"Dead Men Walking"

A dance of death will begin Wednesday
in Washington. Two dead men walking, George Bush and Ariel Sharon, will try to convince the world they are on the path to "Middle East peace." In reality, Bush and Sharon are going destroy each other. Sadly, young Americans and Israelis, and young Iraqis and Palestinians, will die while Bush and Sharon perform their dance of death.

Both Bush and Sharon have dreams: Bush invaded Iraq to avenge the perceived slight to his father, and to give life to the neo-con vision of a "Greater Middle East Co-Prosperity Sphere," led by American power. Sharon has wanted to create a "Greater Israel" for decades. Both men will fail.

Bush, "the most powerful man in the world," has been reduced to being a sparring partner for Moqtada Al-Sadr. Like President Clinton before him, Bush is shrinking the presidency and shrinking America.

Sharon is undoubtedly a brave soldier, but he has used his talents not to bring peace to Israel, but rather to ensure perpetual war.

Both men are old hands at betrayals. This time each man must betray the other. In order to try and save himself, Sharon must betray America and betray a president who has gone "above and beyond" for Israel. Bush, on the other hand, will ultimately have to betray Sharon and his "Christian Zionists" if he is to survive in office. That is why I call this week’s meeting the "dance of death" by two "dead men walking."

Both men have bloodstained hands. Sharon has slaughtered helpless Palestinians in the delusional belief he could "intimidate" Arabs into surrendering to Israeli hegemony. Bush has authorized the slaughter of helpless Iraqis, as the failures of his policies in Iraq were exposed by a handful of neighborhood bad boys led by Al-Sadr.

Republicans savaged Bill Clinton for political motives when he haphazardly fired rockets to divert attention from Monica Lewinsky. Bush has unleashed a military offense that now admits to killing hundreds of innocent civilians to shore up his hopes for reelection. It is an embarrassment from a man who pledged to restore "honor and dignity to the White House."

Ironically, both men had greatness in their grasp, and let the golden apple fall from their hands. Sharon could have made a "peace of the brave," revived Itzak Rabin’s policies, and given Israel a stable future. Instead, he schemes for endless war by proposing a "withdrawal" that’s not a withdrawal at all, but merely a prescription for the destruction of Israel on the installment plan, through endless conflict. Sharon has no intention of withdrawing from anywhere. He defiles the White House by bringing his evil machinations to Washington. Ultimately, Sharon will destroy the very Israel he claims to be expanding and protecting.

The American people are in one of their decennial bouts with madness. They follow a predictable pattern whenever an unexpected conflict arises. Please note: those who cavil and quibble about Viet-Nam analogies are themselves confused. No war repeats itself exactly, but the historical parallels are frightening.

In the early stages of Viet-Nam, while the public was confused, there was a small commitment and a small risk. The risk grew as the commitment grew. When bloodshed began in 1965 the public was 100% behind "staying the course" and "finishing the job." Generals who requested "more troops" replaced military men who had cautioned against Asian adventures. When the public ruefully realized there was no course and no future, they turned with a vengeance on the White house, and sent the Democratic Party into exile.

It was chilling today to read that a CNN-Time poll says the American public supports the Iraq adventure and wants more violence, not less. Ironically, the public now lags behind hawkish Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, who has reluctantly begun to question where we are headed. The "public" is behind Bush today. Will the same public be behind him in November? Ask veterans of the Johnson White House.

And so it goes. Sharon asks Bush to issue a formal document endorsing the theft of the Palestinian heartland. Bush woodenly supports creation of a "Palestinian State" while washing his hands, Pontius Pilate-style, of Sharon’s crucifixion of that same "state." It is an insult to the intelligence. When Bush betrays Palestinians to slake Sharon’s thirst for blood and conquest, he betrays decades of American policy that sought to be fair and evenhanded. America has failed. We have failed ourselves as well as the Palestinians.

Bush claims that he is making progress in Iraq, when it is obvious that he is not. His program is dying. If he can’t keep the roads open, how is he going to rebuild Iraq? Today, the main highway from Jordan to Iraq, which I have traveled so often, remains a no man’s land. The Baghdad Airport, which was supposed to reopen to commercial flights last September, had a helicopter shot down three miles from the runways. Coffee, tea or SAMs?

Bush has betrayed America and Israel, and Sharon has betrayed America and Israel. Two dead men walking, while the dead of Fallujah and Jenin and Jerusalem walk no more.