<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>washingtonpost.com - Commentary</title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><description>Commentary</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[A Shifting Focus on Terrorism]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10695-2005Apr22.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10695-2005Apr22.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  A new look for President Bush's global war on terrorism sits atop Condoleezza Rice's early to-do list at the State Department. Expect fairly soon some useful new handles on the problem and a more coherent overall strategy to guide the struggle that the bureaucracy abbreviates as GWOT.]]></description><author> Jim Hoagland</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Disaster, Not Diplomacy]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51669-2005Apr13.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51669-2005Apr13.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  It is my impression  --  gleaned from reviews  --  that Malcolm Gladwell's book "Blink" posits that first impressions often are right on the nose. Nonetheless, for reasons having to do with caution, prudence and a debilitating sense of fair play, I have until now withheld my first  --  and only  --  impression of John Bolton, probably destined to be the next U.S.  ambassador to the United Nations: He's nuts.]]></description><author> Richard Cohen</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[No Longer Your Iraq]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38710-2005Apr8.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38710-2005Apr8.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Dear Saddam,<br>Yes, it has been a long time since I wrote. But then you were so hard to find for a while. And since you surfaced  --  in your case the word has real meaning  --  we have both been so busy. So let's calm down and catch up.]]></description><author> Jim Hoagland</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Failure of More Than Intelligence]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32733-2005Apr6.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32733-2005Apr6.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Shortly before the United States went to war in Iraq, I was in contact with a former member of the American intelligence community. This is what he told me: Saddam Hussein had no nuclear weapons program, no chemical or biological weapons program to speak of, and no link to al Qaeda. He said that if America invaded, it would cost us "perhaps 1,000 casualties" and would lead to prolonged "terrorism and harassment." I thanked him very much for his views  --  and urged the United States to attack anyway. Along with Don Quixote, I sometimes feel that facts are the enemy of truth.]]></description><author> Richard Cohen</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Peace in the Pipeline?]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28416-2005Apr5.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28416-2005Apr5.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  When a new Iraqi government finally takes office, it will have in its "in-box" an economic proposal that touches on some of the country's most sensitive questions: How to reduce violence in the Sunni Triangle, how to manage the country's increasingly tense relationship with neighboring Jordan, and how to expand its oil production and exports.]]></description><author> David Ignatius</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Intelligence Critique Fatigue]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28418-2005Apr5.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28418-2005Apr5.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[We can thank the well-publicized recent intelligence failures for one thing: the brand-new genre of the beautifully written intelligence critique. First came the report of the Sept. 11 commission, with its riveting narrative of the events surrounding the attacks. Now comes the report of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, co-chaired by retired judge Laurence Silberman and former senator Charles Robb. The heart of this report is another brilliant narrative, that of the mistakes  --  notably deception by the well-code-named spy "Curveball"  --  that convinced the intelligence community that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.]]></description><author> Richard A. Posner</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Keeping  Covenant With Iraq]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20058-2005Apr1.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20058-2005Apr1.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Iraq is not yet free of Saddam Hussein or Jerry Bremer. The political ghosts of the murderous dictator and the well-meaning U.S. administrator stroll through Baghdad's corridors of stalemated power two years after liberation.]]></description><author> Jim Hoagland</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Fooling Ourselves]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17353-2005Mar31.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17353-2005Mar31.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  To the literature on deception in war we must now add a new chapter  --  on self-deception. For that is the ultimate explanation for how the American military went to war in Iraq in March 2003 equipped with gas masks and chemical-biological suits to protect itself against weapons of mass destruction that turned out not to exist.]]></description><author> David Ignatius</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Syria and the New Axis of Evil]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17354-2005Mar31.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17354-2005Mar31.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Say what you will about Bashar Assad, dictator of Syria and perhaps the dimmest eye doctor ever produced by British medical schools, but subtle he is not. Since the huge street demonstrations against his occupation of Lebanon, three terrorist bombings have occurred there, all in heavily Christian, anti-Syrian neighborhoods. Only slightly less subtle was the nearly half-million-man Beirut rally demanding Syria's continued occupation, staged by Syria's Lebanese client, Hezbollah, followed by the "spontaneous" demonstration Assad orchestrated for himself in Damascus.]]></description><author> Charles Krauthammer</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Rumsfeld And the Generals]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11309-2005Mar29.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11309-2005Mar29.