Anyone remember a 9/11 article about Bush's mideast policy

[Onlooker]

Before 9/11, the New York Times and other newspapers ran articles about how Bush was changing Mideast policy that had existed since Carter, through Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton. The article talked about Bush's hands-off approach to Middle East issues. Before 9/11, he surrendured a lot of the good will that had been built up by previous administrations.

I always felt that Bush's handling of the Middle East prior to 9/11 cost us allies and contacts that could have warned us about the Al Qaeda threat. I believe that if Clinton had been in office, someone in the Middle East would have issued a high-level alert that would have given us a better chance at stopping the awful attack on the WTC. (On a related note, I always wonder if Rumsfeld and Bush wanted a terrorist attack as a pretext for going to war in Iraq. If that's true, then I think they go more than they bargained for.)

If anyone knows of one of those articles or can find one, it might be worth posting in DU.

[seabeyond]

1. yes yes yes

he did have the hands off. walked away from isreal and palestine. bug critizism

[Onlooker]

2. Bump

One last attempt, hoping someone knows where I can find this article.

[Stephanie]

3. You might find what you're looking for here:

PNAC Links Archive

[chookie]

4. The question I have been asking myself for years:

Are the terrible consequences we see unfolding daily the result of incompetence, OR is everything going exactly according to plan?

I think arguments can be made on both accounts -- but given the positioning of people like Perle and Wolfowitz in the misministration, and a disturbing continuity of covert activities undertaken when a Bush is around -- I believe the latter is the case.

We all watched in horror as Israel/Palestine exploded into constant violence in 2001. A "senior Bush administration member" said that it was time that the Israelis and Palestinians act like grownups and take responsibility for their actions. Gee -- was this kindergarten librarian's Laura's idea?

I think it was staged managed -- first, show Israel under constant attack by terror. Then, show American attacked by the same brown-skinned terrorists -- and then forge a link in the mind of the people, in order for them to give a green light to a decade-long disastrous conflict to conquer the Arab states of the Middle East.