Kerry's Mideast policy is miles from Bush's
By Thomas Oliphant | June 1, 2004
FROM:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/06/01/kerrys_mideast_policy_is_miles_from_bushs/WASHINGTON - THE PROFOUND differences over foreign policy between John Kerry and George Bush can be encapsulated in two words, the Middle East.
Kerry's world view is designed to hit one element of the region's importance hard: that would be oil. It is designed to hit the other element more softly: that would be the festering conflict between Israel and its occupied and unoccupied neighbors.
For those who think Kerry thinks small, his determination to end nearly 40 years of dangerous dependence on imported oil from the Middle East is powerful refutation. It is just as important, however, that Kerry is determined to renew America's activist role in Middle East diplomacy, and to seek allies internationally to make that role more effective.
The contrast with the Bush administration could not be more dramatic. What is on display is the essence of passivity in areas that could not be more related to the threat of terrorism that will be part of our world for years.
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