CONFUSING AND FRUSTRATING



Rich Lowry at the National Review Online has written a very good synopsis of the collapse of President Bush's foreign policy in the Middle East. At every crossroads, the position of the United States has weakened further -- to the point where our Secretary of State agrees to meet terrorist leader Yasser Arafat without any conditions.



I suspect that the President has quietly given Sharon implicit approval of his actions to eliminate the terrorists in Israel's back yard. However, in the long term our lack of moral clarity -- which was so refreshing when President Bush took office -- will ultimately prolong the terrorist incursions of Yasser Arafat. The terrorists will have learned, as Mr. Lowry point poignantly states, "that a few street protests and howls from Arab governments can serve to stifle American power, to make its leaders reverse themselves and generally seem confused and weak."