Humiliating spectacle of a world leader caught without a policy

Michael Gawenda Herald Correspondent


IT WAS a stark admission of helplessness from the leader of the world's only super power.

With Israeli jets bombing Beirut airport and Hezbollah rockets landing in Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, the US President was asked what he could do to stop the fighting escalating.

Standing beside the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, at a press conference in Rostock before he left for the G8 summit in St Petersburg, George Bush said: "We were headed towards the road map, things looked positive, and the terrorists stepped up. It's really sad where people are prepared to take innocent life to stop that process … in fact it's pathetic."

Israel had a right to defend itself, he said, but he was concerned about the "fragile democracy" in Lebanon.

That response was an admission his administration does not have a policy on the conflict. In fact it has not had a policy since the surprise election victory in January of Hamas in a poll that Washington had encouraged.

The so-called road map for peace is dead and the Bush Administration is paralysed in the face of what threatens to become a region-wide conflict involving Israel, Lebanon, Syria and even Iran. What does Bush expect as he pleads with Israel not to weaken the Lebanese Government in the wake of the bombing of its capital's airport and a blockade of sea ports?

How much more fragile can Lebanon's democracy get when its government admits it cannot do anything about a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding Hezbollah disarm, saying it is powerless to rein in Hezbollah, which has two ministers in the government?

At home, the Bush Administration is under scrutiny by Congress for its handling of the "war on terrorism" and prickly issues such as Guantanamo Bay, the secret CIA prisons where al-Qaeda suspects are taken to be interrogated, and the wire-tapping of Americans without court warrants.

The Administration has failed to pressure China to get tough with North Korea and force Pyongyang back to the six-party talks on its nuclear weapons program. Iran, meanwhile, has rejected out of hand a package of inducements if it halts its uranium enrichment program. Observers say Iran has responded to threats of a Security Council resolution and UN sanctions by encouraging Hezbollah and the armed wing of Hamas to provoke Israel into just the sort of reaction seen in the past couple of days.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq, says Iran is probably behind the Hamas and Hezbollah cross-border attacks on Israeli Army units and the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers. The US must be "on guard" against Iran's actions in Iraq.

"Yes, this is probably all tied up with the Iranian nuclear issue," he says. "They might be sending a message about how they might respond to Security Council sanctions."

With the Middle East teetering on the edge of conflagration, the Bush Administration seems unsure of what to do next.