Pity poor Condi
There she goes. Into the pit. On one side, she's faced with the "Persian Hitler", as Andrew Sullivan memorably terms Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "I invite the faithful to wait for good news. We shall soon witness the elimination of the Zionist stain of shame." And on the other side, there are the "moderate" voices of the Arab Middle East. Take, for example, the leading English-language newspaper in the UAE, the Gulf News.
And how did it greet the US Secretary of State today as she began her round of diplomacy? "Go home Condoleezza". And the editorial is nicely decked out with an image straight from the Goebbels school of journalism in the way it has been selected and cropped. So juvenile! And check this out: "The main conflict is in Lebanon, so why not go there and talk to the elected prime minister, whom the US was so pleased to triumph when appointed?" Sounds like it was written in Damascus. But then Condi outsmarts the crank who wrote the leader by turning up in Beirut.
Yes, indeed, a pleasant neighbourhood. Bet you she is wishing she didn't have to cancel that trip to Asia for this. At least that crazy Kim Jong-il has "settled down". Maybe he'll be less inclined to send the region up in smoke now. Kim Ok won't want to see all those wedding presents turned into cinders, will she?
