The Bush administration is in full denial. The Democrats have not grabbed this bull by its horns; and the Arabs are watching as if this storm is not coming their way.
An Arab summit planned in Tunisia has been cancelled for no clear reasons. Not a single Arab leader has presented a counter-plan to the American shenanigans in Iraq or Palestine.
Instead, they are busy figuring out how to duck American demands to democratise their regimes, when the real issue is how to stop American meddling. And, the war on terror is widening, as terrorists mushroom everywhere.
Any thinking Arab must be wondering what is preventing an Arab summit from taking place, to take away the initiative.
Here is one scenario. Meet, and come out with a resolution that promises full Arab co-operation, with a plan to extricate half of the American troops from Iraq and bring in both European and Arab troops to replace them.
The resolution would be premised on delivering the decision-making keys in Iraq over to the United Nations, placing the remaining American troops under UN command.
Teeth would be added by volunteering Arab troops, for which the United States would have to foot the bill. The Arab summit resolution would invite European Union members to join in by replacing some 50,000 departing US soldiers with French, Dutch, German and others. All will wear blue UN helmets, answering only to UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan. Signed: the Arab Summit of 2004.
Critics will say the Americans are sure to say no to that. That is just fine. The trick is it does not matter whether it works or not. The whole point is to transfer the spotlight and the burden of proof onto an aggressive, chaotic, completely out-of-control White House. How?
First, a despairing US public will eat it up. It will be seen as a way of extricating American kids out of hell. It will check the spread of the "ugly American" profile around the world - an increasing number of critics in US are beginning to compare Iraq to Vietnam.
And the Democrats will be given ammunition to fight the presidential elections against George Bush.
Second: It will be the first time in a long time that Arabs collectively will be in a position to take the initiative, instead of being at the receiving end. A sure way of influencing domestic US politics from outside, without any need for a lobby inside the country.
Third: It would put the Bush administration on the defensive, whether it accepts or rejects the "'Arab Summit Plan". In chess this is called Check and Mate.
In other words, reverse the table and give the Americans something to talk about, apart from criticising Muslims, the UN and the European Union.
The greatest benefit here is that such an initiative would put the first nails in what should be the coffin of the neo-conservative, regime-changing, profoundly anti-Arab crowd that inhabits the White House. People in the greater Middle East are so busy contemplating their own navels, they do not seem to realise that this is a moment of opportunity, not lament.
Arab ambassadors in Washington D.C. should give their leaders a correct reading of how critical and central Iraq has become in US domestic politics.
Things are so bad that the ongoing, ferocious, and nasty debate is not only about whether there is any light at the end of the Iraqi tunnel, but also over why and how the war began. The result of the presidential elections will hang on this and the Arabs can make a difference if they feed this storm with their own ideas.
According to daily press revelations, after a torrent of books and leaks from the president's men, no one is any longer certain why Bush decided to go to war, except that he wanted to please his father and end what he thought Bush senior never finished.
In a new book, Plan Of Attack by the Washington Post's Bob Woodward, a secret source, already revealed to be none less than US Secretary of State Colin Powell, reveals he told Bush Iraq had nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden, and that going to war against Iraq was pure "lunacy".
He refers to the Pentagon and the neocon right-wing conservatives surrounding Vice President Dick Cheney as the "Gestapo Office". Could any administration be in greater chaos when the real war is within its ranks?
Though Powell said all that, he stayed on instead of resigning. He became a secretary of state without authority, with diminishing respect. Which means that America is missing not only an Iraq policy but also a foreign policy maker.
As if this were not a huge sign of confusion in an election year, the Bush administration just muddied the Middle East waters further.
By blessing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to vacate insignificant colonies in Gaza (total population 5,000) and retain the huge colonies built in the past 37 years on the West Bank (which contain some 280,000 Jewish colonists) the American president in effect gave Israel a carte blanche to create more "facts-on -the-ground" and grab more land on the West Bank, which the US will then recognise as "demographic realities".
This insures continued unrest in that part of the Greater Middle East. America's policies are in shambles. The iron is hot. It is time to strike and take the initiative.
Youssef M. Ibrahim, a former Middle East correspondent for the New York Times and Energy Editor of the Wall Street Journal, is Managing Director of the Dubai-based Strategic Energy Investment Group. He can be contacted at ymibrahim@gulfnews.com
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