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Sometime this summer President Bush will pick a new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to lead a U.S. military that has been battered by the war in Iraq. When you ask military officers who should get the job, the first thing many say is that the military needs someone who can stand up to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.]]></description><author> David Ignatius</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[World Bank Pragmatism]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5757-2005Mar27.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5757-2005Mar27.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   The nomination of Paul Wolfowitz as World Bank president has created two opposing camps. One group stresses his gravitas, experience and listening skills, and it seems to include most people who know the man. The other group recoils from his role as architect of the Iraq war, and it declares that the World Bank will be tarnished by association with American foreign policy and ill-served by a president-ideologue.]]></description><author>Sebastian Mallaby</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Saving Nonproliferation]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5754-2005Mar27.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5754-2005Mar27.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Renewal talks for the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) are scheduled for May, yet the United States and other nuclear powers seem indifferent to its fate. This is remarkable, considering the addition of Iran and North Korea as states that either possess or seek nuclear weapons programs. A recent United Nations report warned starkly: "We are approaching a point at which the erosion of the non-proliferation regime could become irreversible and result in a cascade of proliferation."]]></description><author> Jimmy Carter</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Playing Both Sides in Jordan]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2218-2005Mar25.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2218-2005Mar25.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Pop quiz: Which Arab ruler is to George W. Bush as Yasser Arafat was to Bill Clinton?]]></description><author> Jim Hoagland</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Case The Saudis Can't Make]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2537-2005Mar26.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2537-2005Mar26.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia<br>It's hard not to be intoxicated by the breeze of democracy wafting across the Middle East. An Arabian Spring, analysts call it, heralded by round-the-clock demonstrations in Lebanon, suffragists out on the streets in Kuwait, rare protests in Egypt, voting in Iraq and...]]></description><author> Faiza Saleh Ambah</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Easter in Iraq]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64570-2005Mar24.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64570-2005Mar24.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   I spent Easter Sunday two years ago in a Baghdad that had just been liberated by U.S. and coalition troops. And, yes, the right word is "liberated." If you doubt that was the feeling of most Iraqis at the time, then you weren't there.]]></description><author> David Ignatius</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Remember Huaycan]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55430-2005Mar21.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55430-2005Mar21.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   "When elephants fight," says the African proverb, "it is the grass that suffers." So, as the Bush administration goes tusk to tusk with Old Europe to install the architect of the Iraq war as president of the World Bank, let's not get so engrossed that we forget the billion people underfoot  --  the "grass" that the World Bank is supposed to cultivate out of desperate poverty.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[All the Nuance That's Fit to Print]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52535-2005Mar20.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52535-2005Mar20.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Those behind the ideology-driven rush to privatize everything from prisons to Social Security, I said in a recent column, ought to slow down a bit and admit the obvious: Private isn't necessarily better.]]></description><author> William Raspberry</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Wolfowitz's Tough Tasks]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48482-2005Mar18.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48482-2005Mar18.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Before the sun could set on Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz's first day as President Bush's nominee to be president of the World Bank, the e-mails started arriving. The first, from the online Nation magazine, produced this item from David Corn's Capital Games column: "The Wolfowitz nomination is a win for the Pentagon but a loss for the world. Wolfowitz's achievement as a warmonger may say little about his views on international development, but his record on Iraq is one of miscalculation and exaggeration. And the poor of the world deserve a World Bank president with better judgment."]]></description><author> Colbert I. King</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Nothing 'New' in This War]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48480-2005Mar18.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48480-2005Mar18.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  "We are redefining war on our terms." So declared an exuberant George W. Bush just two years ago as the U.S. military completed its stunning demolition of Saddam Hussein's regime.]]></description><author> Andrew J. Bacevich</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[What's Left? Shame.]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45508-2005Mar17.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45508-2005Mar17.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/gulf/iraq/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:03:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   At his news conference on Wednesday, President Bush declined an invitation to claim vindication for his policy of spreading democracy in the Middle East. After two years of attacks on him as a historical illiterate pursuing the childish fantasy of Middle East democracy, he was entitled to claim a bit of credit. Yet he declined, partly out of modesty (as with Ronald Reagan, one of the secrets of his political success) and partly because he has learned the perils of declaring any mission accomplished.]]></description><author> Charles Krauthammer</author></item></channel></rss>