<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>washingtonpost.com - Editorials</title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/world/mideast/editorials?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><description>Editorials</description><language>en-us</language><ttl>15</ttl><image><title>washingtonpost.com</title><width>140</width><height>20</height><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com</link><url>http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/hp/image/wp_web.gif</url></image><item><title><![CDATA['Like a New Love']]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57783-2005Apr15.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57783-2005Apr15.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  THE SELECTION of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz to head the World Bank has fueled upside-down complaints about the bank being a tool of U.S. policy. The truth is that the United States benefits, and the world generally benefits, from a close relationship between the bank and Washington. It was good when the Clinton administration tapped the bank's skills to rebuild Bosnia, Kosovo and East Timor; it was bad when the Bush administration failed to engage the bank in the early planning for Iraq's postwar reconstruction. This is why Mr. Wolfowitz is a promising choice for the World Bank. But it is also why the administration deserves praise for naming James D. Wolfensohn, the outgoing World Bank boss, to coordinate the economic transition after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Intelligence Gaps]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21970-2005Apr2.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21970-2005Apr2.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   APRESIDENTIAL commission appointed last year to study the failings of U.S. intelligence on Iraq has returned with many of the same conclusions  --  and similarly scathing rhetoric  --  as previous official investigations. Intelligence agencies, it said, collected precious little hard data about Iraq and failed to critically examine what they had; in the absence of fresh evidence, analysts stuck to long-standing assumptions that Saddam Hussein must be hiding weapons of mass destruction. The commission also agreed with much of the critique of the Sept. 11 commission: that the 15 U.S. intelligence agencies fail to adequately share information or collaborate, operate poorly on the ground in collecting "human intelligence" and are too resistant to innovation. What's new, and alarming, is the commission's blunt conclusion that the same failings now plague intelligence collection on critical current threats, ranging from the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea to the proliferation of biological weapons. That finding ought to provide an urgent mandate for President Bush and his incoming director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Annan Report]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5680-2005Mar27.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5680-2005Mar27.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[LAST WEEK'S report from Kofi Annan on the reform of the United Nations is subject to the paradox that colors most pronouncements from the secretary general. His office requires him to address the world's biggest challenges. The new report ranges from economic development to global warming to peacekeeping, not to mention proposals to shake up the management of the United Nations and reform the membership of the Security Council. Yet real power is vested not in the secretary general but rather in the U.N. member states. They raise taxes and command armies, and they will determine whether Mr. Annan's proposals make any difference.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Freeze This Settlement]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2223-2005Mar25.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2223-2005Mar25.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  PRESIDENT BUSH didn't leave much room for doubt about his position on Israeli settlement construction when he last addressed the issue. The government of Ariel Sharon "must freeze settlement activity," the president said in a speech to European leaders in Brussels in February.   Moreover, he added, a Palestinian state "of scattered territories will not work." The large settlement expansion announced by Mr. Sharon's government this week grossly violates both those principles. Construction of the 3,500 new homes between the existing West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim  and East Jerusalem, on what is now barren land, would contravene previous Israeli commitments to the Bush administration and the U.S.-sponsored "road map" for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. By sealing off Jerusalem Arab neighborhoods from the West Bank as well as a key north-south corridor, it also would make a contiguous Palestinian state practically impossible.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Women of Islam]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32542-2005Mar13.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32542-2005Mar13.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   THEY MET THE new secretary of state, spoke to women's organizations and conferred with the U.S. Agency for International Development.  But the delegations of Afghan and Iraqi women  --  led by Massouda Jalal, Afghanistan's minister of women's affairs, and Narmin Othman, her counterpart in Iraq  --  were not in Washington last week merely to make courtesy calls. They were here to stress that women's issues, in the new democracies of Iraq and Afghanistan, are not peripheral. How these two countries resolve them may determine whether they remain democratic societies, or even open societies.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Autocrats' Answer]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15546-2005Mar7.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15546-2005Mar7.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   THE RESISTANCE of Arab dictators to the swelling popular movement for democratic change in the Middle East remains formidable. Yesterday Syrian leader Bashar Assad launched his latest effort to stop Lebanon's "independence uprising," beginning a partial redeployment  --  but not a withdrawal  --  of Syria's occupying army, even as his strongest Lebanese ally, the Hezbollah party, prepared its own mass demonstrations in defense of the political status quo. In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak has obtained unanimous approval from one chamber of his rubber-stamp legislature for his new plan for presidential elections; ignoring the proposals of the democratic opposition, it creates the facade but not the substance of democracy. Both rulers hope their maneuvering will serve to deflect pressure from the outside world and their own people while preserving their tottering autocracies. Real change will require more pressure on them, both from inside and out.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Lt. Col. Brown's Address]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8748-2005Mar4.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8748-2005Mar4.