just... untrue. Some time ago I saw a translation of a letter that appeared in a Syrian newspaper. The fellow writing was answering an article that mocked the notion of Israeli democracy. This Arab, no friend of Israel, cautioned against mocking Israeli democracy. He pointed out that by being purely objective one would have to conclude that Israel is indeed a democracy and it is a strength, not a liability. He said it does the Arab cause no good to pretend that Israel has no redeeming qualities that translates into strengths. He said we [the Arabs] have to identify the strengths and weaken them, but denying they exist is self-defeating.

They probably lynched him the next day.

In any case, that's what happened. When they used to depict Israelis solely as ruthless asskickers, they weren't so bold. When they began to see that they had a lot of latitude in killing Israelis without a massive response they concluded that Israel didn't have the balls to defend itself. Well, how wrong they were. When they see it some more (I've no doubt they haven't learned the lesson yet and will need another round), they'll turn docile just like the Israeli Arabs did after they had the really bad idea to join the Intifadeh at the beginning and were rewarded with 13 dead at a violent demonstration. Nary a peep since, right?

David Nieporent, no he's just wishing it. As long as they are at war, the Palestinians are going to keep choosing war leaders. If they had a real democracy it would be just as warlike.