The start of something...huge

Best of the Web also pointed out a post by Den Beste, on his USS Clueless blog, an interpretation of President Bush's speech on the Middle East. In short:

This wasn't a speech about peace; it was preparation for war. It wasn't a peace plan, it was a plan to cease efforts at peacemaking. It wasn't engagement by the US, it was a decision by the US to disengage.

Den points out the seemingly endless parade of news "reports," opinion pieces, editorials, etc., that have said over and over that Bush can't do anything about Iraq until the Palestinian issue is settled. Nonsense! Remember the Gulf War? Saddam shot Scud missiles into Israel in an effort to distract Coalition efforts against him. The supposed purpose was to get Israel to retaliate directly, pissing off the rest of the Arab world, and starting a general bruhaha. Didn't work.

The same thing is going on now. "No no," the opponents of action say. "Can't go after the root of terrorism until you settle this little scuffle over here."

Hah! I think Den's got it right, only it's WW4, not WW3.