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  DEPARTMENT OF Defense Directive No. 1344.10, a torturously detailed regulation that runs to 12 pages of references, responsibilities, requirements, definitions and examples, is the Pentagon's last word on the subject of "Political Activities by Members of the Armed Forces on Active Duty." To summarize and condense: They are prohibited. Anthony G. Brown, an Army reservist serving in Iraq, recently ran afoul of the directive when he recorded a speech to be delivered in the Maryland House of Delegates, where, in his civilian life,  Lt. Col. Brown serves as a delegate from Prince George's County and as the Democratic whip. The speech was about George Washington and was originally meant to be played at the State House in Annapolis on Presidents' Day. The Army, once it got word of the plan, vetoed it.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Better Iran Strategy]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5645-2005Mar3.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5645-2005Mar3.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   THE CHANCES that the West will succeed in peacefully restraining Iran from building nuclear weapons have been looking dismal at the  meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency this week.  The agency's staff reported that Iran was still not fully cooperating with its investigation into the secret uranium enrichment program Tehran began 18 years ago. Iranian officials, meanwhile, made it clear that their negotiations with the European governments that seek a long-term freeze on that program are going nowhere. A permanent moratorium, said the Iranian delegate, "was not on the table, will not be on the table and should not be on the table."]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Tyrant Cornered]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2698-2005Mar2.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2698-2005Mar2.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  AS THE MIDDLE East changes all around him, Syrian President Bashar Assad still tries to play by the old rules. He figured he could sponsor terrorism in Iraq and Israel and thereby block progress toward democracy and peace. He calculated that the car bomb that killed former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri -- whether or not it was planted by his agents -- would stop the gathering Lebanese independence movement. He was wrong: In each case, such tactics have been defeated by an emerging Arab movement of people power. The 8 million Iraqis who turned out to vote, the Palestinians who have overwhelmingly supported the cease-fire with Israel, and the tens of thousands of Lebanese who have been marching and camping in the center of Beirut have all proved more potent than assassinations and suicide bombs. If Mr. Assad will not yield to the new political realities they are creating, he will place his own regime at risk.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Words to Be Measured]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45579-2005Feb22.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45579-2005Feb22.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   SOMEWHAT surprisingly, President Bush gave pride of place in his address in Brussels on Monday not to his most treasured goal -- the spread of democracy -- but to that of Europeans: a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Our greatest opportunity and immediate goal," he declared, "is peace in the Middle East." A settlement, he added "is now within reach . . . and the world must not rest until there is a just and lasting resolution to this conflict." Given the decline of violence and rapid progress toward detente between Israelis and Palestinians in recent weeks, these statements may not sound bold. In fact, Mr. Bush will be tested -- or haunted -- by his words, and sooner than it may now appear.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Mr. Bush in Europe]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38526-2005Feb19.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38526-2005Feb19.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  PRESIDENT BUSH'S visit to Europe beginning today has a different character from those of his first term. He goes not to attend obligatory summit meetings or to confer with governments that have been supportive of his policies but in an effort to refurbish the broader transatlantic relationship and to urge Europeans to join in his ambitious effort to spread democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere. The fact that Mr. Bush perceives the need for partnership with Europe on what he has described as a generational project to address the causes of Islamic extremism is encouraging; even more so is his greater willingness to treat European governments as independent allies who must be coaxed and listened to.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Murder in Beirut]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27661-2005Feb15.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27661-2005Feb15.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   WHO ENGINEERED the assassination  of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri on Monday may never be known. But these facts are clear enough: Mr. Hariri, a self-made billionaire who orchestrated Lebanon's reconstruction in the 1990s after years of civil war, had emerged as a leading opponent of Syria's continued domination  of his country. His killing was carried out by professionals capable of assembling and detonating a bomb that wiped out an armored motorcade and devastated nearby buildings, killing 13 others and injuring 120. And the Syrian government, which has defied a  U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the withdrawal of its 15,000 troops in Lebanon, maintains a jealous guard over the most minute aspects of its neighbor's security and political life. The despicable murder of Mr. Hariri benefits no one outside the rogue regime in Damascus -- and the world should respond accordingly.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Iraq's Electoral Balance]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24757-2005Feb14.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24757-2005Feb14.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  THE 8.5 MILLION Iraqis who turned out to vote two weeks ago have elected a national assembly more suited for the task of nation-building than many would have expected. An alliance backed by the Shiite clergy won a plurality of the vote, and it may command a bare majority in the 275-seat body. But fears that Iraq's new government will be monopolized by pro-Iranian factions bent on religious rule seem unfounded. The Shiite block will be balanced by an almost equal number of secular legislators, and its leaders acknowledge the need to compromise with Kurds, Sunnis and other groups. It is likely that the new prime minister will be secular and Western-educated, and his cabinet may contain some of the same politicians handpicked by the United States for Iraq's first postwar government.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Case for Truth]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17612-2005Feb11.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17612-2005Feb11.