Please be so kind as to file them both under the “well, I should freakin’ hope so” category.
Poll: Americans fear Iran will develop, use nukes
Americans are deeply worried about the possibility that Iran will develop nuclear weapons and use them against the USA, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll finds, but they also fear that the Bush administration will be “too quick” to order military action against Iran.
[…]
There is little doubt among Americans about Iran’s intentions. Eight of 10 predict Iran would provide a nuclear weapon to terrorists who would use it against the USA or Israel, and almost as many say the Iranian government itself would use nuclear weapons against Israel. Six of 10 say the Iranian government would deploy nuclear weapons against the USA.
I’ll admit, I’m editing quite selectively, but the story really did try to hide the meat of the poll behind the numbers based upon a so-far successful undermining of the Bush administration and piss-poor reporting of our successes in Iraq.
US and Israel ‘trying to destabilise Hamas’
Hamas has accused the US and Israel of refusing to accept the result of a democratic election, after a report that the two countries are discussing means to destabilise and bring down a Hamas-led Palestinian administration.
The New York Times, citing diplomatic sources in Jerusalem, said Washington and Israel intend to block funding for the Palestinian Authority in an attempt to ensure that Hamas cabinet ministers fail and new elections are called.
After Hamas’s election victory, the US and EU warned the Islamist group that unless it renounced violence and recognised Israel’s right to exist they would cut funding for the Palestinian Authority.
Let’s see … a terrorist organization is rightfully elected the run the Palestinian state-or-whatever. The two governments that have previously shouldered a lion’s share of the funding for the state-or-state-of-anarchy balk. Is this undermining or just a shade of common-sense diplomacy? I’m voting for the latter, and I would really like to see a little hardball played here — the Palestinians made a choice and Hamas must find a way to function as a true government or fail upon their promises. After all, they have a rather sizable role to play in the violent anarchy over which they now supposedly govern. That Hamas would decry a withholding of funding from those they’ve deemed enemies is a truly special brand of weak victimization for a state-or-state-of-bloodletting that has already banked for years upon its claims of victimhood.
Comments
3 responses to “A Tale of Two Duh! Headlines”
Long time reader here, first post.
Here is what I think everyone misses with regard to the second headline. No one is refusing to accept the results of the election. Everyone recognized hamas as the victor in the elections. However there is a difference between recognizing the results and liking them.
I for one (a bit of background, I lived on the west bank for 5 years during the second antifada) actually held hopes for a hamas led gov’t. Fatah was so corrupt that even if its leaders had the best intentions in mind they simply could not turn their intentions into action. Not so with hamas, as it still has the capability to govern itself. If that party really cared about the welfare of the palestinian people, they would drop some of this revolutionary opression rhetoric in favor of some organization (After all Israel could use a friendly palestian state, and palestinian living standards plummeted since achieving the “autonomy”). But that does not appear to be the case. Hamas is more than happy to perpetuate this cycle of “resistance” trading their subjects welfare for political power. Much like any other dictatorship.
Vash,
I tried to point out what you said everyone is missing when I said Hamas was rightfully elected. Yes, Fatah was rife with corruption. This was not a new development and dates way back through the Arafat days. I expect Hamas, given brief time, to go the same route, though they apparently want to choose a bloodier path on the way there.
In my opinion, the Palestinians really need to drag themselves out of the primordial ooze as a society. Perhaps they were limited in their options this time, but those options were of their own creation. True reform for them will probably require decades of effort, and the clock on those decades hasn’t even started ticking.
Thinks for contributing, and thanks for the insight.
Gunner,
I was about to agree with you that the palestinian mess is of their own making, but had to reconsider. The real tragedy of this whole mess is that the palestinian cause is a puppet for other arab gov’t to stay in power (Egypt, Iran, Former Iraq, etc.) It is in some peoples interest to keep this conflict going (and I do mean to keep it going, not resolve it in anyway, including the destruction of israel) and so they dump massive ammount of money and amunition onto the territories. Without this influence, maybe some reforms can be made, with it, I’m starting to think its a lost cause.
But even if decades of reforms were the answear, this is decades the world cannot afford to wait. Its a pretty tragic case that doesnt seem to have any good solutions.