Not good news – from Ynet:
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi spoke with his Egyptian counterpart Nabil al-Araby on Monday evening for the first time since the uprising in Egypt.
Salehi said at press conference on Tuesday that cooperation with Egypt, especially in the political arena, “will help establish stability, security and peace in the region.”
He also praised Egypt for its role in the reconciliation of Fatah and Hamas. “Palestinian unity is the key factor in empowering the resistance against the Zionist enemy,” he said…
So, two of the most powerful Moslem powers are drawing closer together – and agreeing that its a swell idea to have Hamas and Fatah united in governing Gaza and the West Bank. With news out of Syria being couched in terms of “if Assad is ousted it will be a bloodbath” (and, so, we’d better not work to overthrow Assad), we can see the start of a re-alignment in the Middle East…with Israel under greater threat, America having less influence and war much more likely.
We came so close – in 2004, the Middle East was ours to command. Had we just keep up the pressure and taken the next step (which would have been regime change in Syria and Iran), then the fundamental problem of Islamism would have been well on the way to solution. President Bush tried, but it was all he could do to merely stay the course in Iraq – the political pressure was so intense against him that he didn’t have the ability to advance. And now we’ve got a President who wants to retreat – with the worry now that the death of bin Laden will be taken as an excuse to cut and run out of Afghanistan…thus leaving that nation to become either Iran or Pakistani dominated.
All in all, we’re being pushed back to the margins – no one trusting either our willingness to fight, and thus not trusting us to be a worthy friend or foe in the region’s development. We’re just looking on events, hoping they don’t come ’round to bite us. But bite us they will – because those making the running in the Middle East today are the Islamists who wish our death. We’ll be a decade repairing the damage the left did to our position in the Middle East – and part of the price to be paid will be in blood.
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