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   WHEN MAHER ARAR filed a lawsuit last year over the government's sending him to Syria against his will, the case seemed like an opportunity to clear the air over one of the stranger episodes in the war on terrorism. Mr. Arar is a Syrian-born Canadian who was detained in New York while traveling between Tunisia and Canada in the fall of 2002. Unbeknownst to him, his name had been placed on a terrorist watch list, and when his flight path took him to New York, authorities detained him as a suspected al Qaeda operative. He was held for several days, and then, despite his pleas to be sent to Canada, he was packed off to Syria, where he was held for 10 months and, he alleges, savagely tortured. The government denies any wrongdoing. But unfortunately, the Bush administration is not going to use the lawsuit to make clear what happened. In fact, it has decided not to say anything. In a recent court filing, the government asserted what is called the state secrets privilege to avoid releasing any information about the circumstances of Mr. Arar's detention and removal to Syria. And because it refuses to release any information, the Justice Department argues, Mr. Arar will not be able to prove his case, which should therefore be largely dismissed.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Middle East Truce]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9448-2005Feb8.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9448-2005Feb8.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   ISRAELIS AND Palestinians witnessed yesterday the most inspiring and hopeful moment in more than four years of bloody conflict. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Mahmoud Abbas sat together at a conference table and declared an end to all military activity and acts of violence -- the strongest commitment the two sides have made to each other since the collapse of the Camp David peace talks and the eruption of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000. Since then some 3,300 Palestinians and more than 1,000 Israelis have died, including hundreds of Israeli civilians slaughtered in pizza parlors, coffee shops and buses by suicide bombers, and scores of Palestinian children killed by Israeli army fire or airstrikes.  The shooting probably won't stop entirely, at least not right away, and the prospects for a broader political settlement remain cloudy. Still, the public commitment of the new Palestinian leadership to ending violence, and Israel's corresponding promise of a cease-fire, is cause for celebration -- and the essential predicate for a new peace process.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Remember the Poor]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3594-2005Feb6.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3594-2005Feb6.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   BETWEEN 2000 and 2003, the number of people living in poverty rose 14 percent. In 2003, the most recent year for which numbers are available, one out of every eight Americans was poor, a disproportionate number of them children. The number without health insurance was the highest on record; more Americans went hungry. The poorest fell further below the poverty line while the richest took home a greater share of national income than ever.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Rebuilding the Army]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1670-2005Feb5.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1670-2005Feb5.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   ADAY AFTER President Bush bluntly ruled out an "artificial timetable" for withdrawal from Iraq, the Pentagon delivered a sobering follow-up: While the 15,000 additional U.S. troops deployed for last Sunday's elections will be withdrawn, the 17 remaining brigades -- 135,000 soldiers and Marines -- will be needed in Iraq at least through the end of this year. That estimate is understandable, given the continuing strength of the Sunni insurgency and the troubles in preparing Iraqi security forces. In fact, even the post-election reduction seems questionable, given that vital infrastructure and roads in Iraq, and even the highway from downtown Baghdad to the airport, remain insecure. Yet the alarming truth may be that the administration has little choice but to draw down troops: As it is, the present deployment in Iraq is on the verge of breaking an undermanned Army.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Naming U.N. Names]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64956-2005Feb4.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64956-2005Feb4.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  THE FIRST and most important point to make about the preliminary report on corruption in the United Nations' oil-for-food program is that it is not a whitewash. Despite dark  hints that Paul A. Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman who led the investigation, was too chummy with the U.N. bosses, Thursday's report did name names. Most notably, it accused Benon Sevan of having received the rights to purchase millions of barrels of discounted oil from Iraqi officials while he was serving as the director of the oil-for-food program.  Suspicions that Kofi Annan, the U.N. secretary general, would try to sweep the story under the carpet also have not proven correct.  Mr. Annan has announced that he will  pursue disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Sevan and other U.N. officials.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Egypt's Test for Mr. Bush]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55673-2005Feb1.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55673-2005Feb1.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   "DEMOCRATIC reformers facing repression, prison or exile can know: America sees you for who you are -- the future leaders of your free country," President Bush said in his inaugural address. "When you stand for your liberty we will stand with you." It didn't take long for that promise to be tested. On Saturday Egyptian police arrested and roughed up Ayman Nour, the dynamic young leader of a new opposition party calling for liberal democracy in that strategic Middle Eastern country. On Monday Mr. Nour was ordered to jail for 45 days on a patently bogus charge of forgery. To Egyptians, his real offense was obvious: offering a moderate democratic alternative to the corrupt dictatorship of President Hosni Mubarak.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Vote to Persevere]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50092-2005Jan30.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50092-2005Jan30.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/editorials</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:30 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   FOR MONTHS news from Iraq has told the story of the extremists, those who destroy themselves to murder others and to proclaim the cause of a religious or Baathist dictatorship. Yesterday the world saw and heard, at last, another Iraq, one in which millions of people from all over the country turned out to vote -- even in places where their nominal leaders had proclaimed a boycott, even at polling stations where mortar rounds fell or gunfire rang out. Some danced or distributed chocolates, some wept with joy, others grimly pressed forward as if their lives literally depended on it. A 32-year-old man who lost his leg in a suicide bombing arrived at the polls in Baghdad and told a Reuters reporter, "I would have crawled here if I had to." There were nine suicide bombings, and at least 44 people died, including one U.S. soldier. But the day's message was unmistakable: The majority of Iraqis support the emerging democratic order in their country, and many are willing to risk their lives for it.]]></description><author></author></item></channel></rss>