Friends
This is part of the puzzle - the failure of Bush foreign policy particularly
in regard to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. The article below is from the
Jordan Times. So from stumbling, bumbling, inarticulate Bush pummeled by
a falling economy, an isolationist foreign policy, and a disastrous
environmental policy, we now have King Bush leading us into WWI III without
opposition. Translate that to invading Iraq and possibly Afghanistan.
Allen Cohen
Egypt, Arabs had warned of attacks against the US
CAIRO (AFP) - Egyptian and Arab officials had recently warned the United
States of the risk of attacks against it, if Washington failed to become
more involved in settling the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said he is especially concerned over
the spread of terrorism since the administration of US President George W.
Bush has not shown the same vigour in pushing the peace process forward as
his predecessor Bill Clinton.
"If the United States does not push to find a solution to the violence, this
violence could become terrorism," Mubarak warned in June. "There must be
American action, since the United States has many interests in the region."
Sharply criticising Bush, the Egyptian government daily Al Akhbar said at
the end of August that the Arab-Israeli conflict had in fact become a more
dangerous and more general "American-Arab conflict."
On Tuesday two planes smashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre
in New York in what Bush said was an apparent terrorist attack.
Another passenger plane ploughed into the Pentagon compound, the heart of
the US defence establishment, in Washington.
At the end of August, following Israel's assassination of a Palestinian
political leader, the assistant secretary general of the Arab League, Said
Kamal, had also warned of terrorist attacks. "Unfortunately, day by day,
(the Americans) are going to be affected by what is going on. I can't say
how, when and where. But they must take responsibility for their negative
position," Kamal told AFP, expressing a personal opinion.
Most Arab countries believe the United States is indirectly responsible for
attacks on US interests since it is the main financial, military and
political supporter of the Jewish state.
Already a favourite target of international bombings, the United States in
July acknowledged it was facing possible attacks in the Arabian peninsula,
namely Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, and the
United Arab Emirates. Some 36,000 US citizens live in Saudi Arabia alone.
The warning came after the estimated 22,000 US military personnel in the
Gulf were put on maximum alert on June 22, and US citizens around the world
were issued a caution against potential attacks.
The warnings were notably linked to Saudi extremist Osama Ben Laden, who has
taken refuge in Afghanistan.
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