To the Editor:
Re “Israel and Palestinians Set Goal of a Treaty in 2008” (front page, Nov. 28):
Imagine what might have happened if, after the attacks of Sept. 11, President Bush had dedicated his administration to peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians with the vigor he is displaying now.
Imagine if he had recognized then, as he appears to now, that a peaceful settlement of that dispute, more than any issue, is essential to stamping out the root causes of Al Qaeda and the forces of extremism.
Imagine if, rather than invading Iraq, he had only gone after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and departed after eliminating it as a threat.
Seven years after mocking President Clinton’s “nation building” and peace efforts, President Bush has pushed aside the protests of his vice president, and is perhaps sheepishly beginning to throw himself into these efforts.
With luck, perhaps it’s not too late for President Bush and the world to build something from the ashes of his failed policies. Philip M. Berkowitz
New York, Nov. 28, 2007
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To the Editor:
When the parties fail to agree on the identification of the thorny issues that confront them, let alone which should be addressed first, what genuine expectation can there be of a successful outcome when the United States proclaims that it will not impose, only nudge?
To assuage Arab public opinion will require more than pious pronouncements; and there’s the rub.
Francis Taghert
Chicago, Nov. 28, 2007
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To the Editor:
Re “Jump on the Peace Train,” by Maureen Dowd (column, Nov. 28):
Yes, why after all this time, are Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President Bush doing what all sane minds expected them to do years ago — try to work out a peace process using diplomacy? Is it because everything they have done to this point has been catastrophic and self-defeating?
What a difference five years makes. Five years ago, President Bush, armed with the greatest military might the world had seen, was going to easily force Pax Americana upon the Middle East. Today, with our enemies worldwide empowered, and our problems not solved but compounded throughout the Middle East and the Muslim world, a much meeker and more realistic president and secretary of state are just hoping that diplomacy will somehow clean up the mess they have made of things, and, yes, their tarnished legacies.
Carl Mattioli
Newtonville, Mass., Nov. 28, 2007
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To the Editor:
Maureen Dowd is, as usual, spot on. The Bush administration’s token gesture toward diplomacy is far too little, much too late. That ship has already sailed, and what we now have with President Bush and Condoleezza Rice is amateur hour writ large.
Any fool knows that diplomacy is an avenue of first resort, not a last-ditch effort following lies, deceit, illegal aggression, torture, unilateralism and general bellicosity. The Annapolis peace conference, minus Iran, is a dangerous fraud, and isolating Iran will accomplish absolutely nothing of value.
Vaughn A. Carney
Stowe, Vt., Nov. 28, 2007