A Diplomatic Fig Leaf?

[CHUQ]

When you do not know what to do---call a summit! this is why little is ever accomplished in nthe ME.


What do diplomats do when they don't know what to do? You guessed it; they propose holding an international conference. The device is useful on several grounds. It covers one's political nakedness with the fig leaf of an impression that something is being done. It creates a crowd to divert attention from one's isolation. And, last but not least, it enables one to put a tiresome problem on the backburner for a while.

Does the rule apply to Washington's proposal to convene an international conference on the Middle East peace in November?

Even if we do not suspect cynicism, I fear the answer is yes. Riding towards the sunset, the Bush administration appears anxious to furnish a void until its term ends in January 2009. The proposed conference looks like a mode of inhabiting the time available rather than achieving anything concrete


LINK (http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=10348)

[Pete]

Terrific post Chuq, right on.

[iris in stones]

Almost 3,000 soldiers dead.
Innumerably more Iraqis dead.
If I were a foreign leader, I would use said international conference to do what foreign leaders should have been doing in January of 2001.
I would make it my platform to tell Bush and his executive that they are illegitimate and don't speak for the American people.
And then, I'd walk out.
Period.
He should never have been respected.
Never. Elections don't make leaders. Respect must be in the bargain.

[CHUQ]

The American voter seems to want "team" players. And you know there is no "I" in team, but there is in independence, individuality and integrity. Those are the traits that Americans should look for, the team thing is just a cop out. Personally, I do not respect one of my representatives and because of that I have little respect for the system that made them.

[Pete]

The American voter seems to want "team" players. And you know there is no "I" in team, but there is in independence, individuality and integrity. Those are the traits that Americans should look for, the team thing is just a cop out. Personally, I do not respect one of my representatives and because of that I have little respect for the system that made them.

Understandbly, I find so astonishing that speak with one tongue when they are trying to recruit your vote and the minute they are elected they speak with a difference voice, so alian to how they presented themselves.
Why didnt Sarkosy place in his election speeches the threats to Iran so the French knew his views. Might have changed the outcome of that close election.