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Why Washington's Hawks See Further than Europe's Doves

(Telegraph-UK) - Charles Moore Every time I go to Washington I find a seriousness and depth of thought about terror, the Middle East, and the nature of power that, whether one agrees with it or not, is not matched by an alternative vision this side of the Atlantic. As long ago as the 1970s, Paul Wolfowitz was warning (in a document still classified today) of the international threat posed by Saddam Hussein. The hawks - and remember that the hawk is a bird that can see things from a long way off - thought that the threat of "asymmetric warfare" (i.e., terrorism, often by "non-state actors") was serious. The Washington hawks doubt the attempt to restart the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians not because they think nothing can be done, but because they think the structure for negotiation must be rebased. Yasser Arafat cannot deliver peace because he remains committed to war; the Israeli settlements are certainly a problem, but they are not the problem. Violence is the problem, and violence will continue if the Arab world and the EU continue to abet it, and if the Palestinian people are offered no beginnings of a plural society with institutions of law, property rights - and, as an eventual consequence, a proper ballot. That was what Mr. Bush's speech on June 24 last year was all about.
2003-02-07 00:00:00
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